I saw another drive-by hit piece from the MAGAs in Cascade County. This time, the hit piece is posted at the E-City Beat blog by Philip M. Faccenda.
The post on the blog shows a photo of Great Falls mayoral candidate Jasmine Taylor, “…holding a half-full weed pipe and lighter…”
The horror! The horror!
The blog did correctly point out that recreational marijuana use is legal in Montana.
It passed with about 57% of the vote in the state. Cascade County approved it with about 55% of the vote. By the way, I voted for it.
Faccenda would like the people holding the next candidate forum to ask drug-related questions so they can try to “get” Taylor.
I would like the City Commission to stop raising my taxes, rates, and fees. The current mayor won’t get my vote because he has supported increasing our taxes, rates, and fees on multiple occasions.
Finally, I leave you with this thought: “Five drunk guys will start a fight. Five stoned guys will start a band.”
Party on…
Thank you to The Western Word Blog. If you are not already following, check it out:
Great Falls Mayor Cory Reeves is mad. . .really mad. In a recent Facebook post Reeves went after Jasmine Taylor for getting into the “mud” in the mayor’s campaign. Too bad the post was long on indignant rhetoric and short on facts. Here’s a copy of Reeves’ post:
“When I ran for mayor in 2023, I faced three well qualified opponents. The campaigns were very professional, and they focused on ideas to move Great Falls forward.This reelection year is different. My one opponent has chosen to throw mud, distort facts, and attack instead of offering real solutions. She has openly said she wants to defund public safety, she doesn’t support the American flag, and she believes we should strip away the rights of anyone who appeals their tax assessments. I won’t join her in the mud and I won’t waste time trading shots on social media. Leadership is about knowing the facts, respecting the law, and putting Great Falls first. I will continue supporting affordable housing developments, public safety, and enhancing our city’s infrastructure, the things that truly make our community strong and livable. Ballots arrive in about three weeks; let your voice be heard and let’s stay “different” from Missoula and Bozeman. @topfans”
Wow! What has his opponent done or said to set off his tirade? Hard to tell. The specifics he does provide are inaccurate and misleading.
It’s ironic that Reeves couches his attack by saying that he will not sling mud in this campaign. It’s a political trick as old as elections and campaigning, throwing mud while saying you are staying on the high road.
Perhaps demonstrating the difference between these two candidates, Taylor responded to Reeves’ post with the following:
“I have offered nothing but legitimate criticism of your public policy and voting record. Conversely, you have refused to debate me. Please offer me a concrete example of me ‘slinging mud’. You’ve shown a keen inability to handle criticism, and I fear this is the most recent example.”
Reeves has not responded to her request for specific information.
Where Do Reeves and Taylor Stand on the Issues . . .
On Calumet’s Repeated Property Tax Appeals
Reeves’ campaign so far has been remarkably devoid of serious discussion of issues. But every now and then he gives us a glimpse of his positions. For example, in the Facebook post above he says of Taylor, “she believes we should strip away the rights of anyone who appeals their tax assessments.” This is an obvious reference to Calumet Refinery’s repeated property tax appeals which have shifted costs to Great Falls’ residential taxpayers and strangled local governments and schools trying to make and meet their budgets. Calumet routinely receives significant reductions in their property tax from the State of Montana. Taylor has never said Calumet doesn’t have a right to appeal their valuations. She has been a critic of the “revolving door” settlement process used by the Department Of Revenue to settle these appeals. Reeves apparently thinks that’s all okay. Taylor does not.
On A General Sales Tax
Then there is the issue of a general sale tax. In his recent interview with the Montana Free Press, Reeves said this about potential solutions to the city’s lack of revenue, “Me personally, I would like to see us eliminate a tax in the state of Montana. So, eliminate an income tax or something and implement a sales tax.”https://montanafreepress.org/2025/09/15/incumbent-mayor-talks-priorities-in-election-interview/
We all know that big corporate interests in the state are gearing up to promote a general sales tax in Montana. They are using the Republicans’ failure to address skyrocketing property taxes and underfunded local governments and schools to build support for a general sales tax. Reeves’ idea to eliminate income taxes and replace them with a sales tax would put money directly in the pockets of rich people and big corporations. The lost revenue would be replaced from the pockets of moderate and lower-income people at the grocery store. Taylor opposes a general sales tax. https://montanafreepress.org/2025/08/18/time-for-an-adult-conversation-about-a-montana-wide-sales-tax/
On Public Safety
Reeves also has little to offer on what the City of Great Falls can do about public safety. Despite the fact that he portrays himself as a big supporter of increasing funding for public safety, he has almost nothing to offer to address the issue. He has this to say about asking the voters to fund needed improvements,“But I also know if we were to put that before the community right now, they’d say, ‘Get bent. We’re not doing it.’ So I don’t know. The police and fire departments, even legal, the courts, are making do.” Apparently he is still pouting about the failure of the public safety levy two years ago.
Taylor has suggested going back to the voters for support for public safety. Instead of one huge levy which covers police, fire and first responders, she has proposed going to the voters with three smaller requests, possibly spread over some period of time so voters are not hit all at once. https://montanafreepress.org/2025/09/22/mayoral-challenger-pitches-her-vision/
On Respecting the Will of The Voters
Speaking of the voters, Reeves continues to say it was his job to take money which had been approved for the library by the voters and reallocate it to public safety. He said,“And I feel I did something very courageous. We were looking to come after all seven mills, and a group of supporters of the library came forward and let their voices be heard, so I knew we had to revisit this.” Unfortunately the truth is that the library mill levy vote created deep divisions in the community as social conservatives attacked the library. Following one of the most contentious mill levy campaigns in Great Falls history, the social conservative crowd lost. Then the mayor and the majority of the council stepped in and took voter approved funds from the library. The amount they took from the library was a drop in the bucket compared to the needs of public safety and everyone knows it. Reeves now uses public safety as a screen to justify his pandering to his political base. Taylor was one of the organizers of the pro-library campaign.
Good Old Boys Are Alive And Well
Early in the campaign Taylor challenged Reeves to a public debate on the issues important to the citizens of Great Falls. He declined, saying there would be ample opportunity in forums for that discussion to occur. So far, there has only been one such forum sponsored in Great Falls. It was organized by the local Realtors Association. But they somehow sent the invitation to an old email address for Taylor. She did not attend, because she didn’t know about it. Taylor did have a subsequent meeting with the association’s CEO, and he issued an apology on social media for the snafu with the email invitation. However, the local realtors did not offer her any opportunity to address their board or membership and then went ahead and endorsed Reeves. Apparently the good old boy system is alive and well in Great Falls. It may or may not be enough to carry Reeves over the top. Stay tuned.
The Montana Democratic Party hosted their party convention this month in Livingston and it seemed business as usual. Because of the threats of violence that Montana Democrats faced after the Kirk assassination [despite right wing accusations – no one was celebrating his murder], the convention had increased safety measures in place. Luckily, the convention itself went smoothly without any violence orstripping of the voting rights of delegates like we saw at the Montana Republican Party convention held earlier this year.
The convention was held to amend Montana Democratic Party bylaws and also to elect new party leadership. Despite running two separate candidates, the Cascade County Democrats failed to gain a spot on the Executive Board. Instead, the 20-person board is 30% members from Missoula. Huh. I joke that Cascade County is the ugly stepchild of politics as we keep getting overlooked as the state has slid towards red.
The party was all about unity at the convention. Change was inevitable when former Chair Robyn Driscoll stepped down from her role after six years. But then we go and have possibly the shortest term for an elected political party Executive Board Member ever.
Who was the Vice Chair?
The short-term Vice Chair was Max Johansen, a leader in the Park County Democratic party. I didn’t get a chance to meet with Max one-on-one, but he ran unopposed for Vice Chair and was elected by acclamation.
What happened?
After Johansen won his spot, he went out and spoke to reporters. And here’s what he said:
Johansen criticized Tester for failing to adapt to the changing political environment the past several years, calling him part of the “old guard” that “represents a philosophy that no longer serves the interest of the party,” saying he had not adapted over the years to face a candidate as well-sharpened by the GOP as Tim Sheehy was during last year’s campaign.
“We’re tired of hearing from people who feel like they know everything because they’ve been at the top of the heap for so long,” Johansen said. “That is actually how parties get stale and that’s exactly how parties lose ground.”
That was a surprisingly aggressive position to take against a hugely popular figure in the Montana Democratic Party. When you are given such a large platform, there needs to be some delicacy around public comments. Instead, Max came in with a sledgehammer. And the old guard he dissed had some grave concerns about him continuing in the role. On Tuesday, September 16th, Tester spoke about Johansen on his “Grounded” podcast andsaid Johansen was seeking to tear down the party rather than build it up.
Three. Days. Later.
Johansen resigned “after acknowledging that certain comments he made following the convention were disruptive and inconsistent with the direction of the executive board,” according to the Democratic Party press release.
Wow. I think we saw that coming.
What’s Next?
Now we wait to see who will fill the board vacancy and smooth over this situation. Honestly, we don’t have time to mess around. Thanks to the trump Party and his ilk, fascism is here in America. The Democratic Party has to get its shit together and rise to this moment.
WTF406 recently received Republican Legislator Llew Jones’ responses to a questionnaire sent to him from the state Republican Party. It is undoubtedly the beginning of a process to remove Jones and other Republican Party members from the state GOP.
In his response, Jones included a section titled “Context.” In it, he excoriates current party leadership. Jones wrote, “On paper, this questionnaire comes from the Montana State Republican Central Committee. In reality, it signals a major shift: instead of helping local Republicans get elected, the state party is now policing loyalty to party bosses. Under the direction of State Republican Chairman Art Wittich — who has a long history of attempting to purge Republicans he views as insufficiently loyal to the party machine — a state-level vetting committee has been created. We don’t know who sits on this committee, no minutes are taken, and there’s zero transparency. It appears the outcomes are predetermined, with this questionnaire serving more as justification than as honest evaluation.”
In his response to the questionnaire, he addresses his positions on specific issues. Below are selected quotes from some of his responses.
On Affordable Housing: The housing market must remain driven by the free market, but the government has a limited role to play in ensuring unnecessary regulations do not block development.
On Property Taxes: The first step in lowering property tax is enforcing local spending discipline, since property taxes fund local government. Without it, tax reform is impossible.
On Economic Development: Economic growth is best achieved by empowering private enterprise and reducing government interference. The government’s role is to maintain shared infrastructure like roads, bridges, and water systems, which allow private business to thrive.
On Budget Surpluses: Surpluses should go back to the people or toward long-term obligations, never to grow government. If a surplus is ongoing, it should reduce tax rates.
On Education: Home schoolers, who do not draw on public funds, have much more freedom. I support broadening opportunities through public, charter, private, or homeschooling, consistent with Republican support for choice.
On Abortion: I am pro-life and believe life begins at conception, a principle I have consistently upheld in my votes. My record has earned me an “A” rating from the Family Foundation. Defending life is a core Republican principle I will continue to champion.
On Trans People: I stand firmly against gender reassignment procedures for minors and oppose biological males competing in female sports. Adults may choose for themselves, but taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize those choices, nor should providers be punished for elective procedures chosen by adults. This aligns with Republican principles of protecting children and ensuring fairness while respecting adult responsibility.
On Climate Change: The climate has always changed, and while I oppose alarmist policies that cripple our economy, I support responsible stewardship of Montana’s land, air, and water. Clean, safe development without overregulation aligns with Republican priorities of resource stewardship balanced with economic freedom.
On Illegal Immigration: Montana must support law enforcement, resist illegal immigration in our communities, and defend the rule of law. I have consistently supported strong border enforcement policies, including those advanced during the Trump administration. At the same time, we must avoid creating new programs that pile on burdensome red tape or punish employers unfairly. If an illegal immigrant deceives an employer, the response should target the deception, not impose undue penalties on Montana job creators who are already complying with the law. A balanced approach strengthens enforcement without strangling employers in punitive bureaucracy.
On Gun Control: None. The Second Amendment is clear: “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Montana Republicans have long defended this right, and so have I. I have consistently been rated A by the NRA and Montana Shooting Sports Association. We already have sufficient laws on the books — what we need is to defend the rights we have.
It’s Really Pretty Simple
Let’s just boil all of that down a little. Jones is anti-choice and pro-gun. He believes in trickle-down economics and deregulating corporations. He thinks climate change is the historical norm and expanding homeschooling is a good thing while public schools are underfunded. He thinks budget surpluses shouldn’t be used to improve infrastructure and public services and should be “given back to the people instead.” He is anti-trans and believes in state action replacing the judgment of medical professionals and parents. And on immigration, he supports the Trump administration. Enough said.
Jones is a garden-variety Republican conservative who claims the title of “moderate” only because others in the Republican party have gone so far over the edge. Unfortunately, many people in politics these days let him get away with it.
