Of 168 county party central committees possible under Montana Law, only nine have sufficient elected members to form a quorum of 50% in order to conduct business, such as selecting delegates to send to their respective party’s state officer’s convention. Six counties, Beaverhead, Fergus, Granite, Ravalli, Sanders and Sweetgrass, elected enough precinct committee persons to be capable of sending delegates to the Republican State Officers Convention in Helena this next weekend. Three counties, Hill, Granite and Ravalli, elected enough precinct committee persons to be capable of sending delegates to the Democratic State Officers Convention in Bozeman on August 14 and 15. No counties elected enough precinct committee persons to form a county central committee quorum sufficient to send delegates to a Libertarian State Officer’s Convention, as yet unscheduled.
This lack of representation has happened because so few Montanans are willing to put their names on the ballot to be nominated as committee person in their precinct for one of the three parties. Out of 4679 possible precinct committee person positions in the 2014 primaries, 578 were filed upon by Montanans including 54 who faced opposition. Willing candidates did not file for 78% of Republican positions, 86% of Democratic positions and 99.5% of Libertarian positions.
Two Montana statutes permit a state central committee to appoint its own choices to county central committees so that counties can achieve quorums sufficient to send delegates. Montana’s Secretary of State does not oversee this process.
The disappearance of directly elected grassroots representation now places great responsibility on each state party’s county delegate credentialing committee to make sure that any grass tops faction, detached from public sentiment, in any of the parties, does not build in its own delegate advantage.
John Driscoll
Helena