Or, the Empire Strikes Back.
Republicans in the Montanan House choose conservative Rep. Gary Matthews D-Miles City as their Speaker late Monday night, defying an unwritten thirty year tradition that the majority party chooses the speaker. Matthews, a fourth term legislator, received all fifty republican votes plus three democractic votes, including his own. Democrats had been expected to choose moderate Dave Wanzenreid D-Missoula as speaker.
The Montana House is tied at fifty democrats and fifty republicans after the Montana Supreme Court deteremined that a democrat had won a formerly tied race against a third party candidate in Lake County HD-12. The court threw out one of seven "overvoted" ballots breaking the tie. In case of a tied house, the speaker must come from the governor's party. Gov. Brian Schweitzer, sworn in yesterday, is a democrat.
The court action promoted many house repubs to fly into a hate frenzy, and threaten to boycott yesterday's inaugural activities. Others hoped to refuse to seat Jeanne Windham the democrat who won HD-12, an action that would have required a two-thirds vote.
Instead, many repubs fumed. Some qoutes:
"You have seven people over there (the state supreme court)that think they are god's gift to creation," said Rep. John Sinrud R-Bozeman. "Its time to stand up to the supreme court."
"We are not going to be governed by a bunch of despots in black robes," said Rep. Scott Sales R-Bozeman.
Republicans are still angered about the latest redistricting process, in which two republicans and two democrats plus one person appointed by the state supreme court drew the new state voting districts. In 2001, the state supreme court choose a Native American, and as result many indian reservations have their own districts for the first time. In Montana, Native Americans tend to vote democractic, hence the big gains for Montana democrats in the senate and house.
But there is more to the story. A democrat walks into a bar in Ingomar last week and orders a beer. No, this isn't a Garrison Keillor joke from "a Prairie Home Companion", although Ingomar is out on the prairie. The dem notices a bunch of republican legislators meeting with Rep. Gary Matthews, and obviously trying to persuade him to run for house speaker. The dem leaves and tells other democrats of this latest tactic.
You have to hand it to the Montana house republicans. Just when democrats play hardball and get the state supreme court to count all the legal ballots, the repubs take steroids and are back in the game. As Bill Clinton said last March at the democratic unity dinner, the republicans will do anything to hang on to power.
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