Across the country Trump supporters falsely say the last election was stolen. They demand “reform”
which really means they are demanding changes that disenfranchise millions of voters and threaten to
make our election system less secure and easier to manipulate so they can “win” future elections. Many
of these people are true believers but the farther up the far-right food chain the promoters of election
fraud myths understand that the best way to assure that they remain in power is to undermine the
public’s faith in free and fair elections.
Having lost their efforts to destabilize our elections at the national level after the court system
consistently rejected their allegations of fraud, they have turned to state and local organizing. In state
after state, legislators have introduced bills to limit and complicate elections. All funded and supported
by right-wing organizations and activists (Like Mike Lindell, the My Pillow Guy).
The voter fraud road show has also shown up in Cascade County and helped create a cadre of activists
who have busily been wasting local government’s time and resources. Two weeks before the primary
election, on May 24th Teressa Manzella brought featured speaker, Mark Cook, a shadowy figure from
Colorado who purports to be a computer expert specializing in “root cause analysis, for a community
meeting held Heritage Hall at MSU Great Falls as part of a state-wide tour promoting the conspiracy
theory that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump.
Here in Cascade County, there is a very active group of election deniers. As in Nevada and Colorado
voting fraud activists are targeting the county commission. Election deniers across the country are
getting almost no help from local clerk and recorders regardless of political beliefs or party affiliation.
The reason is simple. Clerk and Recorders are intimately involved in our election process, and they
know that the allegations of fraud are a baseless waste of time.
Here in Cascade County, Lewis Zanto, a local realtor who works for Dustin Young and Company, was
given 1 hour on the County Commission agenda to discuss “election integrity” on April 25th. About 35
people attended the meeting including local far-right legislators Lola and Steven Galloway, County
Commission candidate and conspiracy promoter Rae Grulkowski, and various local republican activists.
County Commissioner Joe Briggs pointed out the irony of republican activists complaining about the
2020 election since Republicans won all Cascade County offices. “As I look around the room, I see the
people that I can identify by party roles. Republicans. I’ll just put it that way,” Briggs said. “I would have
expected our folks across the aisle to be the ones that were concerned about what happened in the last
election.”
Following this presentation, the Commissioners received a follow-up letter dated June 21 from Jan
Wenaas. In the letter Wenaas said that she wanted to know if action had been taken on the information
“her group” had presented at the April meeting. She also presented her analysis of certain election
software and audit procedures.
On June 24th Deputy County Attorney, Jennifer Quick, responded to the points in Wenaas previous letter with a four-page memo to the County Commissioners. Though the memo obviously took hours to
prepare, in essence the response to Wenaas was that items listed fall under the purview of the clerk and
recorder and/or the Secretary of State. On July 15th the County Commission formally responded to
Wenass and to her ally, Devereaux Biddick, using the information and memo from Deputy County
Attorney Quick.
On July 29 County Commission candidate Rae Grulkowski was back in front of the County Commission,
this time presenting a letter from Devereaux Biddick. In this letter Biddick alleged that the county
primary election did not conform to standards set by the Secretary of State. She requested two
precincts be “reviewed for reconciliation.”
Freemen revisited?
In the early 1990s Montana was plagued by the Freemen, a group conspiracy driven “wing nuts” who
attended public meeting making wild and unsubstantiated allegations of government misconduct. They
also filed blizzards of paperwork snowing over local elected officials. And when their demands weren’t
met, they convened their own courts and issued arrest warrants for local officials. They continued their
efforts to gum up the work of local and state government until the whole scheme came crashing down
in a confrontation with the FBI. At the end of the day these election deniers aren’t much different.
Who’s Who in the Big Lie?
Mark Cook (Mesa County, Colorado) Computer Expert Presenter
Theresa Manzella (legislator from Ravalli County area)
Ron Stahley (Cascade County Republican PAC)
Lou Zanto (Cascade County Republican PAC) – Realtor at Dustin Young & Company andPresident of Prairie
Make no mistake about it, the Republican Party is out to get your right to vote. Never mind that Republicans swept the 2020 elections across the state. Never mind those allegations of election fraud across the country and here in Montana have proven to be paranoid fantasies. The Republican Party is forging ahead with its plan to make it significantly harder to vote, particularly for groups of people who have traditionally voted for Democrats.
At the recent Montana Republican Party convention, changing how voting is conducted was high on their agenda. Don’t be fooled by their rhetoric about “problems” in the current system of voting. Their push is about changing the rules so Republican candidates have an advantage in elections.
Speaking in favor of requiring hand counting of ballots, Great Falls Representative Lola Sheldon-Galloway said she supported the change, because she wanted something for Republican clerk and recorder candidates to run on. And she added, “If we’re going to do hand ballots counting, we need the people of this party (Republicans) counting those ballots.”
In a convention which demonstrated that the Montana Republican Party is firmly in the hands of the most extreme factions of the Party, opposition to the far-right agenda was not tolerated. Representative David Bedey called out the mythology of election fraud in Montana, saying, “These attacks — unfounded attacks — on Montana’s election system does nothing but degrade the confidence our citizens have in this fundamental process.” Bedey’s comment was greeted with loud boos from the audience. The measure to require cumbersome hand counting passed. No doubt the Republicans will want to see the final election results written with quill pens dipped in ink.
It was interesting to read recent news coverage of the protests in Great falls responding to the Dobbs decision allowing states to ban abortion. Let’s start with a very simple fact. There is a long history of violence and intimidation around the abortion debate in this country. Virtually all that violence comes from the so-called right-to-life movement.
The Great Falls Tribune interviewed Liana Karlin, President of the Montana Chapter of the Right to Life for its story. Karlin complained that anti-abortion activists fear for their safety and that her national organization is now advising people to avoid “pro-choice provocations.” She concluded by alleging that Pro-Choice groups have a propensity for violence. “Years ago, I remember the Right to Life people being blamed for setting fires and doing whatnot,” Karlin said. “Most of the time they found out in the end, it was the Pro-Choice or Pro-Abortion people who were actually doing those things so we could be blamed.” To its credit the Trib pointed out that it was unaware of incidents of pro-choice advocates being identified as arsonists or agent provocateurs. But still, her big lie hangs in the air like Trump’s allegations of election fraud.
So, let’s recount just a few highlights of the anti-abortion movement’s violence. In March of 1993 Dr David Gunn, a physician who performed abortions, was murdered by a man who yelled, “don’t kill any more babies” right before shooting Dr Gunn in the back with a shot gun. In the late 1990’s a series of bombings killed 2 people and injured hundreds of others. The perpetrator, Eric Robert Rudolf, said his motivation was “abominable sanctioning of abortion on demand.” Between 1993 and 2016 anti-choice zealots murdered 11 people including doctors, clinic employees, a clinic escort, a security guard, and a police officer. There were 26 attempted murders in the same period.
Here in Montana anti-abortion protesters routinely surrounded clinics. Women attempting to use healthcare services were threatened and harassed by anti-abortion activists. Many people volunteered to escort them through the protest lines to assure women were able to access healthcare services. It was an ugly scene.
In addition, clinics in Montana have been routinely targeted for vandalism and arson. In 2014 All Families Healthcare, a family medicine and reproductive health-care facility in Kalispell, was broken into and severely damaged resulting in the clinic closing. Then there is the prolonged harassment of Dr Susan Wicklund who was providing health care services including abortions in Livingston. Wicklund was followed, threatened, and harassed. Her home was broken into, and her daughter had to be taken to school by a police escort. From 1993 to 1994, anti-choice activist Richard T. Andrews set fire to clinics in several states including clinics in Helena, Missoula and Kalispell.
While all this activity was illegal and outside the political process, the anti-abortion movement was busily organizing in the electoral arena. Orchestrating purges within the Republican Party, recruiting candidates, forming political action committees, and building coalitions. And the largest constituency of that effort was evangelical Christians and the issue that motivated them more than anything else has been abortion. After decades of political organizing through groups like the Moral Majority, the Christian Coalition, National Right to Life and the Federalist Society the anti-abortion movement has been the dominant force in the Republican Party and captured the presidency of Donald Trump, the United States Supreme Court, the US Senate and dominates the Congress.
More Extreme Activists Ride Anti-Abortions Coat Tails
It is no wonder that elements of the American hard right have gravitated to the power and energy that the anti-abortion movement has injected into our social fabric. Whether or not they care about abortion, they are astute enough to use the abortion controversy to promote their own agenda, which has historically focused more on issues like race and immigration, to recruit new members.
So, here in Great Falls it is not surprising to see hard right activists capitalizing on this controversy. Caleb Oriet, Director of the Montana Chapter of the American Populist Union, a home schooler from Highwood who has graduated into right-wing activism was quoted in the Tribune story. The Tribune published a picture of Oriet standing on a corner in front of Planned Parenthood holding an American flag over his shoulder and gun on his hip. He told the reporter that the American Populist Union is a conservative group that encourages young people to take a more active role in public policy. Like Karlin of Montana Right to Life, he said that pro-choice advocates have been responsible for violence, referencing a group called Jane’s Revenge, allegedly a group of pro-choice advocates engaging in violent acts across the country (See quote).
Jane’s Revenge emerged this spring following the leaking of the Supreme Court’s proposed
decision on Roe v Wade. It is an anonymous blog which publishes pieces calling for retaliation
against abortion opponents. It apparently has no organizational structure or public face. The blog
has claimed credit for some destruction of property directed at abortion foe facilities. National
pro-choice groups and active abortion rights supporters have refused to even acknowledge Jane’s
Revenge let alone endorse its actions and rhetoric. But anti-choice activists are using it as a straw
man to characterize the pro-choice movement similar to the far right’s creation of Antifa to
marginalize anti-racist activism. The pro-choice movement’s lack of support for Jane’s Revenge
stands in stark contrast to the anti-abortion movement’s wink and nod to the groups and
individuals behind clinic violence.
Box on Jane’s Revent
Oriet’s group, the American Populist Union, views itself as a Generation Z (born between 1997and 2012) conservative vanguard patterned on the Goyper movement which emerged in 2019. Both the Goypers and the American Populist Union announced themselves at the conservative student conference, Turning Point USA, held in Florida, the Goypers in 2019 and the American Populist Union in 2021. Right wing monitoring group, Political Research Associates, describes the American Populist Union as, “college-age or younger leaders, followers, and movement personalities (who) slander feminism and movements for LGBTQ rights and visibility as degenerate, argue for a moratorium on all immigration and a non- interventionist foreign policy, and view themselves as victimized by ‘anti-White hatred’ endemic across popular culture.”
The story of the Great Falls far-right anti-abortion movement could have been any corner of the U.S. From the extremes like the American Populist Union, to the relentless activism of Right to Life Montana, to the GOP elected officials representing the Electric City – the march to the hard right and away from democracy is on.
Notice the Republican yard signs on 10th Avenue South? Have you noticed that they are almost all in front of casinos, low rent motels and empty lots? Have to wonder what’s up with that. So, we took a minute to look a few things up.
Researching ownership of commercial property is tricky business since many owners create different legal entities to hold property and because the named owner may have little control over the property. With that said, here is a list of the casinos. Palace Casino, Cash Out Casino, Player’s Casino, Cash Out Gold Casino- (this one is owned by Buttrey Realty. Yes, that Buttrey). The motels are The Western and Plaza Inn (both owned by Metha Mukesh)
One must wonder why these are the only businesses with big bunches of Republican signs on 10th Ave South. Could it be that these businesses know that Republicans carry their water in the legislature?
