Get an insider’s look into what’s happening in and around the halls of power with expert reporting, analysis and insight from the editors and reporters of Montana Free Press. Sign up to get the free Capitolized newsletter delivered to your inbox every Thursday.
March 21, 2024
Several Montana Democratic candidates this week issued statements calling for an “immediate, permanent, bilateral” ceasefire of the war in Gaza, including three candidates for Montana’s eastern U.S. House district and the party’s treasurer.
“There are moments in history that call us to set aside political differences and do what’s right,” begins one statement, co-signed by eastern district congressional candidates Ming Cabrera, John Driscoll and Kevin Hamm.
It continues: “If we fail to condemn the killing of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians and the displacement of two million others, we can no longer claim to be defenders of morality. We believe that failing to use our political platforms to counter dangerous, dehumanizing narratives that endanger both Jewish and Palestinian communities around the world is not only morally reprehensible, but a policy failure that will perpetuate lasting harm to both communities well beyond this election cycle.”
A second letter, authored by Lance FourStar, a member of the Red Bottom Clan of the Assiniboine Nation, House District 31 legislative candidate and treasurer of the Montana Democratic Party, makes a similar case, but also explicitly connects the U.S. government’s “deliberate actions to prevent Indigenous tribes from exercising their right to self-determination, dissent and cultural healing” with “the oppression faced by Palestinians.”
Both letters, which were published and distributed by a left-wing group called the Montana Jewish Labor Bund earlier this week, call on Hamas to release remaining Israeli hostages, for Israel to free prisoners held without trial, and for an end to Israel’s siege of Gaza and violence against the civilian population.
“We reject the false choice between Israeli safety and Palestinian freedom,” the letter from the congressional candidates reads.
Neither the Montana Democratic Party nor the Montana Republican Party has made a public statement about a possible ceasefire.
This week, the U.S. drafted a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for “an immediate ceasefire” in Gaza tied to the release of hostages held by Hamas. The U.S. previously vetoed three other ceasefire resolutions. Also this week, a report from the World Bank warned that half of Gaza’s population of roughly 2.3 million is at imminent risk of famine.
“Everybody I know feels the same way, and even if they didn’t, I’d be in favor of a ceasefire. It’s horrific to see those kids being killed,” John Driscoll, a former Democratic state legislator and Public Service Commission member who was a late entry into the House race, told Capitolized Thursday. Driscoll added that he regards Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “fascist.”
Steve Held, another Democrat running in the eastern district primary, did not sign the letter.
Held said in a statement Thursday that “this is not the time for self-serving political hopefuls to fuel the fires of war against us, but to stand with the United States and demand an end to this violence and all other conflicts by working together.”
FourStar told Capitolized that he issued his statement as a candidate and tribal member, not as an officer of the Democratic Party.
“What we’re doing is listening to what matters to Native voters and youth in particular,” he said. “At the end of the day this issue matters to them and should matter to their representatives as well.”
He criticized the “economic irresponsibility of spending billions of dollars supporting a foreign military … while we debate whether we can afford to fund health care in our own government.”
He drew a connection between Israeli troops opening fire on Palestinians attempting to get food from an aid convoy and the starvation experienced by his ancestors as they were forced onto reservations.
“I need to remind the public that we’ve seen this before and we need to learn from the past,” he said.
But he went out of his way to signal respect for Montana’s Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, who has faced protests by some activists due to his lack of public support for a ceasefire and his position as chair of the influential Senate Defense Appropriations subcommittee. He said Tester has been publicly asked about a ceasefire before and “he gave a very level-headed response.”
“The truth is, it’s a horrible situation,” Tester told an audience member at a Butte town hall last fall. “There are no good answers here. And it’s not a good sight, what’s going on in Gaza right now. It wasn’t a good sight on October 7.”
FourStar said he thinks Tester can be moved on the issue.
“I don’t think the youth would ask me to make a statement unless they thought Sen. Tester could be potentially redirected on some areas of his decisions,” he said.
This story was updated March 22, 2024, to correct a previous reference to the Montana Jewish Labor Bund’s role in the letters.
—Arren Kimbel-Sannit
Gianforte Surpasses Busse in Campaign Fundraising
First-quarter 2024 campaign finance filings from Gov. Greg Gianforte show a nearly $853,000 haul in primary election donations and another $395,600 earmarked for the general election — notably, without direct donations from the multimillionaire incumbent’s own pocket.
The report, spanning Jan. 1 to March 15, is the first of Gianforte’s reelection campaign. It tops the roughly $417,500 raised by challenger Ryan Busse, the Democratic Party’s frontrunner, in the same time period, and also exceeds the approximately $897,000 raised by Busse since the September inception of his campaign.
Gianforte’s personal resources did help boost his fundraising lead. The campaign recorded a $35,786 “in-kind” donation for travel on Gianforte’s private plane between Feb. 6 and March 14 from Montana to Norfolk, Virginia; Washington D.C. to Bozeman; and flights between Helena, Kalispell, Bozeman, Missoula and Hamilton.
Still, Gianforte’s campaign emphasized the role that donor support from Montanans played in his opening filing period.
“Ninety-two percent of contributions to the governor’s reelection came from Montanans, with Montanans from each of the state’s 56 counties donating,” a campaign press release said. “The campaign’s fundraising haul of more than $1.1 million is fueled fully by donors, with the governor not contributing or loaning funds to his reelection.”
Campaign manager Jake Eaton clarified Thursday that the press release’s reference to Gianforte not contributing or loaning personal funds to his campaign applies to the filing period, and does not constitute a pledge to keep the governor’s wealth out of the campaign in the months ahead.
Despite raising less than half of Gianforte’s haul in the first quarter of the year, the Busse campaign framed its contributions as record-breaking compared to non-incumbent candidates in past election cycles.
Busse’s campaign, the Democrat’s press release said, “accepted contributions from 3,021 grassroots donors, from every corner of Montana, for an average contribution of $95.98 per donor. The 2024 haul breaks a record for grassroots contributions among any non-incumbent challenger running for Montana governor during the same period in previous election years.”
Filing periods now transition to monthly, rather than quarterly. The next reporting deadline is April 20.
—Mara Silvers
Verbatim
“I want to be very clear: we are not trying to tell anybody to disobey a court order.”
—Senate Majority Leader Steve Fitzpatrick, R-Great Falls, speaking during a press conference earlier this week at which Senate Republicans criticized a Montana judge for compelling Gov. Greg Gianforte to allow lawmakers to override his veto of a marijuana tax revenue allocation measure, Senate Bill 442. Still, Fitzpatrick acknowledged that the Legislature is not an official party in the litigation surrounding the veto, and that Senate Republicans were simply “expressing our point of view.” Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen sent a veto override poll to lawmakers earlier this week. But whether the Legislature — which supported the bill nearly unanimously — still has the political will to overturn Gianforte’s veto after several months out of session remains to be seen, especially since Republican legislative leaders have said they will not participate in the poll because of their concerns with its procedural propriety. The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Mike Lang, R-Malta, said in an op-ed this week that he hopes his colleagues “will still stand with me and cast their vote to overturn the Governor’s veto and support this excellent bill,” which divvies up tax revenues from Montana’s marijuana program between conservation programs, veterans’ services and local infrastructure projects.
—Arren Kimbel-Sannit
Candidates Fail to File
Several candidates for political office in Montana failed to file required campaign finance paperwork with the office of the state Commissioner of Political Practices and so, under statute, will not be on this year’s ballot.
They include two Republican candidates for state auditor — Keith Brownfield and Rep. Steve Gunderson, R-Libby — and a smattering of non-incumbent legislative candidates: Kenneth Allen of House District 86, Annie Leatherbarrow of HD 24, Joshua Rosales of HD 21, Lui Salina of HD 25, Colleen Schmeling of HD 51 and Christian Daniel Takesenemy of SD 1.
Montana law says a candidate “may not appear on the official ballot for an election if the candidate or a treasurer for a candidate fails to file any statement or report” required by statute in a timely manner, regardless of whether they filed to run with the Montana secretary of state.
This year, candidates needed to file a statement of candidacy and a business disclosure with the COPP by March 19 at 5 p.m, according to a commission staffer.
On Wednesday, Commissioner of Political Practices Chris Gallus wrote a letter to election staff at the secretary of state’s office notifying them of the candidates who did not comply with the law and as such may not appear on the ballot. The secretary of state’s online list of 2024 candidates now shows Brownfield, Gunderson and the others as “removed.”
—Arren Kimbel-Sannit
On Background
Secretary of State issues veto override poll on long-in-limbo marijuana revenue measure: Lawmakers will have the opportunity to overturn Gov. Greg Gianforte’s veto of the marijuana tax revenue allocation bill, Senate Bill 442, after an almost yearlong legal fight, as Montana Free Press reported this week.
US calls for immediate Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal in draft UN resolution: The U.S.’s resolution comes as Israel pledges to carry out an offensive in Rafah despite objections from American officials, as the Guardian reports.