Democrats

Ryan Clayton introduced himself to me and Bill Fruth in Cheyenne.  He’s the executive director of WolfPac, which was formed to pass a constitutional amendment, through Article V, to overturn the Citizens United decision.  They want to keep corporate, union, and “dark” money out of politics.  They’ve passed resolutions in three liberal states, and are now working Montana.  A whole lot of Democrats, and some Republicans, believe in this. It polls well — real well.   Most conservatives, including the Reagan Project, oppose it.

Ryan’s young, smart, and enthusiastic.  I kind of liked him, though he’s a little pushy.  He managed to convince me that his effort is of benefit to us.  He spends half his time convincing his fellow Democrats that Article V is safe.  They resist, occasionally, and spout the same sort of nonsense we’re used to hearing.  He’s quite effective in convincing them, using the same arguments, and authorities, that we use.  In Montana this means we’ve got a real shot at a couple Democrats in Judiciary  — votes we need.  We’d probably get a few on a floor vote as well.

In Oregon Senator Boquist, unbeknownst to us, has filed our bill.  Oregon’s a pretty blue state, under complete Democrat control, and we’d written it off.  Ryan told me today that they’ve got a campaign going in Oregon.  If he needs help getting his bill through, he might turn to Republicans for help.  He would add our BBA to his Resolution, and make it either/or.  In other words it would count as one of his states, and one of our states as well.

It’s a thought.

Co-founder Brendan will be contacting the Montana State Young Republicans next week to recruit them to join his phone call campaign.  They’re sponsoring a debate this afternoon between a Bircher and a CoS representative speaking on behalf of Article V.  No doubt these kids are smart enough to see through the Birch bullshit, and Brendan will be able to fire them up for a BBA.  If you’re a college kid it would make sense.

Another source of recruits for Brendan are the CoS people I saw in Senate Judiciary.  There must have been a dozen, from all over the state.  They all lined up and spoke a few words for the CoS bill.  I was there as an observer, but then I saw CoS sponsor Senator Roger Webb, who we had wanted as our sponsor.  I had a nice talk with him the day before.  So I figured, what the hell, and got up and testified at the very end.  I couldn’t speak for the Task Force, but I could for the Reagan Project.  I endorsed the bill wholeheartedly, and got off a couple of my better lines.

So I’m leaving the Capitol and this nice looking young man comes up and introduces himself.  He’s the main CoS guy in Montana, the guy who got all those people to the hearing.  He’s also the guy who is debating, as I type, the Bircher at Montana State.  He thanks me for my testimony and we have a nice talk.  He now realizes he screwed up joining the CoS crowd, and should have been with us.  So when his bill dies in Senate Judiciary tomorrow I’m going to give him a call.

Except I can’t remember his name.