Ravalli County MAGA Committee: the real RINOs!

by Margaret Gorski, Stevensville

I want to thank the Bitterroot Star for providing a public service with their Primary Election Insert. It is 20 pages filled with advertisements and articles written by the candidates. The insert is meant to help inform us before we vote. Unfortunately, through no fault of the Star, I don’t find it terribly enlightening. 

The ads use standard marketing tools which are designed to create a “brand” image, irrespective of the candidate’s stand on issues. Candidates use campaign slogans and sound bites that really don’t tell you anything about their ability to govern or the depth of their understanding of issues. Unless you personally know the people and the organizations that endorse them, their rhetoric means little. In the campaign ads, they bullet-point the issues they think will get them votes. We voters  are forced to assume they are truthful and accurate regarding the facts and the accusations they level at their opponents.

Unless one follows politics, which most voters don’t, one doesn’t know the real meaning behind the words they choose or whether they leave out the other half of the story. And one certainly doesn’t have full knowledge of the money interests and power brokers behind the scenes.

For example, on page 18, the current Ravalli County Republican Central Committee (recently taken over by John Birchers) tells voters that the last-minute filing of GOP Committeeman and Committeewoman challengers is an underhanded game being played by someone (they don’t identify) to “retake” the committee.  I’m not sure what was underhanded about waiting until the last minute to file to run for one of these positions. Many candidates do that. 

I find the committee’s outrage to be humorous and hypocritical. It’s like the pot calling the kettle black. Many people are unaware that in the 2012 election someone organized an attack on the Democratic Party by filing Republicans as Democratic Precinct Captain candidates. That maneuver was a deliberate and underhanded action by Republicans. It is the reason why you no longer see Democratic Party Precinct Captain races on the ballot. Over the last decade Republican spoilers have waited to the last minute to file “fake” primary challengers, both Republican and Democrats, in order to split the votes in the primary so the more extreme candidates have a better chance of winning without the majority of votes. This is exactly what they appear to be doing in this year’s SD 44 race. Theresa Manzella and her supporters must be concerned that she can’t win a majority on her own merits so fake candidates are put up to bleed off votes from her real Republican opponent Wayne Rusk.  

Unless you know better, it simply looks like there is a lot of interest in becoming a Republican Committeeman or Committeewoman. But since the current Committee is telling voters who to vote for and alleging that the challengers want to “take back” the committee, what it reveals to voters is that the current Ravalli County Republican Party is in disarray. The in-fighting is over extremes that they are either too conservative or not conservative enough. It’s a race to prove which Republican is  the most Christian, the strictest Constitutionalist, and the most conservative. As a spectator voter, it looks to me like a food fight where they don’t look anything like serious candidates interested in rolling up their sleeves and working for all Montanans. Their behavior only leads to more divisiveness and gridlock.  

We need collaboration, following the rules, and good sportsmanship from our legislators to successfully tackle the complex issues that face Montana today. There is too much on the line to give control over the destiny of our state to members of a party that can’t even work together within their own ranks. We can and must do better.