November 01, 2006
People Power Will Beat Money Power
We've learned that our Republican friends and cousins have made a huge television buy for this weekend here in Bozeman. This is no doubt part of their national 72 hour campaign, and will likely be accompanied by lots of print advertising and direct mail.
Memo to Karl Rove: warm bodies trump cold cash. People power beats money power. That's our advantage. We have put together the largest Get Out The Vote effort we've ever seen, by far.
If you'd like to help, give our folks a call down at Democratic HQ: 587-0411. Because after 25 years of leading us into increasingly divisive and one-sided government, it's time for some politics for the rest of us.
Posted by Brady Wiseman at 08:13 AM | Comments (0)
October 17, 2006
Sending the Money Back
With three weeks to go to election day, we're reaching the freakout stage of the campaign. That's when it becomes apparent that there is not going to be enough money or time to do what needs to be done: knock on enough doors, send enough direct mail pieces, buy enough radio or tv time, or make enough phone calls.
The deadline is fixed and immutable. There will be no do-overs, no mulligans, no overtime, no incomplete grades, no grace period. November 7th is it. Last call, end of the line, game over, no second chances.
People who take up this crazy hobby get very stressed out in October. We tend to not sleep well.
So this evening I'm going through another one of the weekly 10 inch tall stacks of mail that come with this territory, and I come across a letter from a trade association for accountants. In it is a check for $130, the maximum allowable, made out to my campaign. For reasons not fully explained, they want me to have their money.
I do with this check exactly the same thing I've done with the checks from political action committees representing the power company, the unions, the environmental associations, the banking organization, and the national-class politician. I write a polite letter thanking them for their support, and I send it back.
This is my third campaign, and I've managed to do this every time. When I spent my nutty 88 days being a citizen legislator last year, it worked completely to my advantage. The lobbyists know. They can't be my new best friend. I won't let them buy me anything bigger than a cup of coffee.
I do support many of their causes. I'm high up on the voting scorecards of the unions and the environmental outfits, for example. But it works better if I steer clear of their campaign money.
As a result, I get a certain amount of respect. Everything is on the table, and my arm isn't getting twisted by the invisible hands of self-interest and hidden motives. So I can make decisions for all the right reasons.
But tonight, when I'm in campaign freakout mode and want to buy more advertising or more mail to send my message to my voters and seal the deal, I have to draw the line and give something up. It sure would be nice to spend their money, and not very many people would notice if I did. But the job I'm asking for is to represent 9,000 citizens, not the special interests.
If the voters choose to send me back to Helena, I'll be able walk the halls of the capitol without having to fend off all of my new best friends. And I'll be able to sleep at night. That's good enough.
Posted by Brady Wiseman at 10:49 PM | Comments (0)
Racicot Pimping for Burns
As if this election hasn't gotten deep enough. The other evening Marc Racicot came into my living room to tell me what a great an honorable man Conrad Burns is.
That's the same Marc Racicot who as governor of Montana signed off on the single worst pubic policy put forth in our state since the days of the copper collar. That would be deregulation, of course.
That's the same Marc Racicot who lawyered up for George Bush to steal the 2000 election, and the same Marc Racicot who was chairman of the Republican National Committee when Tom Delay was using the RNC to launder illegal corporate money into Texas legislative campaigns.
That's the same Marc Racicot who, after saddling half a million Montanans with higher power bills forever, went off to Washington to collect his reward as a lobbyist for Enron. That would be the famous nest of liars, thieves, con artists, and embezzlers who ripped off the entire West in 2000 and 2001 before imploding in a spectacular bankruptcy that left everybody sucking air except the chosen few.
That's the same Marc Racicot who, during his years as Attorney General and Governor, managed to not notice that hundreds of his friends and neighbors back in his home town of Libby were dropping dead of a mysterious lung disease. Well, maybe we can give him a pass on that one, because not a single newspaper in Montnan noticed either, until a Seattle paper scooped them all to break the story.
But that is the same Marc Racicot, now head of the American Insurance Association, who is dedicating his days to screwing the people of... wait for it... Libby!
The W.R. Grace asbestosis scandal is the largest industrial poisoning episode in American history. That's quite a competition to win when you're up against Love Canal and Three Mile Island. Racicot is lobbying against legislation that would deliver financial support to the same folks he grew up with, people who are dying a long and miserable death akin to slow-motion drowning.
And now Marc Racicot is appearing on our televisions, laying out more of his famous blarney, to convince us that Conrad Burns is just the guy to represent our interests in Washington.
After all Marc has done for us here in Montana, I intend to take that advice for exactly what it's worth. We'll have to judge Marc by the company he's keeping these days. And keep one hand on our wallets.
Posted by Brady Wiseman at 08:10 AM | Comments (0)
October 08, 2006
The Anger is Serious
So I'm out there knocking on doors six nights a week now, talking to voters about what Democrats accomplished in the 2005 Montana Legislature, and about what we'd like to do this winter should the voters grant us comtrol of the Legislature for the first time in 16 years.
I can tell you this: the people are pissed off.
Really. Pissed. Off.
I'm talking git-a-rope angry.
On top of the lies, the war, the corruption, the bribery, the looting of the treasury, and the incompetence, we now have the Republican leadership in Congress covering for a sex predator, for the purpose of keeping themselves in power. Family values, indeed. And the citizens are talking about it.
Just this evening I heard two rants on the war and one on the Foley scandal. My job is to stand there and listen, nodding my head from time to time. I think of this as Brady's door-to-door political counseling service.
People detest being lied to. And now they've been served a big, heaping, steaming platter of hypocrisy. In four weeks we'll know if they're going to answer with their votes.
Posted by Brady Wiseman at 08:02 PM | Comments (0)