State Legislature Races 2020
Revision for 2020 Coming Soon...
CONSTITUTIONAL CONSERVATIVE VOTER GUIDE for June 7 primaries
Fed up yet?
It’s time to enforce the Constitution and take our government back from an out of control federal government.
These are the best State Legislature primary candidates who will fight to protect Montana citizens from Washington DC bureaucrats and politicians, as well as keep taxes, regulation and govt small in Montana.
We have studied the voting records, endorsements, scorecards and positions on the important issues to find the candidates who will be the brave warriors on the front line of the most important battle of our lifetime. Will we live free and prosperous? Or will we live under increasing control, tyranny, and poverty from a centralized consolidated power monopoly in Washington DC?
If you are fed up, please share this list to every voter, every friend and neighbor and relative in every district of Montana that you know. By email, by facebook, word of mouth, any way you can. People are sending in absentee ballots now every day, so time is of the essence.
Somebody should do something. You are somebody.
KALISPELL, WHITEFISH
SD 03 Keith Regier, Kalispell
HD 11 Derek Skees, Kalispell
THOMPSON FALLS
SD 07 Jennifer Fielder, Thompson Falls
HD 14 Charles Woolley, Plains
CONRAD
HD 18 Ann Morren, Conrad
GREAT FALLS
SD 10 J.C.Kantorowicz, Great Falls
HD 19 Randy Pinocci, Sun River
HD 20 Sheridan Buck, Great Falls
HD 22 Lola Sheldon-Galloway, Great Falls
LEWISTOWN
SD 15 Ryan Osmundson, Buffalo
NORTHEAST MONTANA, GLASGOW, HAVRE
SD 17 Mike L Lang, MaltA
EASTERN MONTANA, MILES CITY
SD 18 Steve Hinebauch, Wibaux
HD 35 Scott Staffanson, Sidney
HD 36 Alan Doane, Bloomfield
HD 37 Bill Harris, Winnet
BILLINGS
SD 28 Mark Morse, Huntley
HD 40 Barry Usher, Billings
HD 44 Dale Mortensen, Billings
HD 45 Daniel Zolnikov, Billings
DILLON
SD 36 Dale Stewart, Dillon
HD 71 Robert Wagner, Harrison
HD 72 Brooke Erb, Dillon
BOZEMAN
HD 67 Tom Burnett, Bozeman
HD 68 Art Wittich, Bozeman
HD 69 Phil Olson, Belgrade
HELENA
HD 80 Becky Beard, Elliston
HD 84 Kit Johnson, East Helena
RAVALLI COUNTY
HD 85 Theresa Manzella, Hamilton
The Charts below explain endorsements, voting records, scorecard scores, survey results, etc.
Republican Primary Endorsements and Picks
Endorsers:
Representative Nancy Ballance, HD 87
Senator Jennifer Fielder, SD 07
Senator Kristen Hansen, SD 14
Representative Mike Miller, HD 80
Representative Brad Tschida, HD 97
Representative Nick Schwaderer, HD 14
Ken Miller, Former Senator and Gubernatorial Candidate
Johanna Clark, Republican Nominee (no primary) for HD 93
All Republican Primary Candidates
All 2016 Incumbents and Candidates
Updated 6/4/16
You do have to Save the Excel file to your computer to see it, but if you are concerned with security, you of course already have a program that automatically scans your downloads for security risks, right?. :)
Color Coding:
Green is Good, the darker the better
Pink is Democrat
Yellow is RINO or Caution
How Candidates Are Evaluated
If an incumbent has a decent voting record—usually Constitutionally correct and following the core Republican principles of smallest possible and most decentralized taxation and regulation—the candidate should be chosen over one with no voting record.
If an incumbent has a horrible, RINO voting record, the unknown candidate or any inanimate object is preferred for that seat.
If there are no candidates with voting records, evaluation hinges on recommendations from respected true constitutional conservatives and on answers the candidates give to direct questions about positions on issues.
Information provided in charts: (Key to top row headings.)
Endorsers:
Representative Nancy Ballance, HD 87
Senator Jennifer Fielder, SD 07
Senator Kristen Hansen, SD 14
Representative Mike Miller, HD 80
Representative Brad Tschida, HD 97
Representative Nick Schwaderer, HD 14
Ken Miller, Former Senator and Gubernatorial Candidate
Johanna Clark, Republican Nominee (no primary) for HD 93
TAB: 2013 Taxpayer’s Advisory Bulletin
2013 LEGISLATIVE SESSION FINAL REPORT
The Gold Standard. 2015 not done, but this one still very useful and the analysis preceding it is brilliant!
Scores From Voter Guides:
2015-Montana Education Association and the Montana Federation of Teachers--essentially the "teachers' union"--I give the INVERSE of the score they give legislators, so that the higher the score the better.
2015-United Property Owners of Montana--score is measure of property rights positions, the higher the better
2013 Montana Environmental Information Center (generally liberal bias) Use Inverse of their score.
Montana Shooting Sports Association
Measures Party Loyalty--does one vote with the Republicans or with the Democrats most of the time? 100% party loyalty is not necessarily a good thing--but when one usually votes with the Democrats against most Republicans...definitely a bad thing.
Bills Used for Voting Records:
Resisting federal tyranny:
NAY on SB 405:me Expands health care coverage "Medicaid Expansion"
YEA on HB 377:cc Rejects Common Core
YEA on HB 203:ff Prohibits enforcement of federal firearm laws
Nanny-state bills:
YEA on HB 245:rm Authorized the sale of raw milk
NAY on HB 284:bu Prohibits bullying in public schools--if you read the bill, it has serious 1st amendment issues and can be easily used by the PC tyrants. Also reflects political courage, because it sounds like a no-brainer (who wants bullying in schools?) but thoughtful and brave legislators saw the reality and voted their conscience over popularity. That's why it's such a good vote to look at.
Privacy:
YEA on HB 501:pr Student privacy and data collection
Other:
NAY on HB 377:wc Water compact
NAY on SB 289 dm Disclose Act
Campaign for Liberty Survey Questions:
1. Will you oppose efforts to cooperate with a national ID card system and vote to block all state funding for and cooperation with any national ID scheme including the Real ID and Pass ID programs?
2. Do you oppose the use of unmanned law enforcement devices being used to penalize citizens?
3. Will you support a “Constitutional Carry” bill that would allow any law-abiding citizen to carry a firearm concealed without a permit?
4. Will you support legislation to nullify ObamaCare and authorize state and local law enforcement to arrest federal officials attempting to implement the health care scheme, known as ObamaCare?
5. Will you support legislation to end the use of “no knock” warrants?
6. Will you oppose all tax and fee increases?
7. Will you support repeal of your state’s participation in Common Core?
We didn't use #2 because, although I think they are talking about drones, one can imagine unmanned law enforcement devices that could be more objective, less arbitrary, than people.
We didn't use #6 because one can imagine some transfer of general taxes to user-pays fees that would actually be a good thing.
All the rest are obviously appropriate to ask, and should obviously be answered YES.
Resources Used
Montana Legislator Scorecards from RepublicanUprising.com
Americans For Prosperity Legislative Scorecard 2015
Provides monitoring of every bill in the 50 states and Congress
Only gives info on Key Votes
Measures Party Loyalty--does one vote with the Republicans or with the Democrats most of the time?