Does Max Baucus Get To Choose His Senate Successor?

Brian Schweitzer: "Don't listen to the bullshit you hear in Washington, D.C. If the election were held today, John Bohlinger would win 2-to-1 over John Walsh."

-by Bob Brigham

The last time there was on open US Senate seat out here in Montana was in 1978. As your author was in diapers, I didn’t get a choice. Those who did sent Max Baucus to Washington, where he’s remained to this day.

With poll numbers that have been in the toilet since he let health insurance lobbyists write his health care bill, Max Baucus announced this spring that he would not running for reelection. This set up the first open senate race in Montana since the one Baucus won thirty-five years ago.

It looked like popular former Governor Brian Schweitzer would run. Progressives were thrilled that a single payer supporter was the frontrunner to replace Baucus. But alas, the good guv didn’t run.

There are now two main candidates in the Democratic Party primary. John Bohlinger, who was Schweitzer’s Lt Gov for all eight years. And John Walsh, who since January has been the current Lt Gov under Governor Steve Bullock.

Max Baucus is backing John Walsh and bankrolling his campaign.

The DSCC is going along with Max Baucus, publicly backing John Walsh as senate leadership’s chosen successor to Max Baucus. Harry Reid even tried to get Schweitzer’s Lt Gov to drop out.

Unfortunately, the DSCC and DCCC have been all too successful at clearing primaries and denying grassroots Democrats a say in the direction of the party. They just assumed that Max Baucus’s chosen successor would be fine so there was no need to even have a vote.

Their scheme might have even worked, were it not for one critical flaw: John Bohlinger thought it an affront.

This came as no surprise to Montana political observers. David Sirota worked with Bohlinger and Schweitzer, he tells this story:

That’s the John Bohlinger that Montanans are familiar with. The last two decades of Montana politics are but a series of stories of political adversaries assuming that because he wears a bow tie and has a grandfatherly smile, John Bohlinger must be a pushover. Every single time they’re proved wrong. He was the only guy in Montana tough enough to be Brian Schweitzer’s second in command.

So when the consultants came up with a scheme to keep the Baucus gravy-train rolling despite his retirement, it should have surprised nobody that John Bohlinger did not abide.

And by the mere fact that Bohlinger is willing to stand up to the DSCC and Harry Reid, he’s won what Matt Stoller called, “the bar fight primary.”

So there’s going to be a primary. A Democrat named John facing a Democrat named John. This might sound familiar, in 2006 there was also a contested Democratic Party primary in Montana with a guy named John running against a guy named Jon.

In 2006, DC also lined up behind a candidate and ensured he had vastly more money. And DC’s candidate lost in a 25 point landslide.

While the DC power brokers have been very successful at minimizing the number of primaries, when they do occur, there may be no worse turf for them in the country than Montana. In Montana, there is an extremely low point of saturation after which spending even more money has returns diminished to the point it’s no better than just setting it on fire.

In Montana, the ante to compete against DC is very low.

Back in 2004, a full 23 months before Conrad Burns, Markos started pushing Jon Tester (although he spelled his first name wrong in his national introduction). In that piece, Markos quoted me saying:

Westerners want candidates with spine. You could probably run on gay marriage in Montana if your campaign plan was to bar-fight your way across the state-- people would respect that.

Liberals have been portrayed as pencil-necked spinless wimps for too long. Montana Democrats are showing the benefits of running with a spine, and while their state-level success doesn't translate to federal success, the potential is clearly there.

Nine years later, we have a chance to translate the bold populism of the Schweitzer administration to the federal level. And the success of the Schweitzer administration has made the state much friendlier territory for Democrats. And while the poll numbers may not be there yet for marriage equality, nobody thinks John Bohlinger and Brian Schweitzer’s support for marriage equality is going to hurt much in the general.

And already, progressives should be delighted by the two major fault lines have accented how this rare senate primary is going to be a battle for the soul of the Democratic Party.

HEALTH CARE

For the last decade, Brian Schweitzer has butted heads with Max Baucus over health care. Schweitzer made a name for himself pioneering the bold campaign tactic of taking busloads of seniors to Canada to get their prescriptions filled cheaper. Baucus on the other hand, is PhRMA’s top guy in the senate. Brian Schweitzer has been one of the country’s leading voices for single payer. Max Baucus took out the Public Option and replaced it with the Individual Mandate. And in this senate primary, Baucus’s hand picked successor is sticking with Baucus while John Bohlinger is changing the dialogue to health care as a right and trumpeting the success of the Schweitzer state health clinics for public workers.



Health care isn’t the only major fault line in deciding the future direction of the senate caucus.

CAMPAIGN FINANCE

Another big issue is the role of money in politics. Here again is a major split between the visions of Schweitzer and Baucus. Hilltop Public Solutions, the consultants trying to keep the Baucus Culture of Corruption going, are notorious purveyors of Dark Money (seriously, you must read this expose). In a separate bizarre scandal that came about by not using Free Conference Call dot com, last year’s Bullock/Walsh campaign listed on their finance reports, expenses for conference calls with Hilltop. While Hilltop was doing a ton of supposedly independent expenditures. There’s an complaint at the Commissioner of Political Practices on the scandal.

That’s quite the contrast with John Bohlinger. Last year, Brian Schweitzer and John Bohlinger lead on a grassroots citizens’ initiative, I-166. The initiative went after the legal fiction of corporate personhood, charging Montana’s congressional delegation with amending the US Constitution to clarify that corporations are not human beings entitled to constitutional rights. The initiative passed with over 74% of the vote. And Bohlinger is now running to go to DC and part part of the amendment fight.



It’s not often that we get a contested primary for a winnable senate seat. These truly are where we decide the direction of the party. And the fact this primary is occurring in Montana means progressives could give this fight the resources necessary to beat DC. It’s one to watch. And if every week is as exciting as the first week was, it’s going to be the most exciting Democratic primary of the cycle for political junkies.

If you want to keep up with how Schweitzer’s Lt Gov is doing, John Bohlinger’s campaign is on twitter and Facebook and has a website to sign up for emails: BohlingerForSenate.com.