The Whitefish Pilot reported this week that Tom Muri, a former city attorney and councilor in Whitefish, plans to run as a Democrat for the House District 4 legislative seat.
That seat is currently held by Republican Derek Skees, who won the seat by 87 votes last year as part of a statewide GOP rout.
Muri’s declaration might be seen as the first sign of the fights to come in 2012, when a presidential election and one of the highest-profile senate races in the country will draw voters to the polls in droves, and highly-paid political strategists to Montana in the preceding months.
I’ve been covering a handful of political events lately, and have heard of a few other potential candidacies. Senate District 2’s Ryan Zinke, the Republican representing Whitefish and Columbia Falls, is the running mate of Neil Livingstone seeking the Republican gubernatorial nomination. That leaves his seat open. I’ve heard Republican Rep. Bill Beck, of House District 6, may run for that seat, as well as Sandy Welch, who ran for Columbia Falls’ House District 3 last year but lost a GOP primary to eventual winner Jerry O’Neil.
I haven’t heard any names on the Democratic side, but I would expect candidates to begin coming forward sometime this fall, when those voters who aren’t so disgusted by the debt ceiling negotiations that they can no longer tolerate politics at all begin paying closer attention once more.