Welcome to another edition of Crashing the States--featuring Montana Senate Candidate Jon Tester! This diary comes from you live from Stockton, California--we're here to visit with the campaign of Jerry McNerney, who's challenging Richard Pombo in California's 11th district.
Our trek from Colorado to Montana also took us through Casper, Wyoming--where Gary Trauner's WY_AL congressional campaign is located. So we took the opportunity to visit with a local Wyoming blogger, as well as visit with Gary Trauner's campaign manager.
So follow below the fold for the story--along with a "special comment" about the idea of Libertarian Democracy in the Mountain West.
Previous entries: NC-08 (Larry Kissell);
VA-Sen (Jim Webb);
DC interviews;
PA-07 and PA-08 (Joe Sestak and Patrick Murphy);
NJ-07 (Linda Stender); NYS-41:
1 and
2 (Brian Keeler);
CT-Sen (Ned Lamont);
NH-02 (Paul Hodes);
NY-29 (Eric Massa);
IN-06 (Barry Welsh);
IL-10 and IL-14 (Dan Seals and John Laesch);
TX-21 (John Courage) ;
CO-05 (Jay Fawcett);
CO-06 (Bill Winter)
SPECIAL COMMENT: I should start out by writing a preface, now that I have returned to the State of California (if only for a few days), about my experience in the whole Mountain West continuum of Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. I had never traveled to any of those states before, and I was quite awakened by my experiences. It's easy to see why Kos is so excited about the idea of a new Western Way as the foundation of a nationwide Democratic resurgence, and how he can have the perception--just like he wrote for the CATO institute that candidates like Tester and Trauner represent the future of the Democratic Party.
It is, in its essence, the heart of the Libertarian Democratic ideal--the idea that personal freedom, open space and opportunity are paramount, and any government policies that interfere with that ideal, whether they come from the left or the right, are unwelcome. The conservatives in these states are along the lines of the more traditional conservative--they do not buy into the new corporate-funded theocratic authoritarianism of the current manifestation of the Republican Party.
So why, you may ask, do states like these still vote Republican? The answer is--they really don't any more, at least at a statewide level. Take a look at the Colorado Governor's race, where Ritter is crushing Beauprez. Take a look at Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal--a Democrat who is cruising to re-election. And lastly, take a look at Montana, where Democrats now control the state legislature, the Governorship, and will likely have two Democratic Senators come January.
The bottom line in the Mountain West? People trust the Democrats they know. But despite the Democratic success at the state level, these states still have a very tough time sending Democrats to federal office, much less voting for a national presidential candidate--because they feel that their local Democrats are a breed apart from the Democrats in the national party.
I think, all in all, that Democrats nationwide could take a lesson from Trauner and from Tester, because to me, the only place that the Libertarian Democratic message doesn't have an appeal is in the hotbeds of racist theocracy.
<b.And now, back to the travelogue.</b>.
We drove up from Denver after meeting with Bill Winter and the local Colorado bloggers and made the drive to Casper--and it took us forever to find a motel room. Seriously. I didn't expect Casper, Wyoming, to be a travel hotbed, but apparently it's a popular stopping point for travelers because of its geographic location. Not only that, but the Special Olympics were apparently coming to town in short order, so space was getting tight. Regardless, we finally found a room in Evansville, and headed into Casper the next morning.
It didn't take long for us to figure out whose turf we were in! Wyoming is one of Halliburton's biggest bases of operations, and Dick Cheney is still popular around here. As a matter of fact, the Federal Building in Casper is named the Dick Cheney Federal Building. Dick Cheney grew up in Casper, so he's a hometown hero. The high school's football field is named after him, too.
When we got into Casper, we met up with a fellow Wyoming blogger, who posts here as longshanks. Longshanks heads up an NGO in Casper, and stops in at Trauner HQ relatively often. He showed us around downtown Casper, and took us out for lunch at Casper's best Mexican restaurant--and I have to say that coming from L.A., I was actually decently impressed by the quality of the food. It's not what I expected from Casper.
Now, longshanks is a perfect example of what I'm talking about with regard to the whole concept of Libertarian Democracy: First and foremost, he himself is openly gay. But second, his partner actually serves on the Casper City Council. And nobody seems to mind or care. And that represents the difference, to my mind, between the Mountain West, and other conservative hotbeds like the deep south. Out there, it's a "live and let live" mentality. This isn't to say that Wyoming still isn't extremely conservative--of course it is. But out there, they don't seem to like authoritarianism or government interference in the personal lives of individuals. Yes, it's conservative, but it's not what "conservative" has come to mean. And it's certainly not what I would have expected from Wyoming. (note: longshanks authorized the publication of all biographical information in the preceding paragraph.)
And when you see what this countryside is like, it's easy to see why the mentality of rugged individualism takes hold in a place like this.
Did I mention--we stopped in at Gary Trauner's HQ? Unfortunately, Gary himself wasn't in the area--he was knocking on more doors in the far Southwestern corner of the state that day. Nevertheless, we stopped in and talked to his staffer and campaign manager about how much the blogosphere has had an impact on his race. Obviously, the chief impact for Gary's campaign has been financial--not many folks in Wyoming are connected to the ins and outs of the blogosphere, obviously, so the financial contribution has been the biggest thing, since dollars go far in Wyoming. After all--if you're a Democrat in Wyoming running for a federal office, the only way to win is to get people to know you personally--and that's exactly what Gary Trauner is doing. By the time the campaign is done, he will have knocked on literally 20,0000 doors across the state of Wyoming. Think about that--in a state of 500,000 residents, Gary will have knocked on 20,000 doors. That's simply amazing.
AND NOW, ON TO MONTANA!
After our detour in Casper, we headed up to Big Sky Country. If you've never been there, they call it Big Sky for a reason. I took this picture on the stretch of highway in between Great Falls and Fort Benton:
We stayed in Helena with Shane, who writes for the popular Montana Blog, LeftintheWest. We happened to arrive in Montana on a very good day: Tester had a busy schedule that day, including casting his ballot at the courthouse in Fort Benton, followed by the 8th and final debate between Tester and Burns--this time, in Great Falls.
Jon is obviously a very busy candidate, so we didn't get to spend a lot of time with him on Friday. But we did get to talk to him for a couple of minutes about how he connected with the blogosphere. He mentioned Matt Singer, who also blogs at LeftintheWest, and gave praise to the role Matt played in getting the campaign connected. I also asked him if he thought Burns would be willing to share his strategy for Iraq, or if it was still secret. Jon laughed about it and told me that it was most likely still going to be secret. Here's a picture of Jon and his wife filling out his ballot in Fort Benton:
Jon had more camera crews surrounding his every move than any other candidate I've seen. It's clear that Tester is getting a whole ton of national publicity, seeing as how we were one of about six camera crews waiting to do interviews with Jon after he turned in his ballot:
The debate later that night was certainly not what I expected. The debate took place at Charlie M. Russell high school, and the gymnasium was packed. The only seats available by the time we got there were on the far end of the bleachers, and that's where we camped out:
What came as an even greater shock--to me as an outsider, at any rate--was that the audience was bout 80% pro-Tester. See all those yellow shirts? Every single one of those is either a "Firefighters for Tester" or "Fire Burns" shirt. And the bulk of the people wearing something besides yellow shirts had Tester stickers or some other paraphernalia.
To my mind, the debate wasn't really close. Tester is the only candidate who actually had anything to say as far as policy positions. Burns just rambled on in vague generalities. In fact, for those who haven't had the opportunity to hear Burns speak, I'd just say that he sounds like your drunk, off-kilter grandfather. It really made me question his mental state.
Tester, meanwhile, was clear and spoke with precision about policy directions and strategies concerning national security, the local air force base, energy independence and farm policy. It seemed clear to me--and the rest of the partisan audience--who the winner of the debate was; but that could be because I'm partisan.
Tester held an after-party fundraiser at a diner in Great Falls. I'll tell you what impressed me even more than at the debate: the youth movement in Montana. There were so many young people, especially high school students, that were volunteering, helping out, and cheering Tester on. I get the feeling that if that holds, Montana is in good hands for the foreseeable future. Tester also got the chance to meet with some of the firefighters that are providing support to his campaign:
The next morning, we went to downtown Helena to a coffee shop called the General Mercantile. It has got to be the most interesting coffee shop I've been in:
We met up with bloggers on opposite ends of the political spectrum: On the left side, we had Shane, whom I have previously introduced; and on the other was Craig of MontanaPolitics. The discussion that ensued was very interesting, and Craig made a lot of interesting points concerning the nature of the political atmosphere in Montana. He agreed that Tester's supporters were far more energized than Burns', and that from his standpoint it was more likely that Tester would win.
But here again, Craig's attitude says a lot about the rise of Libertarian Democracy in the state. Craig is a traditional conservative who doesn't feel like he has a horse in the race. Craig talked about the fact that Burns is running ads that attack Tester for making the statement that he would repeal the Patriot Act. What Craig said that the Burns campaign apparently doesn't understand is that among Montanans, the Patriot Act simply isn't very popular because it is seen as an unnecessary intrusion of government power into the personal arena. And while Craig strongly disagrees with Shane and with Tester about the best way to solve America's problems, he says that the national party didn't seem to be interested in solving problems any more. Craig said that he didn't view himself as a Republican--he viewed himself as a conservative, and that the Republican candidates still fit in with his views more often than not, but in the case of Bush and Burns, it was hard to see exactly what is so conservative about them.
All in all, a great time and great coffee was had by all. As is fitting: Shane is on the left, and Craig is on the right:
We then took off to head over the mountain pass and down all the way to Seattle and the Darcy Burner campaign in WA-08--which will be the subject of my next diary!