Usually you don’t see national dark money groups showing up in local school elections in Montana, but it has now happened here in the Great Falls School Election. Early this week voters in Great Falls received a text message from Free to Learn Action, a national right-wing organization.
The Freedom to Learn Action text is poorly researched and violates Montana campaign law. Specifically, there is no disclaimer identifying who paid for the piece as required in Montana statutes. It also identifies the “party registration” of each of the candidates for school board. The problem is that voters do not register by party in Montana, and the school board election is a non-partisan race. Put simply, there is no way Freedom to Learn Action knows the party affiliation of the candidates. Finally, the piece identifies candidate Tony Rosalles as a Democrat. While Montana doesn’t register by party, Tony Rosalles is the head of the local Libertarian Party. It is pretty unlikely that he considers himself a Democrat.
ProPublica reports that Freedom to Learn is a national right-wing group which says that its mission is to “advocate for classrooms independent of political influence” (https://freetolearn.org/mission). The organization is headed up by Allison Liegh Marre, who has a long history of right-wing activism. She worked on Republican Scott Walker’s 2014 run for Governor in Wisconsin. She worked for the National Republican Congressional Committee and was the national press secretary for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. She also worked for the Air Force during the Trump Administration. (https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/staffers/allison-leigh-marre)
You might be wondering why a national right-wing group would be showing up in a Great Falls Montana school board election. Aside from the fact that the entire right-wing power structure hates public schools. Well. . . probably because Montana’s US Senate race is going to be the biggest race in the US Senate in 2024. National groups want to establish a “Montana track record” to attract more money for their coffers. We note with interest that US Senator Steve Daines is now the Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, where Marre used to be the National Press Secretary. It’s going to be a long election season.
It’s a small thing but a “thing” nonetheless. Some of the far-right crowd that hangs out in Great Falls formed a group to oppose the library mil levy with the usual attacks about drag shows, promoting pornography and generally that reading books is unAmerican. They named their new group The Liberty and Values Project. Upon hearing that news, WTF 406 looked to see if they registered the new name with the Secretary of State’s office. Turned out they hadn’t, so we did and notified them to quit using our registered business name. (See our letter). On April 21 they filed an amended registration with the Commissioner of Political Practices changing their name to Liberty and Values.MT and filed the new name with the Secretary of State’s office.
We believe that they have printed materials with the old name and are likely to use them anyway. If you see printed or electronic materials that use the old name, “Liberty and Values Project” please take a photo and let us know so we can take appropriate action. Thanks.
“April 16, 2023
Re: Violation of Registered Business Name Law
Ms. Duncan,
This letter is to inform you that you are using a business name, “Liberty and Values Project,” which is registered to WTF406 with the Montana Secretary of State. You have no authority to use this registered business name.
The purpose of this letter is a formal request to cease and desist from the use of the business name, “Liberty and Values Project.” We are the owners of the registered business name, “Liberty and Values Project.” We believe that using that name would put you in violation of the statutes enforced by the Montana Secretary of State.
In addition, because you have used that name in filing for an independent committee with the Office of the Commissioner of Political Practices (CoPP), we also believe you may have violated statutes enforced by that office. You should immediately rescind, revoke, and cancel this registration with the CoPP.
Our registered business name, “Liberty and Values Project” may not be used on any materials such as flyers, stickers, buttons, pamphlets, brochures, yard signs or other printed materials. This also includes accounts on social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or TikTok, or in contracted paid advertising of any sort. You should immediately gather all distributed materials attributed to “Liberty and Values Project,” cease distribution of the same, and dispose of any such materials.
Then there is Representative Steven Galloway who is also a large landlord in Great Falls bringing numerous bills which promote his own business interests.
And now we have Republican Representative Scot Kerns introducing a bill to allow “expunging” the criminal record of certain individuals convicted of DUI. Turns out one of the people who could be allowed to clean up his criminal record would be Scot Kerns himself. Here’s the story.
In September of 2021, police found Kerns “asleep” in his car with an open beer bottle “within an arm’s length” from him. A witness reported that Kerns had been driving the car with the beer inside and had hit a curb before coming to a stop in the Smith’s Grocery parking lot. When the police arrived, Kerns refused a field-sobriety test. An officer informed him he was being detained and asked him to exit the vehicle, according to court records. The police officer’s report describes a scuffle and obstruction was added to the charges he faced. Kerns was prosecuted, his license was suspended, he was fined, and he was given a week under house arrest. He has appealed the sentence, and it is currently pending in court.
Not surprisingly, Kerns disagrees with the witness account, saying he had left a party and decided he shouldn’t drive, so he parked and went to sleep. Kerns said his license has been reinstated, and he has undergone treatment.
As a legislator, he has introduced several bills relating to DUI. Kerns’ House Bill 704 creates a presumption that a person convicted of a first-offense DUI, who was inside their car but not “in a gear that allows self-propulsion,” and who had not been involved in a collision, could get their record expunged.
Kerns said that, based on a discussion with his lawyer, he did not believe the new law would apply to him but was unable to explain further. He also failed to disclose to the committee hearing the bill that it could affect him personally, as is generally required when presenting a bill that affects the sponsor. All of Kerns’ bills relating to DUI enforcement have died.
For a complete story from Montana Free Press, follow this link.
A reminder of Republican Senator Jeremy Trebas’ dirty dealings in a commercial building in Great Falls.
Jeremy Buys a Building
In May of last year, Jeremy put up a Facebook post announcing that he bought the old Church of Christ Scientists at 1300 1st Ave N. in Great Falls through a shell company, Rearview Mirror LLC. The building was purchased at a significant discount, because an automatic sprinkler system had to be installed to bring the building up to code.
Jeremy Scams on Property Taxes
The building has been classified by the Montana Department of Revenue as “exempt” because it had been a church. Jeremy rented the building to The Break Forth Bible Church, likely thinking this would preserve the property tax exemption. Problem is it doesn’t. The exemption requires that the building be owned by a church. He paid just $267 in property taxes for the first half of 2022. This for a 9,000 foot commercial building close to downtown. The property is still misclassified by the Department of Revenue. (Don’t worry folks, we’ll contact them).
Jeremy Goes to Helena (Can You Say Self-Dealing?)
Jeremy introduced Senate Bill 195 in the Senate. The bill exempted his building from being required to have an automatic sprinkler system. The bill was opposed by Fire Marshalls across the state and was heavily amended, removing all of Trebas’ language exempting his own building.
Jeremy Puts the Building Up for Sale. . . at an Inflated Price
Now, Jeremy has put the building up for sale on Craig’s List. Sale price? $475,000!
So let’s break that number down a little. The appraised value of the building is $359,505. Keep in mind that appraisals generally assume that the building complies with building codes and other legal requirements. In other words, they do not discount for needed repairs. But the market does and WTF406 is confident that Trebas purchased the building below the appraised value. Now, after failing to change the law to benefit himself, Trebas has a financial albatross hanging around his neck. Will he find tenants for the building? Will he find someone to purchase the building at his inflated price? We think the answer will be “no” on both counts. Too bad for Jeremy.
To read about the whole story follow these links to our previous articles.
This just in . . .Casey Schreiner announces bid for Mayor. Also announced at this point are Jesse Slaughter’s former Undersheriff Cory Reeves and former Republican Legislator and current City Councilman, Joe McKenney Both are running from the right. Don’t we have enough of that in Cascade County?
