by Ken Toole | Sep 27, 2024 | Elections
Well, the long sad saga of Rae Grulkowski just keeps getting more and more bizarre.
Conspiracy On The High Plains
Grulkowski first appeared on the public’s radar when the New York Times published a long story (some might call it an expose) about the falsehoods she circulated opposing the Big Sky National Heritage Area designation in October of 2021. She was thoroughly exposed as a purveyor of phony conspiracy theories. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/24/us/politics/montana-misinformation-national-heritage.html
Grulkowski And Merchant Take Over County Offices
In 2022, she appeared as a candidate for the Cascade County Commission. Relying heavily on the same bag of tricks she used opposing the Heritage Area, she defeated incumbent Democrat Don Ryan for the District 3 county commission seat. Very quickly she established herself as difficult to work with. She also pursued her personal agenda for elections with her comrade in arms, Clerk and Recorder Sandra Merchant. Grulkowski and Merchant immediately began making hard right conspiracy theories the basis of changes in the elections office, filling numerous vacant positions with their pals from the “election denier conspiracy” ranks. The county human resource office never addressed the hiring of elected officials’ political cronies
Election Protection Committee Forms
Seeing the emerging mess in the elections office, a group of Great Falls citizens formed the Election Protection Committee to monitor the elections office and to demand professional administration of elections. Throughout the fall of 2023, the Election Protection Committee exposed problems in Merchant’s office. They advocated removing election duties from Merchant’s supervision and placing them under the county commission. https://wtf406.com/?s=Election+Protection+Committee/
Grulkowski Removed As Commission Chair
After several lawsuits and a district court ordering an outside monitor to supervise the library mill levy election, County Commissioners Briggs and Larson had enough. They drafted a resolution removing the election functions from Merchant’s office. After a six hour public hearing held on December 12th, 2023,the commission voted two to one to move the election functions to the commission’s office. Included in that resolution was a specific provision which prohibited a commissioner who was on the ballot in the next election (Grulkowski) from participating in supervision of the election office. They also removed Grulkowski from the chair position she held since her election. https://theelectricgf.com/2023/12/12/county-commission-votes-to-strip-election-duties-from-clerk-and-recorders-office/
Grulkowski Continues Screwing Up The Elections Office
The commission advertised for an election administrator. The applicant pool included former clerk and recorder, Rina Moore. Despite the fact that she had 16 years experience successfully administering elections in Cascade County, they offered the position to Terry Thompson, who had no experience or training in administering elections. Thompson had worked for the local realtors association and had assisted Grulkowski in opposing the Big Sky National Heritage Area. Grulkowski fully participated in the hiring decision despite wording of the resolution prohibiting her from managing functions of the election office. Briggs and Larson rated Moore as their top choice. Grulkowski rated her fourth and gave her a low enough score to remove her from the top position. Formal legal action is now pending over the county’s decision to offer the position to Thompson.
https://wtf406.com/2024/03/grulkowski-plays-dirty-did-we-really-expect-anything-else/
Grulkowski Loses The Republican Primary. Now Running As A Write-in
As the next primary election approached, Grulkowski filed in the Republican primary to retain the county commission seat she now holds. Local businessman, Eric Hinebauch, filed against her. Hinebauch ran as a centrist Republican and Grulkowski made her conspiracy based ideas the center of her campaign. In the election held on June 4th, Hinebauch roundly defeated Grulkowski by more than 1500 votes. Instead of calling and congratulating her opponent, Grulkowski announced her intention to run a write-in campaign. She made her announcement at the local Pachyderm Club, the home of the far-right faction of the local Republican party.
Grulkowski Continues Playing Dirty Pool In Her Write-in Campaign
True to form, Grulkowski is fabricating facts in her write-in campaign. Perhaps the most glaring is claiming that she is the only candidate “Endorsed by the Great Falls Election Protection Committee,” which worked hard to expose her and her actions relating to the county election office. (See copy of the flier above) Grulkowski also has a video circulating on Rumble (a right-wing media platform) which lifts liberally from a Tik Tok produced by Jasmine Taylor, which urged Democrats to cross over and vote in the Republican primary against Grulkowski. Without explanation, Grulkowski claims that 11% percent of the voters in her Republican Primary race were Democrats.https://rumble.com/v5fhb8t-democrat-plot-to-subvert-elections-discovered-in-cascade-county-montana.html
But wait. . . .there’s more. On September 25th, the county commission held a meeting to address a concern raised by the current election administrator, Terry Thompson, that write-in candidates who used name stickers for their supporters to place on their ballots to assure proper spelling, would clog vote counting machines. Grulkowski participated in the discussion, specifically arguing that ballots with stickers would be counted by hand. While her position is reasonable, she did not disclose her self interest at any point in the discussion.
A Snow Ball’s Chance In Hell
Grulkowski’s chance of actually winning her write-in campaign? About the same as a snowball’s chance in hell. It will be interesting to see where she goes next. Our bet is she will get a job in Sandra Merchant’s office. Stay tuned.
by Ken Toole | Mar 6, 2024 | Elections
In an unprecedented move, Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen weighed in on Cascade County’s hiring process to fill an open election administrator position. The move by Jacobsen casts further doubt on the selection process in the County. The action provides further evidence of the corruption and incompetence of Republicans in our state and county.
WTF406.com has written extensively on the mess in the Clerk and Recorder’s office after Sandra Merchant was elected. Due to Merchant’s incompetence, the county commission removed election duties from her office and began the process of hiring a qualified employee to administer elections. Four finalists were interviewed by the three commissioners, and Terry Thompson was selected. Two other candidates, Rina Moore and Lynn Deroche, were passed over despite having much more experience and training for the position. Each had approximately 16 years of experience administering elections. WTF406 and others objected to the process, because Merchant’s crony Commissioner Rea Grulkowski participated in the selection process despite being directed by county resolution not to participate in decisions affecting the election office.
Now, thanks to excellent reporting by The Electric, we find out that Republican Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen weighed in on the hiring decision. Specifically, in an email from a state email account dated February 14th to county commissioners, Jacobsen wrote, “please do not hire Ms. Moore or a member of her administration as Cascade County’s Election Administrator. Doing so would directly undermine the voters of Cascade County, among other reasons.”
The Electric followed up on the story after observing Merchant and Grulkowski going into the Secretary of State’s office on March 1st. The Electric requested information from Merchant and Grulkowski about the reason for the meeting and whether public funds were used in their trip to Helena. They did not respond.
County Commissioners Joe Briggs and Jim Larson both said that they were surprised by Jacobsen’s email but both added that it did not affect their decision, because it was a scored “structured” hiring process. That may or may not be true, but Grulkowski also scored the applicants and her score alone was likely enough to jimmy the system in favor of Terry Thompson. And if we know anything about Rea Grulkowski, it is that she does whatever she pleases without regard for the rules and law.
So the liability for the county (and us taxpayers) continues to mount thanks to the arrogance of Grulkowski and her far right allies in their effort to control elections in Cascade County. Both Rina Moore and Lynn DeRoche would have had strong political belief discrimination complaints before the Jacobsen email. Now those complaints would be even stronger, and the state of Montana can also be brought into any legal action.
by Ken Toole | Jan 30, 2024 | Elections
Election Deniers are gathering petition signatures to repeal the resolution which removed Sandra Merchant from election administration. Pictured here is a sign at the local Republican Central Committee office on 10th Avenue South. Before getting to the petition effort of the election denier conspiracists, let’s remind ourselves that Sandra Merchant was failing at her responsibilities administering elections here in Cascade County. The County Commission made its decision to remove those duties from Merchant based on poor job performance. . .nothing more. For a detailed account follow this link https://dailymontanan.com/2024/01/14/election-errors-forced-the-cascade-county-commission-to-act/. Despite the facts, the local election conspiracy crowd, primarily housed in the Republican Pachyderm Club, argued that the decision was a power grab by Commissioners Larson and Briggs. They have ranted and raved, pointed fingers and shaken their fists. Now they are circulating a petition to repeal the county ordinance which removed election duties from Sandra Merchant. In order to place their repeal effort on the ballot the sponsors have 90 days from the date the resolution was effective. That date is December 12, 2023. So they will have to turn in their signatures somewhere around March 10th. They must have signatures from 15% of qualified electors in the county. That’s about 5,500 signatures, but that is the number of valid signatures required. They will need to gather many more than the minimum number to make up for invalid signatures that come into the process. The law also requires “The form of the petition must be approved by the county election administrator.” Does that mean Devereaux Biddick, who is the acting election administrator appointed by the County Commissioners on a temporary basis, reviewed and approved the form of the petition? Biddick is an election denier and close political ally of Sandra Merchant. In fact she was hired by Sandra Merchant to work in the elections office shortly after Merchant took office in January 2023. We wonder if her direct supervisors, Commissioner Joe Briggs and Commission Chair Jim Larson had any idea she was working on approving this petition.
ETA: An earlier version of this post indicated the petitioners has 60 days to gather signature. This has been corrected. The petitioners have 90 days to gather signatures.
by Guest Writer | Dec 21, 2023 | Elections, Guest Articles
By Pamela Carroll
On Tuesday, December 12, 2023, the Grinch revealed itself in Great Falls, Montana. I saw the mean-spirited character manifested in citizens of Cascade County.
Cascade County Commission held their bimonthly meeting at the Expo Park in anticipation of large public attendance. Commissioner Joe Brigg brought forth a resolution to remove election duties from the Clerk and Recorder. This resolution has been talked about for several years.
Public comments were heard from over one hundred people. With many more in attendance to witness the spectacle of vile and spiteful testimony. This went on for seven long and excruciating hours.
As I sat in the audience listening to the public comments, I was so ashamed of the behavior of those speaking in opposition to the resolution. These are my neighbors who used threats, yelled, and told outright lies. The Bible quotes were thrown out over and over to attack commissioners Joe Briggs and Jim Larson. Two pastors in our community spewed hateful words. Not once did I hear these so-called church attending people speak to the call to love thy neighbor as thyself. It was like watching school yard bullies and toddler temper tantrums. Never in the 62 years that I have lived in Great Falls have I ever experienced anything like the hateful actions and words that I saw that day. I fought back tears of sadness that day for my community.
The restraint shown by Commissioners Joe Briggs, Jim Larson and those that spoke in support of the resolution is to be commended. Supporters spoke with decorum and integrity while expressing their concerns for the election process that has been flawed since Clerk and Recorder Sandra Merchant has taken office. They stuck to the facts and kept religion and emotion out of their testimony.
We are in need of change in Great Falls and around Montana as this type of extremist behavior spreads and basic community norms around public discussion and debate dissolve. Perhaps, the most disturbing aspect is the appeal to theocratic ideals which could not be more un-American. This country was founded on a fundamental separation between church and state, and we have upheld that value, embodied in the First Amendment to the Constitution, for almost 250 years. The opponents’ dogmatic appeal to a narrow-minded, intolerant brand of Christianity would be ridiculous if it were not so fundamentally dangerous and unconstitutional.
There is hard work ahead for all reasonable people of goodwill in this community and across Montana to try to bring us back to a semblance of decency and behavioral norms of civility and respect necessary for the community to not only survive but thrive. “Love thy Neighbor no Exception.”
by Jasmine Taylor | Dec 10, 2023 | Elections
Late last week, an alarming and factually inaccurate post appeared on the Cascade County Website. The Election Protection Committee responded, asking the County to remove the post immediately. Read the full letter below:
To: Cascade County Commissioners Joe Brigg, Jim Larson, Rea Grulkowski County Clerk and Recorder, Sandra Merchant and County Attorney Josh Raki.
Greetings,
We are writing to respond to a post placed on the County Elections Website lobbying the public to oppose Resolution 23-62. We believe the post is highly inappropriate. It is also inaccurate. For example, the first sentence in bright red block letters states: “To all registered voters in Cascade County- your right to vote is in jeopardy! Regardless of how the controversy over the resolution is resolved no one will lose their right to vote.
The next sentence states, “Two of the County Commissioners have stated their intention to nullify the 14,000+ votes that were cast November 8, 2022, for the current Clerk & Recorder/Elections Administrator.” No county commissioners have stated an intention to nullify any votes. The argument is ridiculous. Anytime a political organization changes the law, you could say that it has “nullified” the votes of the supporters who adopted the law in the first place.
The post goes on to say the resolution is ….”overthrowing the election that took place and appointing a person of their choosing-not chosen by the people-to run the elections in the future.” The fact is Sandra Merchant will remain the Clerk and Recorder. She will continue to receive a salary, she will still have an office, oversee the vitals records, recordings and internal auditing functions of the position.
If passed, this resolution is changing the duties of the Clerk and Recorder’s office which is clearly within the purview of the County Commission. In fact this has already been done in seven Montana counties and more are likely to follow. There was no hue and cry when the accounting functions were removed from the clerk and recorder’s office. This is not a new idea; Commissioner Briggs brought this proposal forward long before Sandra Merchant was elected because it has been his belief that the election official should be a nonpartisan position.
With all of that said, given Sandra Merchant’s poor performance and the continuing litigation being faced by the county thanks to her errors and incompetence, we are fully in support of removing the election duties from her supervision and placing them in the hands of an experienced administrator supervised by the Commission.
We request that the unethical post be removed from the website with a statement that it was both inaccurate and inappropriate. We are researching the legality of county resources being used to lobby for a political position on a legally presented resolution.
Ken Toole for The Election Protection Committee
