A Gentleman's Guide to the Midterm Ballot (Part 1)

Well folks, this is it. We’ve been bellyaching and complaining about pretty much everything for two years straight now, and it’s time to put our money where our mouth is. We’re less than a month out from midterm elections, and if you vote absentee in Montana you’ve already received your ballot. If you haven’t had a look at the ballot yet, you can see a copy of it here. Let’s do this.

And you might have a few questions. Something like, “who the fuck are all these judges, anyway?” and, “aren’t both candidates for sheriff scumbags? Is there a chance we would actually be better off with bands of armed vigilante posses than with our current police departments?” and, “didn’t you just make an argument not that long ago that we don’t all actually need to vote?“. And these are all good questions. Let’s look for answers together.

So with no more pageantry, please consider this Gentleman’s Guide to the Midterm Ballot: Missoula Edition. It’s a long ballot this time, so stick with me – there’s important stuff in here all the way to the end. And if you don’t live in Missoula, then, well, maybe this post is like a time capsule only with space not time. Like National Geographic in the 1970s, or something. I don’t know. Keep reading or don’t.

For United States Senator

– Rick Breckenridge (L)

– Matt Rosendale (R)

– Jon Tester (D)

This is a big one. You’ve probably heard about this race, even if you don’t live in Montana. The incumbent senator is two-term Jon Tester, who is facing a full court press from Matt Rosendale, who’s pretty much your high school gym teacher with gobs of money.

All three candidates cut their teeth in the state legislature, and there is a stark divide between two camps. In the most recent debate, Senator Tester reiterated his background as a rancher and his public service in soil conservation and education.

Rosendale made his position clear that the government has no business anywhere, really, and that he would like to abolish the EPA, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Education. He went on, “Energy should be controlled by the companies that are out there producing the energy. The only place that we should have energy involved in government is the Department of Defense.” In fact, beyond the military, Rosendale’s position is that the government should only intervene in any way when it comes to women’s health, at which time the Individual should pretty much screw off. Ooh also as the Montana insurance commissioner he allowed insurance companies to sell policies that do not cover pre-existing conditions, which is pretty much like saying, “fuck you, kids with cancer.”

For his part, Breckenridge is right there with Rosendale on pretty much everything, although he’s surprisingly less hawkish on immigration. So if you hate clean water, public land for hunting and recreation access, education, and healthcare, but overt Racism-As-Policy is where you draw the line, then maybe Breckenridge is your guy. Also, he looks like this:

For United States Representative

– Greg Gianforte (R)

– Elanor Swanson (L)

– Kathleen Williams (D)

This is another one where you’ve probably got your mind pretty well made up. On the one hand, you’ve got the anti-public lands, anti-first amendment carpetbagger from Jersey. On the other, you’ve got Kathleen Williams, whose record shows her commitment to improving healthcare, education, and economic health for Montana’s residents. (Remember that education, not deregulation, is what drives economic growth.) Your call, I guess.

But then, of course, there’s Eleanor Swanson. Give her a look. If you think that polluters should be responsible for cleaning up their messes, that infrastructure investment is a principle responsibility of the government, and that women should speak for their own healthcare, but for whatever reason you can’t bring yourself to vote left-of-center, Eleanor Swanson might speak to you. She’s sort of like a leftist candidate who thinks that supercorporations will somehow clean up after themselves without the EPA, and that everyone should have a gun on them at all times. Neat.

For Clerk of the Supreme Court

– Bowen Greenwood (R)

– Rex Renk (D)

– Roger Roots (L)

What the hell does the Clerk of the Supreme Court do, anyway? That’s a good question. The C of the SC (as I started calling it) controls the docket and filings, manages the appellate process, and is the custodian of the Seal of the Supreme Court and of all official Court records and files for the public and the Court. Why is this an elected position? That’s a better question. I don’t really know. But here we are, voting for someone to schedule meetings and stamp stamps, and given that they control what gets onto the state Supreme Court docket, it’s one of those jobs that’s maybe a bit more important than it sounds like.

Bowen Greenwood – doesn’t seem like a bad guy. In addition to running for C of the SC, he advertises that he’s a martial artist, a marksman, a mortorcyclist, and a man of Jesus. He’s also a published author, and has released a suite of “clean thrillers,” or contemporary Christian fantasy. Sounds like a cartoon version of Ned Flanders, with a goatee. Cool. Of course he has zero legal background whatsoever, and his campaign page really puts forward his novel, Death of Secrets, and a career as a PR consultant. For comparison, here’s a bio of the guy who’s held the position for thirty years. Ouch.

Rex Renk – According to his campaign page, Rex has not written any YA fiction. But he has served as the Deputy Clerk of the Supreme Court (under the current C of the SC) for 23 years. He has experience in the office and leading initiatives to increase transparency and access to public documents, and also was the youngest of 14 kids, which, holy fuck.

Roger Roots – Roger does not have a campaign page, but he does have a Facebook page. Like another candidate on the ballot, he has written a book. Only his book is titled, “The Conviction Factory: the collapse of America’s criminal courts,” and he actually has a background in law. His platform is based in the belief of parity between the state and the individual, which, when it comes to access to court documents is probably pretty fair. He’s also got a record of holding corrupt law enforcement officials accountable, and again, if you can’t bring yourself to vote for the clearly qualified candidate because of the “D” next to his name, Roger may just fit the bill. Just do bear in mind he has promised that “every decision I make will be anti-government in order to equalize the imbalance of power in this [judicial] branch when it comes to the state over its citizens.”

For Supreme Court Justice #4 Full Term

– Yes

– No

Shall we retain or jettison Beth Baker? Justice Baker carries a laundry list of credentials from prestigious schools, and was recently granted an award for professionalism from the Montana Bar Association. She chairs the state Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission (which strives to increase access to legal resources for all Montanans). Wildly intelligent, qualified, and committed to ensuring that Montana’s disenfranchised have equal access to legal support? Um, your call, I guess.

For Supreme Court Justice #2 Unexpired Term

– Yes

– No

Shall we retain or jettison Ingrid Gustafson? She has a background as a public defender, a partner in private practice, and 14 years as a district court judge. She has been an advocate for sentencing reform to decrease Montana’s prison population, and initiated Yellowstone County’s Drug Court, which emphasizes rehabilitation over incarceration for non-violent drug offenses. All good stuff unless you own a private prison.

End of Part 1! (Get back to work, seriously)

Tune in next week for Part 2, wherein we dig up dirt on local magistrates, propose that a lawless hellscape is better than our current options for sheriff, and parse the really exciting ballot items: initiatives and referendums!