The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports that Montana Democrats may be seeking to draft former Republican State Senator John Brueggeman (R-Polson) to run for the US Senate as a Democrat. Meanwhile, the only announced Democrat, Wilsall banker Dirk Adams, says Democrats are “looking for someone else beside me.”
Here’s more from The Chronicle:
“This seat that I’m running for has been Democratic for 99 years, and now we can’t seem to find anybody to run for it,” Adams said. “There are a lot of qualified people who felt compelled to stand up and say they weren’t going to run, and it’s too bad. If they think that people are so angry at the federal government that it can’t be fixed, that’s really sad.”
Using performance.gov, Adams looked up the top five objectives in 2012 for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the ACA.
“Not a single one had to do with Obamacare,” Adams said. “If you’ve got a cabinet-level department with this extremely important task and it’s not one of their top five priorities, you’ve got a serious management problem.”
Speaking of Obamacare, and the seat being held by the retiring author of Obamacare….The Hill has this:
ObamaCare has become big business for an elite network of Washington lobbyists and consultants who helped shape the law from the inside.
More than 30 former administration officials, lawmakers and congressional staffers who worked on the healthcare law have set up shop on K Street since 2010.
“Healthcare lobbying on K Street is as strong as it ever was, and it’s due to the fact that the Affordable Care Act seems to be ever-changing,” Adler said. “What’s at stake is huge. … Whenever there’s a lot of money at stake, there’s a lot of lobbying going on.”
Meanwhile, another Baucus staffer, John Lewis, has now filed papers to run for the US House.
John Lewis (Max Baucus’ State Director) filed paperwork to run for the House in #Montana. http://t.co/k0qzKxFFhZ #MTsen
— Brad Dayspring (@BDayspring) August 26, 2013
The 2014 US House run in Montana has now been confirmed by Aaron Murphy, a consultant with the Democratic Dark Money firm Hilltop, who is apparently the spokesman for the Lewis campaign:
. @amurph, spokesman for Montanans for Lewis, says an official campaign launch “in the coming weeks.” #mtpol #mthouse
— John S. Adams (@TribLowdown) August 26, 2013
Aaron Murphy is also the former spokesman for Senator Jon Tester (D-MT).
@TribLowdown Same Aaron Murphy who went from Tester spokes, hanging up on Montanans, to the anonymous, #darkmoney Hilltop? #MTPol #MTHouse
— Matthew Koehler (@KoehlerMatthew) August 26, 2013
While Senators Baucus and Tester have continued to dodge the public, and avoid real townhall style meetings where the public is notified in advance- Montana’s lone Congressman is actually scheduling meetings with the public, and- imagine this- telling folks about the meetings ahead of time.
Congressman Steve Daines (R-MT) is hosting several “Coffee with Your Congressman” events, similar to those being held by Congressman Kevin Cramer (R-ND). Don’t worry Baucus and Tester- Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) isn’t holding any townhall meetings either.
From Rob Port with the Minot-based SayAnythingBlog.com:
For a couple of weeks now I’ve been critical of North Dakota’s congressional delegation for not scheduling open, in-person, free-to-attend town hall events for their constituents. Earlier this week Rep. Kevin Cramer became the only member of the delegation to schedule any such events, announcing three across the state (let’s hope for more next time).