Trego's Mountain Ear

This time I didn’t need to bother our overworked election officials to find out how many and which of our state senators and representatives will be unopposed on November’s ballot.  I could go to nrapvf.org and find out . . . as well as learning the candidates NRA grades.

Unopposed for the State House are:

District 1         Steve Gunderson (R)                          District 2         Neil Durham (R)

District 6         Amy Regier (R)                                   District 8         Terry Falk (R)

District 9         Tony Brockman (R)                            District 11       Tanner Smith (R)

District 14       Denley Loge (R)                                 District 16       Tyson Running Wolf (D)

District 18       Llew Jones (R)                                    District 19       Russel Miner (R)

District 27       Josh Kassmier (R)                               District 29       Douglas Flament (R)

District 32       Jonathan Windy Boy (D)                    District 34       Rhonda Knudsen (R)

District 35       Brandon Ler (R)                                  District 36       Bob Phalen (R)

District 37       Jerry Schillinger (R)                            District 39       Gary Parry (R)

District 40       Greg Oblander (R)                             District 43       Kerri Seekins-Crowe (R)

District 45       Katie Zolnikov (R)                              District 53       Nelly Nicol (R)

District 54       Terry Moore (R)                                 District 55       Lee Deming (R)

District 56       Sue Vinton (R)                                   District 66       Eric Matthews (D)

District 71       Ken Walsh (R)                                   District 75       Marta Bertoglio (R)

District 78       Gregory Frazer (R)                             District 80       Becky Beard (R)

District 81       Ron Marshall (R)

Thirty-one of Montana’s 100 state representatives have no opponent in the general election.  Since legislative districts are apportioned according to population, this essentially translates to 31% of Montanans not having a choice on their state representative in November – because subsection 7 is ignored by their county election administrators.                                

In the State Senate, the following are unopposed:

District 1         Michael Cuffe (R)                                 District 5         Mark Noland (R)

District 9         Bruce Gillespie (R)                               District 19       Kenneth Bogner (R)

District 20       Barry Usher (R)                                     District 27       Dennis Lenz (R)

District 29       Forrest Mandeville (R)

Since state senate terms are 4 years, only 25 state senators are up for election this year.  The 7 unopposed candidates translates to 28% of Montana voters not having a choice on their state senator in the upcoming election – because subsection 7 is ignored by county election administrators. At least the folks voting for a US Senator in Pennsylvania can choose between a pair of bad candidates – here in Lincoln County when the primary ballot is printed, choice vanishes.  The problem here is not bad candidates – it’s that subsection 7 is being ignored and the voter’s last option for choice is taken away by unelected administrators.  I would probably vote for Mike Cuffe and Neil Durham . . . but with the decision already locked in stone by Paula, why bother?