Seth Bodnar would return Montana to the failed policies of our dull blue past | Art Wittich

This group of politicians does not “span the political spectrum” as his campaign website claims. Rather, they are the last remnants of a clique that controlled Montana for decades and ran the state into the ground.

Some in this group identified as Democrats and others as Republicans, but the party label really didn’t matter. Despite minor disagreements, their basic approach was always the same: punitive taxes, over-regulation, budgetary gamesmanship, and bumbling efforts to micro-manage everything.

Under the control of this group, Montana’s per capita income dropped to 47th among the 50 states. Average salaries dropped to dead last — 50th of 50. The state budget was recurrently in deficit, and the legislature was repeatedly asked to impose more taxes.

Without economic opportunity, Montana families broke up. Young people fled the state in droves. Montanans grimly joked that our state’s most valuable export was her young people.

This group’s “solutions” made things worse, and Bodnar’s would too. While pretending to control property taxes, they raised them (sound familiar?). They went to war against mining. They jacked the state income tax up until it was tied for highest in the United States. They poured state money into favored businesses, which often went bankrupt, costing the taxpayers millions.

In 1993, Racicot proposed having state bureaucrats take over our healthcare, putting Bradley in charge of the project, which crashed and burned after wasting even more public money. Racicot, Buchanan and Bradley also pushed for a sales tax to squeeze even more cash out of Montanans, with the threat of higher income taxes if voters didn’t comply. Montanans rejected both ideas by 3-1 margins.

Blessedly, this group no longer controls Montana. The voters have rejected their ideas. Today, they are limited to sanctimonious preaching about why we should do things their way.

Montana voters don’t want to see that dull blue past return via Seth Bodnar. They want a bright red future. The Treasure State has been far better off since they left the political arena. Let’s not bring back their failed ways by electing Seth Bodnar as a phony “Independent” candidate.

Montana’s political history is full of hard-learned lessons. If someone wants to represent Montana in the U.S. Senate, they should know past mistakes so we don’t repeat them.