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July 25, 2024
The early word on Democratic support for Vice President Kamala Harris’ meteoric rise to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sunday was that all state party committees quickly conferenced to support her.
Not all of them. Montana wasn’t on the call.
“The Montana Democratic Party’s chair, Robyn Driscoll, was not on the call at the time state party chairs voted to endorse Kamala Harris,” state party spokesperson Gaby Krevat told Capitolized. “The Montana Democratic Party is waiting to take any action until receiving more guidance from the DNC about the convention process.”
Later that same day, some Montana delegates expressed interest in a show of hands to gauge where the group stood on nominees, though it was eventually decided they should hold back.
National news broke that states that did informally vote all but confirmed enough support to assure victory for Harris when delegates vote online sometime before the Democratic National Convention commences on Aug. 19 in Chicago.
Sen. Jon Tester, who in mid-July was only the second Democrat in the U.S. Senate to call on President Joe Biden to drop out of the race, was by July 23 one of only two members of his caucus not to have endorsed Harris. The other senator who has not yet endorsed is New Jersey’s Bob Menendez, who announced his resignation earlier this week.
“Sen. Tester has been clear from the start that an open nominating process should play out, and voters can make their own decision about who they want to vote for to be the next president,” Krevat said.
A short video posted to X showed Tester walking away from reporters pressing him about endorsing Harris as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, of New York, offers to “block” for Tester.
For the record, Tester has never endorsed a presumptive Democratic nominee during his 18 years in the Senate and has never attended the Democratic National Convention in the same year he was up for reelection. He’s not alone in that distinction. In 2016, the spokesperson for then-Gov. Steve Bullock wouldn’t identify Hillary Clinton by name when asked if Bullock, a Democrat up for reelection, would endorse the party nominee.
No Democratic candidate for president has won Montana since Bill Clinton in 1992. Tester will need tens of thousands more Montana votes than Harris if he’s to fight off Republican challenger Tim Sheehy for a fourth term.
Republicans in the last few days have tried to pressure Tester into calling for Biden to resign from office, while also suggesting that Tester recruited Harris to run for Senate in 2015 when she was California attorney general and Tester chaired the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
—Tom Lutey
TURNING THE FEDERAL SPIGOT
The U.S. House went into recess for 46 days on Thursday, earlier than planned, but not before getting through the first hearing for the Fort Belknap Water Compact Settlement, a $1.2 billion bill reconciling U.S. treaty obligations to the Assiniboine and Gros Ventre tribes of the Fort Peck Reservation.
Tucked away in the bill, which settles tribal drinking water and irrigation rights, is a $300 million allocation for repair of the Milk River Irrigation Project and the St. Mary Siphon, which keeps 18,000 Hi-Line residents, including the reservation, from going dry.
The bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke of western Montana, said the hearing raised concerns about firming up the federal government’s obligation to both manage and pay for the project. That question follows the June failure of the 109-year-old siphon. Locals tell Capitolized they couldn’t walk the siphon’s 8-foot diameter steel plumbing more than 40 feet without encountering a patch. One segment shot water so forcefully it was dubbed the “Babb car wash.”
“We want to make sure that the next generation doesn’t get saddled with the same problems that we’re facing today. Who maintains it?” Zinke said. “And where are the maintenance dollars coming from? And who’s responsible?”
The House version of the bill is different from the Senate bill carried by Montana Democrat Jon Tester, which remains a point of friction. There’s money in the House version for wastewater treatment for the Blackfeet Tribe. Tester has asked House leaders Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat, and Republican Speaker Mike Johnson to stick with the Senate version so there’s nothing to reconcile. But Tester’s bill, which passed the Senate a month ago, hasn’t been taken up by the House.
—Tom Lutey
ON BACKGROUND
- Why it takes a crisis to trigger funding for Montana’s largest irrigation project.
- Tester calls on Biden to end campaign.
- Federal government, Fort Belknap Indian Community ink agreement to conserve grassland.