It’s called a “Super Majority.” And Republicans are just two legislative seats away from having it. It means that, in addition to the crappy bills they pass in the legislature, they will be able to change the foundation of our government that protects citizen rights. . . the Montana Constitution. And they just can’t wait to do it.
First, they will be able to propose constitutional amendments by referring them to the ballot, if they garner the support of two-thirds of legislators. That means that 100 politicians in Helena can put amendments to our constitution on the ballot. Currently, amendments can only be proposed by gathering enough citizen signatures. It’s hard to do, meaning that lots of amendments are proposed, but few actually make it to the ballot.
Second, a super majority can call for an unlimited constitutional convention by referring a convention call to the ballot. If approved, a convention can propose changes to virtually anything in the constitution by a vote of the delegates. At a time when large swaths of the Republican Party support the January 6th insurrection and believe the hocus pocus dished out by the likes of Donald Trump, it is scary to think about what they would do to our constitution.
We encourage everyone to look at our constitution. It is an amazing document. https://leg.mt.gov/bills/mca_toc/index.htm We thought it would be good to list a few of the rights we stand to lose if the Republicans achieve their super majority in this election.
Section 4. Individual dignity. The dignity of the human being is inviolable. No person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws. Neither the state nor any person, firm, corporation, or institution shall discriminate against any person in the exercise of his civil or political rights on account of race, color, sex, culture, social origin or condition, or political or religious ideas.
Section 8. Right of participation. The public has the right to expect governmental agencies to afford such reasonable opportunity for citizen participation in the operation of the agencies prior to the final decision as may be provided by law.
Section 9. Right to know. No person shall be deprived of the right to examine documents or to observe the deliberations of all public bodies or agencies of state government and its subdivisions, except in cases in which the demand of individual privacy clearly exceeds the merits of public disclosure.
Section 10. Right of privacy. The right of individual privacy is essential to the well-being of a free society and shall not be infringed without the showing of a compelling state interest.
Article IX (1) The state and each person shall maintain and improve a clean and healthful environment in Montana for present and future generations.
Article X, (2) The state recognizes the distinct and unique cultural heritage of the American Indians and is committed in its educational goals to the preservation of their cultural integrity.
Of course these are just words on paper (or pixels on a screen). The constitution comes alive over time and primarily through actions in the court system. Here in Montana and nationally conservative Republicans believe they have lost many of their goals in the courts. One result is that they have made it a priority to replace judges who don’t share their views. This is probably the reason so many evangelicals supported Trump. . .and he delivered for them by appointing three Conservative Supreme Court justices. Here in Montana, Supreme Court candidate Jim Brown is the epitome of a judge with a Republican agenda.
Changing our constitution would be the Holy Grail for the far right in Montana. And they are very close to being able to do it in the Montana Legislature. The stakes in this election are very high. If you care about protecting our constitution, vote for Democrats.
Representative Ed Hill of Havre strikes again with a tone deaf, ignorant, and embarrassing slew of statements on all sorts of issues at the most recent Hill County Pachyderms meeting. Instead of focusing on local issues that the people of House District 28 really care about (access to healthcare, inflation, infrastructure, funding public education, public lands) the Hill County GOP spent their meeting spouting off Tucker Carlson’s latest conspiracy theories about Public Education. Which is pretty ballsy considering word on the street is some folks voted for Hill for the Legislature in 2020 solely to REMOVE him from the school board.
The question-and-answer session focused on wildly unfounded beliefs about public schools and even calls to eliminate multiple subjects. The idea that public school curriculum needs to be reduced to only the essentials was echoed by Havre City Council President Andrew Brekke. “Reading, writing and arithmetic, forget all the other crap, teach a skill that, as an employer, I can hire, that’s what I want,” Brekke said. The Hill County GOP are clearly interested in children as future laborers rather than children as whole and well-rounded individuals. GOP supporters further expressed belief in a conspiracy theory that public school is part of a plan to destroy religion and the family.
“Not to talk about conspiracy theories, but people have been planning this for many, many years,” Brekke said. “Part of it is the destruction of families, the destruction of God, all of these things.” As it so often does, comments about religion soon turned to outright lies and bigotry. The discussion quickly moved to the blatantly false and homophobic idea that children in public schools are being “sexually groomed” a common homophobic and transphobic sterotype about the presence of LGBTQ+ educators and learning material featuring the presence of LGBTQ+ people.
Hill did not push back on any of these ideas. Rather, he tacitly endorsed the discriminatory lies, stating that efforts to groom children in education are wrong and anyone who doesn’t like it can leave the state.”
Instead of calling out these blatant lies, HILL DID NOT PUSH BACK ON ANY OF THESE IDEAS. Read it twice. The worst part of this whole meeting was the fact that these people said these comments OUT LOUD knowing the press was recording their every word. As a person in leadership I know what it’s like to get misquoted by the media, but I also know that they use tape recorders for nearly every meeting they report at…..so, no excuse.
Does the Hill County GOP really think they represent the majority and there would be no pushback? Social Media is currently engulfed by Ed Hill’s current dumpster fire of public comments. Let’s hope voter turnout for Paul Tuss is enough to extinguish it come November 8th.
For the complete bat shit story, check out the link below from Havre Daily News.
By Lindsey Ratliff Lindsey is a lifelong Montanan born and raised in the Malt Barley Capital of the World (Fairfield, MT). A Dirt Road Democrat and political junkie, she interned in Sen. Baucus office in 2012 and has been active with local Democratic races since. She currently lives in Havre where she teaches kids how to draw, paint, and discern between facts and bullshit. She is currently serving her 2nd term on the Havre City Council.
We recently posted an article on the Montana Republican Party Platform. Yikes. It was creepy and disturbing. Today, I figured we could take a look at the Montana Democratic Party Platform and see what the Vote Blue crowd supported during their Party Convention in July 2022. The meeting came a few weeks after the Montana Republicans and, unlike their Republican counterparts, the Democrats had near unanimous agreement to their platform.
The party added new language around Democrats’ support for the right to abortion in Montana: “Protecting a person’s right to abortion, contraception, and other reproductive healthcare.” Delegates didn’t fixate on the issue, unlike at the Montana Republican convention. As noted by Democratic Representative Laurie Bishop of Livingston, Montana Democrats have long focused on defending the right to abortion.
What about the other issues that we highlighted in our article about the Montana GOP platform? Here is a side-by-side comparison of the relevant quotes from each party’s platform.
Issue of Concern
Montana Democratic Positions
Montana Republican Positions
LGBTQ+ Rights
“We support equal treatment of all individuals before the law, regardless of race, gender, religion, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, physical or intellectual ability, physical or mental health status, language of origin, national origin, or marital status.”
“We believe the ideal traditional family structure is a father and a mother….” “We support policies and services that preserve and strengthen the traditional family units as well as promoting the wellbeing and innocence of children and youth.”
Public Education
“We are…committed to a continuum of high-quality, equitable public education opportunities with adequate state funding to develop the potential of every Montanan.”
“Adopt school choice policies.” “Facilitating programs that allow money to follow the child for education opportunities…inside or outside the public school system.”
Climate Change
“Montana Democrats believe we must reduce our reliance on fossil fuels through a combination of energy conservation, energy efficiency, and the development of clean, renewable energy sources.” “We believe we can achieve this goal and create – or provide transitions into – good Montana jobs.
“We…oppose any regulation on domestic energy production or consumption. We oppose any and all parts of the Green New Deal, the ‘War on Fossil Fuels’, the Paris Climate Accord…”
Workers’ Rights
“We support the right of workers to establish democracy in the workplace by forming or joining independent unions for purposes of bargaining and advocating collectively.
“We believe that membership in labor bargaining units should be optional.”
Affordable housing: “We support increased state investment in affordable, quality housing for all Montanans.”
Property tax relief: “A fair and equitable property tax system that provides funding for necessary local government services, requires wealthy property owners to pay their fair share.”
Mental health: “expansion of affordable access to crisis support, substance use disorder treatment…and other mental health care.”
Child care: “Ensure access to affordable, high quality child care…reducing out-of-pocket costs for working and middle-class families.”
Montana constitution: “We support Montana’s constitution…and we’ll resist any partisan effort to repeal and replace Montana’s constitution.”
Well, what the funk! I have to say that sounds pretty appealing to me. What future vision are Montana voters going to select in November?
It’s been a banner year for Calumet, the company behind the oil refinery in Great Falls. Despite gross profits of over $70 million dollars in 2021, both the GF City Commission and Cascade County Commission continue to give Calumet massive tax breaks.
Property taxes are a key source of funding for our community, including our schools. Earlier this year, the City Commission approved a tax abatement to the tune of $2.77 million. That’s money Calumet doesn’t have to pay into property taxes. This means Calumet continues to enjoy prime river-front property and its increase in employees adds stress to our infrastructure, with almost no return on investment for the rest of us.
With no commitment to hiring locally, how do these tax breaks benefit us? The short answer is: They don’t. Although I fully support Calumet’s transition to more renewable energy, the company is absolutely capable of paying its fair share of property taxes.
As regular Great Falls’ families struggle with rising taxes amid extraordinary inflation, Calumet was given another property tax break, this time by the County Commission. A second gift to this million-dollar business, Calumet will pay only 50% of its property tax value for the next five years.
Highlighting the absurdity of these abatements, Great Falls citizens are currently being asked to pay higher taxes to support a public safety levy. Asking already-struggling families to suck it up and pay more while simultaneously giving the refinery a multimillion-dollar tax break is a hard pill to swallow.
As stress on our roads, schools, and housing market near a breaking point, its time that we all ask: Why the funk aren’t we making Calumet paying its fair share?
Since Covid, drama and controversy in our schools have dominated the news. Calling themselves the “parental rights movement”, angry parents have appeared at local school board meetings demanding they have things their way. Rowdy and abusive, these parents have accused school board members and staff of all kinds of (wildly untrue) things. You can watch a sampling of the vitriol our Great Falls School Board experienced during a special meeting in August 2021 here. Pushing conspiracy theories about masks, the books kids are using, and demanding that history classes teach only things they agree with, these parents repeat talking points directly taken from national far-right organizations.
As school elections approached, they began filing for open seats on school boards across the state. By and large these candidates toned down their far-right rhetoric attempting to present a friendly face to the electorate. So how did they do in the elections? Turns out not very well at all. (A summary of key school elections can be found here: https://montanafreepress.org/2022/05/04/montana-school-election-results/)
What the Funk Happened in our School Board Race?
Well, the Great Falls Public School Board Trustees are in! Drum roll please.
Incumbents Gordon Johnson, and Mark Finnicum retained their 3-year seats. Paige Turoski nabbed the last 3-year slot. And Amie Thompson earned the 1-year slot.
What a rollercoaster ride of an election! Paige Turoski was the only right-wing and GOP-endorsed candidate to win in a race that had 11 candidates vying for four seats. In a climate doused with sheer absurdity, we must celebrate our victories where we can. The elections of Johnson, Finnicum, and Thompson are major wins for our schools, faculty, and kids!
We have faith our trustees will continue to do right by our students and staff. Hopefully Ms. Turoski will gain more awareness when removed from her right wing echo chamber and instead surrounded by reasonable, logical adults. We’re thrilled to see Great Falls voted for more moderate voices on the board. After all, local elections are nonpartisan for a reason.
In today’s “Questions I Shouldn’t Have To Ponder” I’m faced with a truly strange situation. After E-city Beat’s bizarre, ill-researched, and oddly sexualized attack on school board candidate Russ Herring, I’m sitting here considering when (if ever) it is appropriate to discuss a political candidate’s penis. Before last week, I’d have easily said “Never. This couldn’t possibly be relevant to a local election.” Yet, after E-city Beat clearly spent significant time staring a Herring’s, well, package, it seems the conversation is at hand. Let’s start with a relevant example. If E-City Beat downloaded a picture of me in a bikini I had shared on my personal Facebook page, we would all regard this as creepy. If they went further and then PUBLISHED that picture, claiming it made me an unfit candidate, we would all recognize that behavior for what it is- sexual harassment. The writer, Phil Fascenda, claims this picture is ill-befitting a candidate for school board. It seems Fascenda’s tune has changed since E-city Beat contributor and city commissioner, Rick Tryon’s inappropriate Facebook posts were discussed in a city commission meeting. Flash back to the City Commission meetings during the Non-Discrimination Ordinance conversations. Members of the commission were presented with a print-out of Rick’s transphobic “joke” he had shared on his page. Rick quickly retorted that this was on his personal facebook page, was merely a joke, and shouldn’t even be brought up. So, if its Rick’s personal page, Fascenda seems to think it is of no consequence, even when it is directly relevant to the question at hand. And now E-City Beat is scouring the personal pages of candidates they don’t like and attempting to find problematic posts. Here’s the thing though- a guy in his shorts (be they boxer or swimwear) is NOT problematic. Its not even inherently sexual. In fact, its only weird because Fascenda and E-City Beat tried to make it weird, claiming that Herring had an erection. Now, 99.9% of the time, it really isn’t okay to make fun of anyone’s penis size. But let’s be clear. Herring in no way has an erection in the photo and its pretty hilarious to try and claim that he does. The fact that the author tries to claim this, well, he’s basically telling on himself here. My takeaway from this desperate attempt at a smear campaign is that the folks at E -City Beat have, well, itty bitty…arguments. As we know, E-City Beat writer and everyone’s least favorite commissioner, Rick Tryon loves to talk about himself in the third person and use various nicknames which surely have never been uttered by anyone but himself. Of course, Tryon is silent about the hypocrisy of this attack by his pal at E-city Beat. I can’t help but assume that if we published anything from his personal face book page Tryon would be outraged. And it makes me wonder if Rick thinks a candidate’s penis size should be a topic of conversation in a political campaign. Although E City Beat likely can’t be held liable for what is clearly a libelous attack, I wonder what responsibility they hold for the slew of utterly false remarks made by readers in the comment section of E-City Beat about Herring as a result of their post?
