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State House of Representatives
Jerry Johnson
Thomas Carlson
Government Study Commission Candidates
Voters in Gallatin County and the City of Bozeman will be choosing seven people and five people respectively from much larger fields of candidates running to serve on two commissions to study and make recommendations on how the county and city governments are structured. Although these races are non-partisan, the local far-left is organizing to elect their candidates to the commission to sway the recommendations in a way that will have major implications for how our communities are governed. Gallatin Republicans have vetted the candidates for the commissions and have made recommendations below based on their stances. Bolts Magazine recently published a comprehensive article detailing what is at stake, as well as the local left’s efforts to dominate the commissions. Please check the article out to inform yourself on what is at stake before casting your vote.
Constitutional Initiatives
Amends the Montana Constitution to provide a top-four primary election. All candidates, regardless of political party, appear on one ballot. The four candidates receiving the most votes advance to the general election.
- Montana currently has open primaries. This initiative will not increase independent voter participation. It enables opposing party sabotage against strong candidates.
- Jungle primaries remove party vetting and influence, resulting in less qualified candidates being chosen.
- Jungle primaries historically do not result in more general election choices. In some elections voters could be stuck with four candidates from the same party.
- Jungle primaries are a scheme that favors one party rule and voter disenfranchisement.
Amends the Montana Constitution to provide that elections for certain offices must be decided by majority vote as determined as provided by law rather than by a plurality or the largest amount of the votes. If it cannot be determined who received a majority of votes because two or more candidates are tied, then the winner of the election will be determined as provided by law.
- Vague wording in this amendment makes it unclear what kind of electoral system Montanans will end up with. If passed, it requires the law (state legislature) to establish a system of ensuring the election winner receives a majority of votes rather than the current plurality. This would likely result in either a ranked voting system or require runoff elections between the top two candidates. Both are inferior to our current system.
- Rank choice voting is confusing and complicated, results in thousands of ballots going uncounted or getting thrown out and undermines trust in elections because in many cases it enables candidates with less overall support to win elections.
- Places like Alaska that have enacted ranked choice voting are now trying to repeal it.
- Runoff elections are costly to administer and result in not knowing the winner until well after the November general election.
- Runoff elections disenfranchise voters. Because voter participation is usually much lower in runoffs, the winner of the runoff typically receives far fewer total votes than the first-place finisher in the general election.
- CI-126 and CI-127 interact in unclear ways. Should one initiative pass and the other fail, the outcome for Montana’s electoral system could be even stranger. We strongly urge a NO vote on both initiatives.
For mor information watch this short video.
This video for Idaho explains the concept very well: Ranked Choice Video Explanation
Amends the Montana Constitution to expressly provide the right to an abortion. It would prohibit the government from making any law restricting abortion before fetal viability, from limiting access to abortion in later stages of pregnancy if prescribed by a healthcare professional as necessary for the mother’s life or health, or from penalizing anyone who assists someone in obtaining an abortion.
- This Initiative is too extreme. It would place Montana among the top 10 most permissive states for abortion. Vague wording would permit abortions beyond what is currently legal in Montana.
- Fails to define the word ‘viability’ which effectively allows abortions in Montana in all nine months of pregnancy.
- Fails to define ‘healthcare professional’. This effectively allows abortions until moment of birth if a single abortion provider prescribes it.
- Allows late-term dismemberment abortions.
- Prohibits both parental consent and parental notification before a minor child can receive an abortion or take abortion pills.
- Enables sex traffickers to bring abducted girls in secret for abortions or acquire abortion pills for female captives.
- For more information go to formontanafamilies.com
Belgrade School District
Belgrade City/School District Land and Building Exchange Referendum - Vote No!
Belgrade voters are being asked to approve a swap of several buildings and parcels of land between the city and school district to make way for a future school. We recommend a No vote based on several factors.
- Belgrade may not need to build a new school on the property for another 10-15 years. In the meantime, the land swap would take away the baseball fields and the senior center.
- If costs are not covered, they may ask for another $50 million bond from Belgrade voters in the next year or two.
- Depending on the spatial direction of future growth in Belgrade, the parcel may not be where a new school will needed.
- The buildings in the swap will require renovation, likely at additional taxpayer expense. This is simply a bad swap.
Paid for by Gallatin County Republican Chair Committee. Treasurer, Debbie Moran PO Box 2005 Bozeman, MT 59771-2005