The results of the local school board election are in! The winner, by a wide margin, is Marlee Sunchild. There were a total of 10,108 votes cast in the three-way race between Sunchild, Rodney Meyers and Tony Rosales. Marlee Sunchild received more than half the total vote at 5,668 with Meyers getting 2,568 and Rosales a distant third place at 1,755. Congratulations Marlee Sunchild!
It seems like all of the old rules went out the window with the election of Donald Trump in 2016. With the resources and energy of far-right groups like the Freedom Caucus, Moms for Liberty, American for Prosperity and others, the right flank of the Republican Party has taken over most of state and local government.
Here in Cascade County there is a long standing feud between far-right Republicans, known as the Freedom Caucus, led by legislators like Steven Galloway and Lola Sheldon-Galloway, and more traditional pro-corporate Republicans like Ed Buttrey and Steve Fitzpatrick. This election almost all legislative seats have contested Republican primaries pitting these two factions against each other. In addition, there is a hotly contested County Commission primary race between far-right incumbent Rae Grulkowski and local businessman Eric Hinebauch.
At the same time there is only one contested Democratic primary, the race for the Eastern Congressional District. The unfortunate fact is, no matter which Democratic candidate wins the primary, he will have virtually no chance of winning the seat in the general election. In short, there is not much reason to vote in the Democratic Primary here in Cascade County.
That brings us to the talk around town urging Democrats in Cascade County to vote in the Republican primary for the more reasonable of those candidates. Some folks are arguing that a few votes could make the difference between more nuts and more reasonable people in public office. They may be right, and the fact is that there is really nothing to lose given the lack of contested Democratic primaries here. Advocates of Democrats voting in the Republican primary, which is perfectly legal, say, “desperate times call for desperate measures|.”
The following is a list of the contested primaries and who are the more far-right candidates.
Cascade County Commission
Rea Grulkowski- Far Right
Eric Hinebauch
Senate District 13
Lola Sheldon-Galloway- Far Right
Josh Kassmier
House District 19
Hannah Trebas- Far Right
Darren Auger
House District 20
Steven Galloway- Far Right
Melisssa Nikolakkas
House District 21
Josh Osterman- Far Right
Ed Buttrey
House District 22
James Whitaker- Far Right
George Nikolakkas
House District 23
John Proud- Far Right
Pete Anderson- Far Right
Josh Denully
Eric Tillerman
In a rare flexing of political muscle, Greg Gianforte took a little time off from increasing our property taxes and kicking sick people off Medicaid to issue a list of Republican primary candidates he is endorsing. In Cascade County, Lola Sheldon-Galloway’s opponent in the race for Senate District 13, Josh Kassmier, got the nod from Gianforte. Too bad for Lola. Maybe Gianforte didn’t like her hats.
In Gallatin County, Gianforte endorsed newcomer Kyle McMurry over incumbent, Jane Gillette. He also weighed in on a three-way primary, endorsing Scott Sales over Caleb Hinkle and Jennifer Carlson. Both Hinkle and Carlson are incumbents. Sales currently is the Director of the Montana Lottery but has served in the legislature before. Equally telling is who is not on Gianforte’s endorsement list. Neither House Speaker Matt Regier nor House Speaker Pro Tempore Rhonda Knudsen received an endorsement from Gianforte. For the complete story: https://dailymontanan.com/2024/04/26/gianforte-favors-some-snubs-others-in-gop-legislative-endorsements/
Donald Trump Jr. came to Missoula on April 28 to speak at an event to promote the campaigns of Greg Gianforte, Tim Sheehy and Ryan Zinke. The event is being “brought to you by” the Montana Association of Conservatives Political Action Committee (MAC PAC) and an organization called Public Square. A quick look at Public Square and you will see “merch” for sale with catchy phrases like, “Stop Supporting Commies” and “This Girl Loves Capitalism,” alongside other, less political products. (If you are a glutton for punishment, you can check out a Breitbart interview with Public Square CEO Michael Seifert. Among other things he says you can purchase diapers from the only pro-life diaper company in the country! The whole thing is kind of creepy) https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1323590758326689. WTF406 has no idea how these folks are complying with campaign law. But, if the event is “public” and held in a public building like the University Center, denying certain candidates entry because of who they are running against is likely a violation of state law. https://mac-pac.com/
Regardless of the sketchy nature of the event, the other news is that Republican Governor candidate Tanner Smith (Randy Pinocci is his running mate), Gianforte’s opponent in the Republican Primary, had his $75 registration fee returned and was told he was not welcome to attend. In addition, Charles Walking Child, who is challenging Tim Sheehy in the Republican Primary for US Senate, was also disinvited from the event. Brad Johnson, who is also running against Tim Sheehy, said that he did not purchase a ticket after not being allowed to speak at a meeting of Yellowstone County Republicans.
Responding to comments from Smith, a spokesperson for Gianforte said, “The governor did not organize this event, instead, the governor was invited to and is attending Sunday’s Protecting Freedom Event with Donald Trump, Jr.” Cameo Flood, spokesperson for MAC PAC, declined to provide additional comment. Brad Johnson, long-time Republican activist, state office holder and current primary challenger to Tim Sheehy ,said, “I’ve never seen it like this, It’s just absurd,
Montanans don’t like being told what to do,” For a complete story: https://montanafreepress.org/2024/04/26/two-republican-candidates-in-montana-told-not-to-attend-trump-jr-event/
Many of us are concerned about the authoritarian turn of the Republican Party in recent years. These guys simply don’t tolerate disagreement. We are seeing how Republican leadership exercises power internally. Bad as this is, it is nothing compared to how they treat other political opponents who are not members of their own party.
Back in early April, we wrote a blog post pointing out that most of the Libertarians who filed to run for legislature were removed from the ballot by the Commissioner of Political Practices for failing to file the paperwork required by law. We also pointed out that the current chair of the local Libertarian Party, Tony Rosales, was the treasurer for all of those candidates. The campaign treasurer’s main responsibility is to make sure the campaign is complying with legal filing and reporting requirements. Obviously, Rosales fell short of meeting those pretty simple obligations. https://wtf406.com/2024/04/cascade-countys-loopy-libertarians/
Rosales then appeared as a school board candidate and, in a separate post, we pointed out that allegations he was making about school personnel and policies were a bunch of baloney. https://wtf406.com/2024/04/school-board-candidate-attacks-gfps-employee-in-tik-tok-video/
The local Libertarian Party posted a response on the platform formally known as Twitter. The post said that the author of the post, Ken Toole, missed some “transmittal deadlines” 20 years ago when he served in the Montana Senate, implying that Toole should not criticize others for missing deadlines. The fact of the matter is that virtually all legislators have some bills that do not make the transmittal deadline. Take Randy Pinocci for example. In 2015, when he served in the House of Representatives, he had four bills that failed to make the “transmittal deadline.” Unfortunately, if Tony Rosales’ School Board campaign is any indication, facts and accuracy are simply unimportant to Cascade County Libertarians.
We can’t be sure Rosales is the author of the post. It was submitted under the name of the Cascade County Libertarians without author attribution. We assume that, since he is the chairperson, he was aware of it and approved of its content. In a message to Jasmine Taylor, who also writes posts for WTF406.com, the Libertarians ask her to let Toole know their response is, “Go make us a fucking sandwich Ken.” Wow! Haven’t heard anything quite that clever since 8th grade. Do we really want Tony Rosales on the School Board?
In a bid to promote his own campaign, School Board candidate Tony Rosales has been issuing a series of attacks on the administration of the Great Falls School District. While it probably takes Tony a few minutes to come up with his phony accusations, the district has clearly spent a lot of time and effort to set the record straight. And that’s too bad, because the staff has more important things to do than replying to weird accusations from a wanna-be politician.
Is This Really How We Want School Personnel Spending Their Time?
The Electric published a good story that takes Rosales’ accusations point by point and covers the district’s response. What becomes clear from this most recent story is that Rosales either doesn’t know what he is talking about or doesn’t care what the facts are, as long as he throws dirt on dedicated public employees to further his own political campaign. Probably a bit of both. For the complete story, follow this link to the Electric’s article. https://theelectricgf.com/2024/04/10/gfps-responds-to-concerns-from-board-candidate/
One of Rosales’ central accusations against the district is that a staff member, Lance Boyd, sits on the board of Peace Place, a local nonprofit dedicated to providing respite care for disabled children. Peace Place is a great program that gives parents time to do shopping and other tasks that can be very difficult for parents of kids with special needs. Rosales asserted that this was a conflict of interest since other providers of similar services in the community did not get that “business” from the district, with the implication being that funding was being channeled unfairly to Peace Place.
Hey Tony, Who’s Got a Conflict of Interest?
Responding to questions from the Electric, Rosales said that he discovered this “conflict of interest” at a local meeting on autism and decided to challenge the district. Rosales posted that it was a conflict of interest for Boyd to serve on the board, as the district refers students to Peace Place and pays for those services. He said that he heard about the situation from another provider who was at the meeting.”
The other provider, who was apparently complaining that he was not getting referrals from the district, is Kevin Leatherbarrow, the owner of Go and Grow. The district explained that it was not referring to them, because Leatherbarrow had previously told him they did not want to accept federal funding which the district receives.
Tony Rosales is the Chair of the local Libertarian Party. Leatherbarrow ran as a Libertarian for the Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2020. Leatherbarrow has filed to run for the legislature in this election cycle, again as a Libertarian. Rosales also filed to run for the legislature as a Libertarian in this cycle but withdrew, apparently to run for school board. Tony Rosales is currently serving as Kevin Leatherbarrow’s campaign treasurer.
If you liked the controversy and paralysis which took over county government after electing aggressive anti-government conspiracy theorists Rae Grulkowski and Sandra Merchant, you might want to consider voting for Tony Rosales. But if you want the school district to remain focused on its job, educating our kids, vote for Marlee Sunchild.