A time to choose.

Since last October, almost 30 mailers attacking my voting record have landed in

your mailboxes. I suspect more will arrive in the coming week. Taken together

with streaming TV ads, radio spots, and paid door knockers, over a quarter million

dollars from out-of-state funded PACs, like “Accountability in State Government”

and Virginia-based “Americans for Prosperity” and “Make Liberty Win,” are being

spent to buy my opponent a seat in the Montana Senate. What all these efforts

have in common is their disregard for the truth. Amoral political operatives

believe that if they tell enough lies enough times to enough people, they can win

elections. This primary election will test their theory.

Their latest attack accuses me of “working with progressive out-of-state

billionaires” and of “willful and continual alignment with the Democrat Party . . .

to undermine Republican values and principles.” The cabal now heading the

Montana Republican Party (MTGOP) has made these assertions without a shred of

credible proof. Their approach is in line with that of the head of the Soviet secret

police: “Show me the man and I'll show you the crime.”

MTGOP chairmen Art Wittich and his comrades are intent on redefining what it

means to be a conservative Republican and—again taking a cue from Joseph

Stalin—on purging from the party those who won’t convert to their narrow

ideology and obey their directives. Because I refuse to comply, I am in their eyes

no longer a Republican. I reject their judgement.

The people I’ve spoken to at the doors since early January recognize that both

major political parties are increasingly dominated by extreme factions intent on

accumulating power and enforcing ideological purity at the expense of serving the

interests of all Montanans. They expect good government from legislators who do

the hard work necessary to solve problems instead of obediently toeing the party

line. That is what I have delivered over my time in the Montana House of

Representatives. I’ll continue to do so in the Senate.

Montana is at a political crossroads. Across the state, independent-minded

Republican candidates like me are under attack by a MTGOP establishment that is

no longer recognizable as being Republican. The results of the primary election

will be telling. We can either deal a blow to extremists like Art Wittich, or we can

submit to the hyper-partisanship that is destroying our country.

It is a time to choose.