Libertarians won’t have 2020 candidate for U.S. Senate in Montana | KTVH - Mike Dennison:
August 6, 2020 - "The Montana Libertarian Party will be without a candidate in Montana’s 2020 U.S. Senate race, after party members failed to choose a replacement candidate last month. The lack of a Libertarian candidate leaves three people in the high-profile race: Incumbent Republican Sen. Steve Daines, his Democratic challenger, Gov. Steve Bullock, and Green Party candidate Wendie Fredrickson.
"Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate Susan Good Giese – who had replaced a Libertarian candidate that withdrew in March – announced in May that she would withdraw. Giese, a Lewis and Clark County commissioner from Augusta, said commissioner duties related to the Covid-19 pandemic would not allow her enough time to campaign. Libertarians then had until mid-August to choose a replacement. Yet at a July meeting of party officials to select that replacement, the choice that won the most votes was 'none of the above'....
"Chairman Sid Daoud of Kalispell told MTN News that 'none of the above' is always a choice in a Libertarian Party selection process. He said it wasn’t his choice, but because it was the top vote-getter, the party won’t name a replacement candidate. Libertarians usually get only a small percentage of the vote in statewide races. But, in past Montana U.S. Senate races, a third-party candidate can be a factor in a close contest."
Read more: https://www.ktvh.com/news/election-2020/libertarians-wont-have-2020-candidate-for-u-s-senate-in-montana
A win for the Republicans
George J. Dance
Montana can be called a solidly red state. In 2000, George W. Bush won the state by 25 percentage points – in 2016, Donald Trump's margin was more than 20 points – and the Republican nominee won in Montana every election between those years. The state's only congressman is a Republican. The GOP controls both state houses. Yet the governor and the senior U.S. Senator are both Democrats. How did that happen?
In the Senator's case, it happened thanks to the Montana Libertarian Party. The state LP began gaining traction in the 2000s during the big-government Bush years, and since then has been seen as the place for disgruntled Republicans to vote against their party, with both major parties buying into that narrative. In 2016 the GOP tried to remove a Libertarian from the ballot; while in 2012 a Democrat-controlled PAC spent $500,000 on television ads for the Libertarian in the Senate race (which the Democrat won, with the Libertarian playing 'spoiler'). This year, given anti-Trump sentiment, the Libertarian could conceivably have bled enough votes from the GOP to elect a second Democratic senator.
To forestall that, the Republicans took a page from the Democratic playbook, and spent $100,000 to ballot-qualify the Green Party candidate – while the Democrats went to court to have the Green kicked off. The GOP may also have put pressure on Giese to withdraw from the race, and may even have tried to influence the Libertarian vote on her replacement (though that is mere speculation). Be that as it may, it looks like this development will be enough to keep the seat in Republican hands.
August 6, 2020 - "The Montana Libertarian Party will be without a candidate in Montana’s 2020 U.S. Senate race, after party members failed to choose a replacement candidate last month. The lack of a Libertarian candidate leaves three people in the high-profile race: Incumbent Republican Sen. Steve Daines, his Democratic challenger, Gov. Steve Bullock, and Green Party candidate Wendie Fredrickson.
"Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate Susan Good Giese – who had replaced a Libertarian candidate that withdrew in March – announced in May that she would withdraw. Giese, a Lewis and Clark County commissioner from Augusta, said commissioner duties related to the Covid-19 pandemic would not allow her enough time to campaign. Libertarians then had until mid-August to choose a replacement. Yet at a July meeting of party officials to select that replacement, the choice that won the most votes was 'none of the above'....
"Chairman Sid Daoud of Kalispell told MTN News that 'none of the above' is always a choice in a Libertarian Party selection process. He said it wasn’t his choice, but because it was the top vote-getter, the party won’t name a replacement candidate. Libertarians usually get only a small percentage of the vote in statewide races. But, in past Montana U.S. Senate races, a third-party candidate can be a factor in a close contest."
Read more: https://www.ktvh.com/news/election-2020/libertarians-wont-have-2020-candidate-for-u-s-senate-in-montana
A win for the Republicans
George J. Dance
Montana can be called a solidly red state. In 2000, George W. Bush won the state by 25 percentage points – in 2016, Donald Trump's margin was more than 20 points – and the Republican nominee won in Montana every election between those years. The state's only congressman is a Republican. The GOP controls both state houses. Yet the governor and the senior U.S. Senator are both Democrats. How did that happen?
In the Senator's case, it happened thanks to the Montana Libertarian Party. The state LP began gaining traction in the 2000s during the big-government Bush years, and since then has been seen as the place for disgruntled Republicans to vote against their party, with both major parties buying into that narrative. In 2016 the GOP tried to remove a Libertarian from the ballot; while in 2012 a Democrat-controlled PAC spent $500,000 on television ads for the Libertarian in the Senate race (which the Democrat won, with the Libertarian playing 'spoiler'). This year, given anti-Trump sentiment, the Libertarian could conceivably have bled enough votes from the GOP to elect a second Democratic senator.
To forestall that, the Republicans took a page from the Democratic playbook, and spent $100,000 to ballot-qualify the Green Party candidate – while the Democrats went to court to have the Green kicked off. The GOP may also have put pressure on Giese to withdraw from the race, and may even have tried to influence the Libertarian vote on her replacement (though that is mere speculation). Be that as it may, it looks like this development will be enough to keep the seat in Republican hands.
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