Brand MT seeks to realign legislative priorities

Hill County Democrats hosted a speaking and listening event Sunday with members of the non-profit, non-partisan political group Brand MT who seek to realign the state Legislature toward priorities that they say matter to Montanans.

Hill County Democratic Central Committee Chair Lindsey Ratliff, also a member of Brand MT's board, introduced the group, saying they were founded after the 2022 midterms with the goal of working with Democrats and moderate Republicans to force the Legislature to take the concerns of everyday Montanans seriously.

She said there's a lot of concerning legislation being pushed through by the Montana Republican Party's new supermajority and they want to do something about it.

Brand MT President Jami Woodman said the group will not support Republicans who align themselves with the agenda of former President Donald Trump, but they are eager to work with moderates with common sense legislative priorities.

While representatives of Brand MT said their primary concern was combatting what they view as an increasingly extreme and impractical right-wing majority in the Legislature, representatives of the group spent most of the time they spent speaking criticizing Democratic leadership in Helena.

Woodman, a Missoula Real Estate Agent originally from Malta, said the state party makes no effort to support fellow Democrats in the more rural conservative parts of the state, viewing many of these areas as guaranteed losses that are not worth investing time and money into with regards to finding or supporting opposition candidates.

Woodman and her fellow Brand MT colleagues said they regard this attitude as a huge mistake, with her fellow board member Jesse Mullen, CEO of the Mullen Newspaper Company, saying that when Democrats run in areas, even areas where they are almost sure to lose, they force Republicans to run more reasonable candidates who care about issues that actually matter.

Mullen said he was never a Democrat or Republican but identified as a progressive, and when he ran for office in a very conservative district his Republican opponent went on to support needed raises for employees and deal fairly with unions, and those are the candidates that tend to get run when there is at least some kind of opposition.

However, he said, he feels the party's Democratic Party leadership has abandoned rural Montana, and while he has no quarrel with the cities, they are not the majority of the state.

Another board member, Sue Orr, said she felt the same way and that Democrats need to get serious about running candidates in these districts and not letting Republicans go unopposed so often.

Orr said she is from Missoula, but in traveling around the state supporting political candidates she's seen that there are significant differences between the lives of people in the east and west of the state, even though the majority of both are rural, recounting a story of a friend who's husband had to be driven for hours to get much needed surgery.

She said Republicans are largely not interested in supporting health care, or public schools or any of the things that really matter to most Montanans and Democrats need to start running and winning to fix things in the state.

Woodman said Democrats are at a disadvantage when it comes to funding, and while campaigning is something she wishes neither party had to worry about funding for, she's hoping to organize to give good candidates a boost.

"I don't particularly like money in politics, but if we don't win, we can't change that," she said.

Woodman also expressed extreme frustration with Democratic leadership and their focus on social issues, which she said need to take a back seat to issues that affect all Montanans.

"You can't focus on social issues until you make damn sure everyone can pay their electric bill," she said.

She said social issues are important and shouldn't be forgotten, but Democrats have to "meet the Republicans where they are and give candidates a leg up."

She described legislative Democrats as "chasing shiny objects" when it came social issues, specifically criticizing Missoula Rep. Zooey Zephyr, Montana's first openly transgender state legislator, for turning discussion of Montana House Bill 359, which would ban minors from attending drag shows regardless of content, into a social issue.

Woodman said Democrats should have just said the legislature shouldn't be telling parents what to do and leave it at that, but Zephyr and House Majority Leader Sue Vinton R-Billings, who supported the bill, turned it into a social issue, which Woodman claimed drove away the press.

Another complaint she had about the party was them not doing enough to support efforts to knock on doors in areas like Anaconda-Deer Lodge, where she said the party gave her no support at all when reaching out to voters.

Attendees were told that they shouldn't expect support from the state party for their efforts either.

She said she reached out to everybody, regardless of party or who they voted for, and that's what Democrats need to do.

Some in the room expressed skepticism at how much good that will do, but others were more receptive and some in the room echoed her frustration with aspects of the Montana Democratic Party's leadership.

Some agreed that the party doesn't care enough about the concerns of rural people and others expressed their own frustrations with the national party not doing enough to establish a unified message to tout the good things they have accomplished.

However, seemingly the biggest concern among attendees was the increasing influence of increasingly far-right Republican's like Montana Rep. Matt Rosendale gaining influence on a state and national level, who they said don't seem to care about the things Montanans need or even about being effective at their jobs.

On the state level, attendees said they are seeing moderate, sensible Republicans being attacked and successfully beaten in primaries, which they said is also concerning.

Others expressed anger at the state's Public Service Commission, with Brand MT representatives saying candidates for that organization shouldn't be partisan at all.

They said the same about the Montana Supreme Court, encouraging Democrats to fight harder against candidates why are openly supported by Republicans.

One attendee suggested that Brand MT and similar non-partisan organizations host debates that won't scare one side or the other away, praising Montana Farmers Union for hosting their own debate in Havre during the last cycle.

Toward the end of the meeting the Brand MT representatives encouraged people to get involved in their local politics, whether that is city, county or school board.

They also said people should call their legislators and make sure they know when they have an issue with a bill.

At the end, Ratliff said Hill County Democrats are interested in hearing from people interested in becoming candidates for upcoming elections, including the race for Mark Peterson's seat on the Hill County Commission, as he no longer lives in his district and likely won't be able to run again.

Montana Association of Counties legal staff has said that because Peterson did not choose to leave his district - he moved to Havre after his residence on his farm, 28 miles northwest of Havre, was a total loss in a fire in 2020 - under state requirements he could serve out his remaining term but could not run again in that district.