Editors Note: Daily News apologizes for missing Reagan-Lincoln Day Dinner

Editor’s note: This version corrects the birthday of President Ronald Reagan and the home town of auditor candidate Troy Downing.

I have to apologize to voters and to the Hill County Republican Central Committee, Republican candidates and Republicans around the state.

Monday was Presidents’ Day, set to coincide with the birthday of Republican President Abraham Lincoln Feb. 12 and the birthday of the nation’s first president, George Washington, Feb. 22.

It also sets the time for the local fundraising event the Reagan-Lincoln Day Dinner, with the birthday of the nation’s 40th president, Republican Ronald Reagan, also falling this month, Feb. 6.

And, for the first time I remember since I started with the Daily News, it was missed by the paper.

I personally apologize for missing this. We always use the event for a platform to highlight Republican candidates running for election, writing stories about the candidates making presentations during the dinner.

And the dinner, as always, saw top-level candidates, with the list a who is who of state Republican candidates.

It included U.S. House of Representatives candidates state Auditor Matt Rosendale, Montana Secretary of State Corey Stapleton, Lewis and Clark County Republican Central Committee Chair Joe Dooling and former Montana Republican Party Chair and state Rep. Debra Lamm, R-Livingston.

Also speaking were gubernatorial candidates U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont., Montana Attorney General Tim Fox and state Sen. Al Olszewski, R-Kalispell.

The secretary of state candidates, Clerk of the Montana Supreme Court Bowen Greenwood, Senate President Scott Sales, R-Bozeman, and Rep. Forrest Mandeville, R-Columbus, also spoke, as did auditor candidates Big Sky businessman Troy Downing and Victory Insurance communications manager Nelly Nicol of Billings and Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen.

Attorney general candidates Austin Knudsen, Roosevelt County attorney and former speaker of the Montana House of Representatives, and Chief Deputy Montana Attorney General John Bennion wrapped up the list of state candidates speaking at the dinner.

And legislative and local candidates also spoke, including Rep. Josh Kassmier, R-Fort Benton, and Rep. Casey Knudsen, R-Malta, and his primary opponent, Joyce Stone of Glasgow, and Havre’s Ed Hill, as well as Hill County Commission candidate Mark Wicks of Inverness.

The dinner was a gold mine for local political coverage.

I have no excuse for missing the dinner. It has been slightly disorganized in the Havre Daily office in the past few months, dealing with turnover, new employees and illness and vacations, and I personally have been distracted lately, wrapping up the speech and debate season that ended last weekend.

We usually receive some notice, a reminder or preview, of the event and I did not see any notices or reminders this year, but after 20 years of covering the dinner, I should have remembered without being reminded.

Again, I apologize for missing the coverage and encourage candidates of all parties to let us know when they will be in the area so we can cover their events and schedule interviews with them to cover their campaigns.

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