Montana Viewpoint: Dirty work at the crossroads

Jim Elliott

There is a big fuss in Montana about the way Montana Republicans orchestrated the
selection and consequent anointment of their prize candidate for the United States
Senate, former U. S. Attorney for Montana, Kurt Alme.

Briefly, the scenario was this; eight minutes before the deadline to file for political office for the 2026 election, Kurt Alme walks into the Secretary of State’s office in the Capitol and files to run for the Senate, minutes later, current Senator Steve Daines withdraws as a candidate for the same office.

Shortly thereafter the press is deluged with endorsements of Alme by
President Trump, Senator Daines, Senator Sheehy, Governor Gianforte, Attorney
General Austin Knudson, and possibly a stray dog or two wandering within earshot of
the Capitol.

The outrage of Democrats was palpable; dirty work at the crossroads, shades of the
Copper Kings dirty politics, anti-democratic tactics. Every other candidate had been
personally sandbagged, and I’m sure there were some irate potential Republican
candidates who were equally annoyed.

From the standpoint of how party politics often works it was a textbook-perfect ploy.
Dirty politics? Well, yeah, if you’re on the losing side. There is really only one thing that
interests me, why did Alme go along with it? Let me give you some background.
In 2001 I was a new Democratic member of the Montana State Senate.

I had run for the Senate after being out of political office for four years. Before that I had been a House member and a presentable if annoying member of House Taxation. I was not appointed to Senate Taxation by the Republican leadership, but that didn’t stop me from being interested in what was going on in Montana taxation. So, I called up Kurt Alme who was

Republican Governor Judy Martz’ nominee for the Director of the Department of
Revenue. “How about we have a cup of coffee,” I said. And we did, pretty much once a
week for most of the 2001 Legislative Session. I am sure Kurt cleared it with the
Governor, and maybe even reported back to her about what we discussed. And what
we discussed was my philosophy of what Montana taxation should be like, how it should serve the people rather than big business, how taxes should be fair (my version of fair, anyway) and fall more lightly on the middle class than on the wealthy. And Kurt listened and commented.

Of course he did not commit to doing things my way, how could he, he worked for the Governor whose opinions were much different from mine.

But here’s what impressed me about Kurt; I was an insignificant member of the Senate
with very little power or influence. He had no need to talk with me, but he did, and we
enjoyed our talks together and became friends. So, when it was time for his confirmation hearing, I asked him if I could sponsor his candidacy. He certainly didn’t
need my help, it was a slam-dunk nomination, but I wanted to do it out of friendship and
he agreed.

f course his nomination was agreed upon by the Senate and he became director and we still had our weekly coffees. We also still disagreed on taxation issues. In 2017 Kurt was appointed U. S. Attorney for Montana and I wrote him a note of congratulation. He wrote me a pleasant note back. That was the last communication I had with him.

I really have nothing negative to say about Kurt, but I am concerned that he was party to these shady tactics, it seems out-of-character. As for Daines, his secretive behavior is
totally in character.

I expect Kurt will win the Republican primary and the General Election as well. Once the
former University of Montana President Seth Bodnar filed for the Senate as an
Independent it would seem to deal the death blow to any chances Democrats had to win the race.

I won’t be voting for Kurt, but my hope is that if he becomes our next US Senator that he will still be the same moral and ethical man I once knew and liked.