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March 20, 2025
Just beyond the halfway mark of the 2025 Legislature, Senate Republicans are still dismayed about “the Nine,” a group of GOP senators who have broken with their caucus and partnered with Democrats to prevail on several key issues.
Emails leaked to Capitolized indicate that there is now a movement afoot to expel the nine Republicans from the Montana GOP for life and ban them from ever appearing on a ballot as Republicans again.
Sen. Bob Phalen, R-Glendive, broached the subject in an email to fellow legislators and others on March 13.
“I, Bob Phalen, propose that the MT GOP expel, for life, the Out of Line Nine from the Republican Party. They can join another party, or become independents, but they shall be barred for life from running as a Republican for any office in the State of Montana.”
Phalen asked Republicans in the chain email to forward the same demand to party Chairman Don Kaltschmidt.
To be clear, there exists no regulatory mechanism that could prevent Montanans from declaring affiliation with any party they choose, or no party at all, when running for office or voting. Likewise, political parties are free to oppose or endorse candidates regardless of political affiliation.
A recent example would be Green Party U.S. Senate candidates Robert Barb and Michael Downey, who accused each other of partisan fakery in 2024, while Green Party Chair Steve Kelly took the position of “si dicis te Esse, es,” which translates as “if you say you is, you is.”
Neither do Montana Republican Party bylaws empower the party to revoke affiliation for officeholders. Some other state parties do. Phalen referred to Arkansas and Texas as examples where Republican officeholders have been expelled.
Renewal of Medicaid expansion passed easily through the Senate on the votes of nine Republicans and all of the chamber’s 18 Democrats. Several bills intended to limit the autonomy of Montana’s courts have also fared poorly, despite being a priority of conservative lawmakers. At one point, the coalition of Republicans and Democrats began assigning bills to committees, a task normally performed by the Senate president.
Moderate on some issues, but not all, this group of Republicans has been labeled with progressively amplified disdain, from “the Nine” to “the Nasty Nine” to “the Out of Line Nine.” They frequently support bills preferred by Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte.
—Tom Lutey
Ravalli County Ruckus
Ravalli County voters twice elected Anthony Hudson to a precinct captain position on the Ravalli County Republican Central Committee, in 2022 and again in 2024.
The problem is, the more tenured members of the committee didn’t seat Hudson, which meant that on big issues, like nominating replacements for vacant seats in the Legislature, voters who elected Hudson weren’t represented on the committee.
It wasn’t that the Ravalli County Republican Central Committee voted against Hudson. Rather the party didn’t hold a county convention where new officers would have been designated.
Meanwhile, the central committee selected a replacement legislator for the seat vacated by Rep. Ron Marshall, who resigned from the Legislature shortly before the transmittal break. A vape shop owner, Marshall alleged political favoritism by fellow lawmakers toward major tobacco companies.
Hudson held his own community meeting to gather nominees for replacing Marshall, while the seated precinct captains held a separate meeting.
After receiving nominations from the central committee, Ravalli County Commissioners selected Terry Nelson to replace Marshall.
Hudson sued.
On Tuesday, District Judge Jennifer Lint ruled that voters who elected precinct captains in Ravalli County were being disenfranchised.
“There is a clear legal duty of the RCRCC to elect officers and representatives to the State convention. Without intervention, the duly elected precinct captains have no opportunity to fulfill their statutory duties to elect officers and select representatives to the State convention,” Lint said in her ruling on March 18. “Without intervention, the voters of Ravalli County are disenfranchised as their elected committeepersons are not free to act.”
Ravalli County Republican Central Committee Chairman Ron Stoltz acknowledged to Lint that the proceedings to recognize Hudson hadn’t occurred. Stoltz suggested that the state party chairman had to send the county committee notice that a convention was required, but that hadn’t happened.
Lint called the notification claim baseless and ordered the central committee to stop infringing on the constitutional rights of voters by nullifying their election of 2024 precinct captains.
—Tom Lutey
