Our state recently unveiled a new economic development website aimed at attracting businesses. It’s called “Innovate Montana,” and the accompanying commercials are impressive. There’s just one problem, according to the state GOP, almost every one features Gov. Brian Schweitzer.
“You’ve got to admire a shameless self-promoter like that,” Sen. Jeff Essmann, R-Billings, told Lee Newspapers. “On one level, he’s got no qualms about using taxpayer dollars to promote himself for whatever his next political race is and flagging fortunes of his political party.”
The advertising campaign is being paid for with about $23,000 in state funds and $40,000 from private partners. The television spots are airing on cable news channels in hopes of catching the eye of business travelers already in the state. And most of them feature Schweitzer boasting about the state and, in turn, himself, but don’t strike me as overtly political.
Essmann also argued that Republican tax policies enacted by the 2001-2005 Legislature and former Gov. Judy Martz should be credited for any business growth in the state. Just a quick refresher, when Martz decided not to run for a second term her approval rating was 20 percent.
True, the state GOP does deserve more credit when the governor is making rounds on the television news circuit reminding anyone who will listen that Montana is one of two states in the country still in the black – sound bytes from many those interviews are used in the commercials. And in one of them Schweitzer says, my emphasis, “Since 2005, Montana has become one of the most attractive places in the nation to do business.” That, coincidentally, was the year he took office.
But who else should be the official spokesperson to lure potential new corporations and investment? Martz? A Republican state lawmaker who no one has ever heard of?
Politically speaking, for better or worse, Schweitzer is the face of Montana. For many who live outside the state, he is the only elected official anyone is familiar with. He has gained the reputation as a blossoming Democratic star by persistently mixing policy and salesmanship. That’s one of the main reasons the GOP largely despises him; Schweitzer, to many kingmakers, makes all the decisions, thus gets the most of the credit for them.
But if the governor is the diva that his critics claim, it is the national media that should be mostly blamed. Pundits have largely characterized Schweitzer as the exception to the free-spending Democrat, with even Fox News and the Wall Street Journal ¬¬– in a piece titled “The Montana Exception” – praising him for his state budget management.
As the Legislature approaches along with the likelihood of Republicans gaining seats in the House and Senate, this disagreement over a relatively small economic development plan gives you some indication as to how budget negotiations might proceed. Right now, the GOP and Schweitzer disagree on how much money, if any, this state is projected to have in the bank, which will determine whether further cuts are necessary.
Still, when lawmakers reconvene they will likely posture for several weeks before freezing state spending without making any drastic cuts and keep some money in the state coffers. Then all of them can come home and brag about how they had to make the most difficult decisions to balance the budget.
Until then, we shouldn’t ignore that Montana, along with North Dakota, is perhaps in the best fiscal shape among states and someone should brag about that fact regardless of who it is.
Perhaps an economic development campaign aimed at attracting business and investment to the state should be encouraged instead of scoffed at. That would truly be a Montana exception.