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Montana's majority-Republican Legislature stamped out a mandate Monday for restraining the courts and cutting taxes as the first day of the 2025 session gaveled in. GOP lawmakers who have seen the courts reject several of their bills on constitutional grounds in recent years pointed to a dominating performance in last year's election as proof of voter demand for Republican policies. "The voters want court reform. Article Seven of the Montana Constitution, no less than 20...
They were D.C. newcomers elected by voters tired of Washington political scandals. Max Baucus was elected to Montana’s western U.S. House District three months after Richard Nixon resigned in 1974. Jimmy Carter, a Democratic governor from the Deep South, would launch his longshot presidential campaign by the end of the year. “He was an outsider,” Baucus said Monday following Carter’s death at age 100. “People were tired of politicians in Washington, Watergate and so forth. I was part of that momentum as well, the Watergate cl...
Senate and House Republicans, selecting leaders who will preside over the 2025 Legislature, chose Senator-elect Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, as Senate president and Rep. Brandon Ler, R-Savage, as speaker of the House in caucuses Tuesday. The GOP holds majorities in both chambers for the eighth straight session of the biennial Legislature. Democrats chose Sen. Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade, and Rep. Katie Sullivan, D-Missoula, as minority leaders of their respective caucuses. The full...
Republican Troy Downing has won Montana's eastern U.S. House race by a wide margin over Democrat John Driscoll. Returns Wednesday morning showed Downing with a 66% vote share, or 174,247 votes. Driscoll, with 89,545 votes, or a 34% vote share, got the most bang for his buck. The Democrat was determined to spend less than $5,000 on the election. On Wednesday, Downing told Montana Free Press he is already lobbying Republican House leadership for committee assignments and a...
Montana's major party candidates for U.S. Senate exchanged parting shots Monday in a final debate before in-person voting begins Oct 8. Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester characterized Republican Sheehy as a rich out-of-stater who would privatize health care while limiting abortion access. Sheehy said he wasn't lucky enough to be born in Montana because he "couldn't control where my mother's womb was when I crawled out of it." He repeatedly portrayed Tester as someone who has bee...
In the second half of 2023, a secretive political action committee began running television ads against Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy. There were no details about who was funding Last Best Place PAC, how much money it had to spend, or who was working for the committee. The secrecy continued into the first quarter of this year when the Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission about Last Best Place PAC's lack of disclosure. In...
Montana will receive $700 million to advance the nation's first transmission project bridging the eastern and western grids, a step described as critical to U.S. energy reliability. The U.S. Department of Energy grant, announced Tuesday by Gov. Greg Gianforte in a press release, will advance the North Plains Connector, a 415-mile, high voltage, direct-current line between Montana's Colstrip substation and Center, North Dakota. The 525-kilovolt line could be the first...
Film and TV companies spent $334 million in Montana over the past two years, according to numbers released to state legislators on Monday. Television, including the filming of the "Yellowstone" franchise, was the big contributor with $275.7 million spent between July 2022 and May 2024. "Obviously very big numbers," said Gina Lavery, of Econsult Solutions, Inc., an analyst hired by the state. "These are honestly double what we saw the previous cycle, which makes sense because...
