After a heated primary like this one, I often wonder about the fallout, about those awkward moments when opponents and their allies run into each other at the local bar, or Pachyderm meeting or the cereal aisle at the grocery store.
That’s not to say supporters and critics alike shouldn’t voice their opinions about various candidates. After all, we’ve printed many of their letters on these pages. A robust debate is healthy, even within the same political party.
That is to say the Flathead Valley is like one sprawling small town. We run into each other all the time – at coffee shops and the gym. I see the same friend so often at the Super 1 deli that the chronic coincidence has become an ongoing joke. And, serendipitously, I’m apt to run into a subject of a story within a week of publishing that story. They often tell me what we got right, or wrong, but those discussions are narrow in focus. They don’t involve broad judgments on someone’s character, which is exactly what many primaries entail.
Imagine Senate District 4 Republican candidates Mark Blasdel (who is also speaker of the Montana House) and Tammi Fisher (who is also the former Kalispell mayor) running into each at the gas station after the primary election is decided. Remember, this is only an imagined scenario:
“Uh, hi Tammi,” Marks says. “That was an interesting race.”
“Interesting is one way to describe it,” Tammi says.
“Yeah, sorry my supporters say you didn’t accomplish anything as the mayor of Kalispell,” Mark says. “It got a little heated.”
“Oh man, sorry some of my supporters called yours extremists,” Tammi says. “Elections like these can be pretty negative.”
That’s awkward. And while the above is a fictitious chance encounter, many of these candidates can’t really avoid each other. They belong to the same clubs and attend the same functions, like the Lincoln Reagan Dinner.
It would be easy to downplay the divisions within the Republican Party as typical election-year politics, but this year is decidedly atypical in that it includes both current and former lawmakers and policymakers.
Instead of standing on the sidelines, they have voiced their opinions about who they are supporting and why. Kalispell Sen. Verdell Jackson, who cannot run for reelection because of term limits, has called the upcoming 2015 legislative session “the most important session since I was elected to the Montana House in 1999.” He has openly endorsed candidates, including Blasdel, who he thinks are more conservative and said their opponents’ supporters “want bigger, more overreaching government.”
On the other side, Kalispell Sen. Bruce Tutvedt, who has endorsed Fisher, said if the faction Jackson is backing prevails “there will just be chaos. We will be mired in extremism and gridlock.”
Both men are well known in the valley, especially in Republican circles. And I doubt they are sitting at the same table at any given luncheon. Perhaps I’m wrong. Perhaps they have thicker skin than I give them credit for.
Other former and current lawmakers have joined the fray, as have former and current city councilors. The criticisms have gone beyond the boilerplate election-year critiques in which one candidate is chided for not adhering to the party’s values. No, these have delved into their work experience and resumes.
However the June 3 primary shakes out, it will be interesting to see how the split Republican Party in Northwest Montana makes amends, or if it does at all. The tension is apt to subside, but before then, there will likely be a few awkward moments. As it’s been said, “Montana is a small town with really long streets.”