Lincoln-Reagan dinner praises Republican victories

Three months after their party won the presidency and most of Montana's statewide offices, Blaine and Hill county Republicans held their annual Lincoln-Reagan Dinner Saturday in the Commercial Building of the Blaine County Fairgrounds in Chinook, praised their victories in the election.

"There is not a soul in here that is sorry that Hillary (Clinton) lost," said Brad Lotton, finance chair of the Hill County Republican Party.

For $50 a ticket, attendees ate prime rib, baked potatoes and salad, while also taking part in live and silent auctions, a dance, hearing from two speakers and celebrating the party's victories in November's elections.

Montana Republicans won the offices of secretary of state, state auditor and superintendent of public instruction, and re-elected Attorney General Tim Fox. The party's gubernatorial candidate, Greg Gianforte, failed to unseat Democrat Gov. Steve Bullock.    

Blaine County Finance Chair Carla Buck later said that 65 tickets had been purchased and the dinner took in $4,800. Buck did not say how much of that money came from the live and silent auctions.

State Sen. Mike Lang, R-Malta, and former state Sen. Ken Miller, R-Laurel, spoke to the crowd.

The Blaine and Hill county Republican parties host the dinner jointly each year, which serves as the biggest fundraiser for both local party chapters.

Don Richman, chair of the Blaine County Republican Party, said this year marked the first time in many years that the dinner was held in Chinook rather than Havre.

"It's always been a very important night," Richman said. "It is our biggest fundraiser of the year and everything we raise goes to supporting conservative candidates in the next election," Richman said.

He added that, this year, the Lewis and Clark County Republican Party had scheduled their dinner for the same night as Blaine and Hill counties. As a result most of the party's marquee names were down in Helena.

"Well, God has a sense of humor," Richman said to the crowd. "They planned their Lincoln-Reagan dinner on top of ours and guess who didn't show up? Cheney or Zinke,"

Miller, a former state senator, state Republican Party chair and unsuccessful candidate to be his party's candidate for governor in 2012, was the only Republican congressional aspirant at the dinner.  

See related story in today's Havre Daily News.

When he spoke before the crowd, Lang invoked the term "drain the swamp," a term Trump used throughout last year's campaign to describe how he wanted to reform Washington.

"We don't have a lot of swamps in Montana, but maybe we need to drain the cattails or something like that and get rid of some of that garbage that is down there," Lang said.

The keynote speaker in Helena that night, Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., sent a letter that was read out loud by Richman.

In the letter, Daines said he had "Great news from Washington D.C.: Barack Obama is no longer president."

Daines lauded Trump for selecting Vice President Mike Pence as his running mate, nominating Neil Gorsuch to fill the seat vacated last year when U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia died and Trump's signing of an executive order to resume construction of the KeyStone XL Pipeline.

Daines said the construction of the pipeline that will stretch from Canada to Oklahoma and run through Montana will bring $80 million in additional revenue to eastern Montana counties.

The letter said Democrats were doing all they can to "throw sand in the gears" in the senate. Though Republicans hold a 52-46 majority, with two independents who caucus with the Democrats, they do not have the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster.

Daines also defended his move last week, when he silenced  Sen. Elizabeth Warren D-Mass, when the senate debated  the nomination of  then-Senator Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., to be the next U.S. attorney general.

Daines was presiding over the senate when Warren read from a 1986 letter from Coretta Scott King that criticized Session's record on civil rights when he was nominated for a federal court seat 30 years ago.

Daines ruled Warren violated senate rules and should "take her seat."

The letter written by Daines said Warren used "hyper-partisan rhetoric" to disparage Session, a violation of senate rules.

"I stood up to the liberal champion Elizabeth Warren and stopped her in her tracks from spewing the venomous attacks on our attorney general," the letter said.

Daines' letter did not explain why he later allowed other senators to read from the same Coretta Scott King letter.