Opinion: Romney drops in on Big Sky Country
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The days of summer are long ones way up north in Big Sky Country and there to greet tomorrow’s dawn in the state capital so tidily tucked into the Rockies will be GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
‘Attracting a top presidential contender is a great thing for Montana,’ says Jake Eaton, organizer of the annual state Republican Party convention in Helena. He said the former Massachusetts governor’s presence ‘speaks to the growing importance of Western issues on the national stage.’
Vice President Dick Cheney from next-door Wyoming and former president George H.W. Bush have campaigned in Montana in recent elections. But normally the fourth largest state with less than a million residents and only three electoral votes is another one of those Western flyover states. Not to mention Montana’s June presidential primary being one of the nation’s latest, ensuring political irrelevance in such a front-loaded primary season as 2008.
A bill to move the state’s primary to February died in a legislative stalemate last winter over the $1 million pricetag.
According to a Romney spokesman, the former governor’s message will be ‘one that will appeal to voters in Montana who are tired of the status quo in Washington and are looking for a proven leader.’
Romney will confront a Republican audience beset by a series of recent election defeats. After controlling the Governor’s office for 16 years, eight of them by Marc Racicot, Democrats now control that office as well as the state senate and both U.S. Senate seats. As well, Romney will recognize the familiar signs of a party regularly riven by outbursts over conservative purity.
The highest-ranking state Republican is now Rep. Denny Rehberg, whose chief of staff, Erik Iverson, is the sole announced candidate for state party chair. He has promised to rebuild the party. ‘I don’t think the differences are all that big,’ Iverson says. But so far there are no leading Republican candidates to take on Gov. Brian Schweitzer or Sen. Max Baucus next year.
On Thursday Romney named former Gov. Tim Babcock and Secy. of State Brad Johnson as his Montana state campaign chairs.
--Andrew Malcolm