Congrats to Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), who will soon be officially known as Ambassador Baucus. His ambassadorship could mean good things for Montana down the road.
Sen. Baucus China-bound: Senate unanimously confirms him as ambassador. #mtpol #mtsen
— jimstrauss (@GFtrib_JStrauss) February 6, 2014
Now, once the president makes it official, Baucus will then resign his US Senate seat. Gov. Steve Bullock (D-MT) will then appoint a replacement.
Meanwhile, in yet another caution from yet another one of the largely liberal editorial boards of the Lee Newspapers in Montana, Gov. Steve Bullock (D-MT) is apparently being urged to pick an experienced placeholder rather than Democratic US Senate candidate John Walsh (D-MT).
The hometown paper rebuke of Walsh reads, in part:
The question is why not have a conversation about this process and these deliberations with the public? If he’s made up his mind about who his eventual appointment will be, why not just say that? We don’t know what there is to gain by being closed off about this process, which, whether his office will acknowledge it or not, must be well underway. It would seem to be poor planning to wait until Baucus is officially confirmed to begin thinking about and considering replacements. The refusal to comment publically about the process to replace Baucus only fuels speculation that it’s a decision already made.
We also assume Bullock will choose a Democrat (and it should be a Democrat, since that is Baucus’ party) who isn’t actively running for the seat. We believe there are good leaders in Montana who would serve the office well for the next 11 months without the distractions of trying to win an election. Meanwhile this would allow the voters of Montana to sort out who will ultimately be senator for the next six years from as even a playing field as possible.
Looks like Bullock is at least ready to fake the process of choosing a replacement for Baucus. Here’s a tweet from Roll Call’s Kyle Trygstad:
MT Gov ally tells me he could pick Walsh but not w/o spending “a great amount of time weighing pros and cons” http://t.co/EYGVhRv8Ww #MTSEN
— Kyle Trygstad (@KyleTrygstad) February 6, 2014
With a replacement set to be named any day now, KGVO’s Jon King reports that the Walsh campaign finance report is apparently nowhere to be found:
The end of January marks the first filing deadline on which 2014 political candidates must record their collected campaign funds to the Federal Election Commission, but, so far, information from the John Walsh for Senate campaign is missing.
Center for Responsive Politics (which runs the website opensecrets.org) Executive Director Sheila Krumholz: It strikes me as strange, and I would expect that we would at least see the hard copy report filed. I can’t imagine that there is any glitch in terms of just posting. I don’t know why they would withhold that. I believe at this at this time it’s likely a question for the Walsh campaign… ‘where is their year-end filing?’”
Read More: John Walsh Campaign Financing Information Missing from FEC Website | http://newstalkkgvo.com/john-walsh-campaign-financing-information-missing-from-fec-website/?trackback=tsmclip
Why is #mtsen candidate @JohnWalsh‘s campaign finance info missing from FEC website? http://t.co/Txxw8q7ZzJ #mtpol @kgvoam
— MT Capitol Insider (@MTCapInsider) February 6, 2014
Will President Obama pay a visit to Montana in support of John Walsh?
From Fox News First: OBAMA: I CAN HELP DEMS ‘IN SOME PARTS OF SOME STATES’
WaPo: “The candid self-appraisal came during a policy retreat with the Senate Democratic caucus at the Washington Nationals’ stadium, part of a flurry of outreach efforts with congressional Democrats this week focused on crafting strategies for the midterms. ‘[President Obama] said he knew he is not popular in some of the states so he would not be offended if he were not invited to visit them this year,’ said one senator who requested anonymity to discuss the private meeting. ‘But he said he could be helpful in some parts of some states.”’
Mel Frost
Thursday, February 06, 2014 4:45 PM
IF “Walsh” is truly running for that Senate seat (see: failure to file funding report, Jan 30); then he should be the LAST person “appointed” to fill in until Nov/Jan. Yes, a democrat should be the flavor chosen to replace Max for these 10 months or so…as that is what Max was tie-dyed as when elected.
There must be at least 3, decent/mature/non-criminal types willing to pledge as a “placeholder only” – ie, not to decide to run for the office 5 min after being sworn in…
The taint of big-govt politics will be beyond the pale of any pig pen, should Walsh be chosen at this time…back room politics always stink up the entire party/state!