On second thought: Eastern Montana voters can make House races fun again

U.S. House races are boring. It's a Democratic district or it's a Republican district, that's all you need to know. That was definitely the look of Montana's new eastern congressional district at the beginning of the year where recent voting history heavily favored the Republican incumbent. That's until independent Gary Buchanan got into the race with backers from left, right and center.

If approval across the political spectrum were the key to electoral success, the independent would have already upset this apple cart. Buchanan started out with endorsements from former Republican Gov. and Republican National Committee Chair Marc Racicot and from Democrat Dorothy Bradley, a longtime state legislator and once Racicot's rival for the governor's job. He has since picked up endorsements from other long-time state Republican notables who find the incumbent, Matt Rosendale, too extreme. Surprisingly, union endorsements, traditionally a Democratic prize, have been going to Buchanan too. He has been endorsed by the state's largest union, the Montana Federation of Public Employees and, more recently, by the Montana AFL-CIO.

Of course, Montana hasn't yet adopted a reform like approval voting or ranked choice voting, so the election will only get interesting if enough Republicans and Democrats think twice, and if enough of the largest voting block — independents — actually vote that way now they have the chance.

For many longtime Republicans, the choice will be between sticking with the R label, even when the R in question pushes unfounded rumors about election fraud and seems too preoccupied with the nation's southern border to pay attention to Montana, and listening to members of the old guard, like Racicot and former Secretary of State and Senate President Bob Brown, who endorse the independent.

In the last House election, the Democratic candidate carried only two of the 40 counties (one by five votes) that now comprise the eastern district. Democrats have a choice between backing one of their own with very little chance of winning and an independent who has support from areas of the political field no Democrat can touch. Buchanan isn't a Democrat. On the other hand, the distance between this independent and traditional Democratic positions — he supports a women's reproductive right to choose, union organizing rights, and continuing public ownership of public land — is a lot less than the chasm between Democrats and Rosendale.

Independent voters themselves are the real puzzle. Many self identified independents have a habit of voting Republican or Democrat, election after election because, “Either a Republican or a Democrat always wins and the other guys are even worse.” What could prompt independents to overcome their lesser of two evils addiction this time?

If independents do decide to vote for this independent, it won't be due to overwhelming enthusiasm for Buchanan's specific policy positions. On policy, Independents and everywhere from the Libertarian encampment to the Green fields. What might be unifying is increasing discontent with both of the major parties. Illustrating that discontent, two out of three voters indicated on a recent Pew poll that they did not trust either party to govern the country.

Discontent may be building to disgust. While results are not in, a recent independent voting survey includes “The parties are corrupt” and “The parties have hijacked our government” among possible responses to its, “Why are you an independent?” question, Plenty of prominent members of both parties seem determined to nurture citizen disgust. Voters were outraged when the story broke early this year that a lot of Congress people, from both parties, have been making a killing on the stock market Congress is supposed to regulate. Congress is now on vacation, without ever managing to even debate legislation to check the greed of its own members.

One piece of Buchanan campaign paraphernalia is a sticker picturing the familiar elephant and donkey below a “Do Not Feed the Animals” warning. It will be interesting to see how many eastern Montana voters heed the warning.

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Will Rawn of Havre is a retired Montana State University-Northern professor.