Sad, but not surprising news today:
http://www.missoulian.com/...
To understand what's going on here, follow me for a short non-native's tour of my state. This is the second somewhat promising candidate to turn down this race. The other, pro-gun guy Bill Kennedy, dropped out due to health reasons. And in the last election, the Dem congress candidate got her butt whooped.
Montana currently has two Democratic senators and a Democratic governor, in one of the 'redder' states in the nation, though these color labels are becoming obsolete fast.
Remember, next time you fly over our state, Montana, not New York or Massachusetts or California, was the first state to elect a female member of Congress. Incidentally she was on one of 50 to vote against our entry into WWI and the only member of Congress to vote against our entry into WWII. A pacifist, and a Republican.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Generic party identification and labelling never really quite fits in the West.
The latest candidate to not run for Congress in Montana is from Missoula. Here in Missoula, our 3,000 vote majority helped Tester to become the other senator, besides Webb, to hand the Senate majority back to the Dems.
It should seem that a Democratic win here would be in the offing for Congress. Given that Senatorial contests are usually more national in character and require a lot more money, it seems that we should just follow the purpling trend of the state.
But for lots of reasons, including the more 'local' nature of the congressional seat race, the still strong lobbies of extractive, agraricultural and logging industries, and the fact that we only have one seat in Congress, this seat still trends R.
Missoula County had one of the highest per-capita Nader votes in the country (~15%). As a county of mostly moderate to liberal voters, we are an anomaly. We can swing a Senate race, but not a congressional one.
My question is, WHO should be the Dem candidate to run against Rehberg. We need a Tester-type, good on education, agriculture, and economic issues, but red-meat enough to win the gun, ranch and logger vote.
Most of "Crashing The Gate" was written here. So I am wondering if Kossers have any good ideas??? Who's next? Who can win this thing???