Ed Butcher speaks at North Central Pachyderms

North Central Pachyderms hosted Friday a talk by former state Sen. Ed Butcher, R-Winifred, who runs the website legislatorloyalty.com, a website that tracks the party loyalty of Republicans in the state legislature.

The primary subject of Butcher's presentation was about the Solutions Caucus, a group of moderate Republicans in the legislature that tend to compromise with Democrats on policy more than their colleagues.

He not only criticized the group and others like them for working with the other side too much, but accused many of secretly being Democrats running as Republicans, dubbing them "fake Republicans."

He said his website tracks the votes of Republican legislators on partisan bills and gives them a rating based on how often they vote with the party, with those getting an A, B or C rating being classified as Republicans, and those getting a D or F rating as fake.

He said his website, which was down during the presentation, tracks all partisan bills in the legislature, unlike other organizations which provide ratings to politicians based only on the handful of bills they deem relevant to their interests.

Butcher made a number of personal attacks against specific members of the "fake Republican" group and celebrated recent primary defeats for moderate Republicans on the state and national level.

He said the influence of this "splinter group" of Republicans means that the Democratic Party, which he claimed is being taken over by socialists and communists, still controls the Legislature.

Indeed, he criticized the influence of the Democratic Party in Montana generally, saying the state's budget and taxes had risen considerably under them.

Butcher also criticized the portrayal of Democrats as people who want to work with the opposition, saying data from his website shows that even conservative Republicans in the 2019 Legislative Session voted with Democrats more often than vice-versa.

"So much for the kumbaya nonsense that is proposed by the media," he said.

He claimed that Democrats have unlimited funds for campaigning and vote in lockstep.

Butcher said not all Democrat-supported bills are bad and Republicans do need to work with them on basic policy, and some Republicans vote for these bills because they genuinely benefit their constituents, which is why having a C rating is not the end of the world.

He also talked about his support for term limits, which he says limits special interest, and lobbying groups from developing inappropriately close relationships with legislators, thus lessening their influence.

Butcher also talked about how bills make their way through committees and encouraged people to show up to meetings about bills they care about.

When the subject of legislators from Montana's Indian reservations came up he remarked that their representatives always vote for welfare, and said while there were two he respected very much, most legislators from reservations are unintelligent.

"I won't mention the other names that are room-temperature IQs," he said. "The reservation doesn't necessarily always send their best and brightest."