A joint, large-card mailer from Stanford and Dartmouth carrying the State Seal and saying it is a Voter Information Guide has hit Montana mailboxes this week.
There are two non-partisan races for 2 seats on the MT Supreme court. This mailer provides voter info about who is the liberal and conservative for both races.
http://flatheadbeacon.com/...
The fliers are actually part of a faculty research project by Stanford University and Dartmouth College. Stanford University spokeswoman Lisa Lapin confirmed the connection to the school’s political science department on Thursday, but could provide few details.
“It is not something the university administration was aware of until it was brought to our attention (Wednesday),” she said.
The mailers carry the state seal and the title “2014 Montana General Election Voter Information Guide.” Underneath, it places the candidates on a scale from “More Liberal” to “More Conservative,” with Obama and Romney at either end of the scale.
Montana judicial elections are nonpartisan, meaning that candidates cannot identify themselves as part of a political party. The rules are meant to ensure an independent judiciary.
Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl is in consultation with Linda McCulloch who is Mt Sec. of State.
Flathead Valley blogger has post up which displays both sides of the mailer.
He has further reporting in a follow-up post. His follow-up post has a link to on-going AP reporting on the issue.
Another Montana blogger over in Helena has some very interesting info on one to of the conservative candidates.
The Blackstone Project and its “Fellows,” of whom VanDyke is one, have committed to commit to using their legal careers “to ‘reorder society’ according to a ‘christendomic’ worldview, in which there is no separation between church and state,” as the women’s reproductive health news organization RH Reality Check reports. The Alliance Defending Freedom to Discriminate Against LGBT People runs the Blackstone Project.
The Cowgirl Blog has obtained information that shows VanDyke’s affiliation with Alliance Defending Freedom–and his membership in the group’s Blackstone Fellowship Project, which can be seen here. [screenshot]
Screen Shot 2014-10-22 at 8.05.32 AMAs RH Reality Check reports, Blackstone Project Fellows strive “to glorify God as society is reordered bit by bit according to His design.” The project includes readings from the Christian Reconstructionism Movement. As the Southern Poverty Law Center reports, Christian Reconstructionism is “a theocratic movement that seeks to demolish American democracy and replace it with the legal code of the Old Testament, which calls for stoning to death adulterers, homosexuals and in some cases, wayward children.”
Lawrence VanDyke chose to omit these things from his candidate bio-nor does he mention his own bachelor’s degree in theology [screenshot]. These things are not mentioned on his webpage [screenshot] and he doesn’t mention them in his ads or in interviews with the media.
8:38 PM PT: If interested, keep checking in on James Conner's and MT Cowgirl's blogs as they are both continuing to look into this story.
10:44 PM PT: Good report from MT media from BlueRock in comments.
http://www.kbzk.com/...