Month: February 2015

I may have been misinformed, and apologize to Nick Dranias.  It appears the bill killed in Wyoming Senate Rules was the CoS bill, not the Compact.  So Nick may be on his way to his third state.  He actually got one more vote in the House than we did.  Good luck, Nick.

Matthew wasn’t confident about the vote in House Judiciary today, so he got a week’s continuance.  No word yet on who needs convincing.  If we can get Matthew to a radio station to cut a spot we’ll be on the radio by Tuesday.  And we’ll try to run as intensive a phone operation as we can put together in a week.  If House leadership would whisper in a few ears it would help.  I think it’s doable.  We’ll have to fight just as hard on the House floor vote.

CoS lost in Montana Senate Judiciary 2-10, a wipeout.  Chairman Scott Sales (think Andy Biggs of Arizona) tabled the bill, so it’s dead unless they can get 26 on a discharge petition  — which, given the vote in Judiciary, is impossible.  We’ll have to deal with the same Chairman, and may need a discharge ourselves.  But I think we could get 26, if the stars were all aligned.

Sponsor Kraig Powell called from Utah.  A House hearing is set for the 18th, and Bill Fruth and I will go a day early so he can make his presentation.  Kraig has leadership on board, and thinks we’re in good shape.  Kasich’s visit seems to have been quite helpful.  Turnover in the House has given him a whole lot of new people to work with, and he thinks he’s got the votes.  I hadn’t heard from him in a month, and was starting to get worried.  Not really.  I trust Kraig.

Biddulph et al are working Virginia hard, but have got an uphill fight.  They can’t lose a single Republican in the Senate, and there are a couple Senators who are apparently hard core.  They’ll be up for election in November, and maybe we can all get together and elect some new faces.  But that’s for another day.

Matthew says, again, that Sarah Palin could swing a vote or two.  Tea Party Sal Russo can get through to her, and if he can’t get her to listen to our request then I guess she’s just not interested.  Too bad.  It’s a perfect situation for her.  Mark Levin can talk to her, but we can’t seem to get his ear either.  He bought in to the whole CoS idea, and may not want to give it up.  That will change over time, I’m confident, but probably not in time to help in Montana.

Co-founder Darren has set March 1st as the date for the new website and all that will go with it.  He’s setting up his own business in Bozeman, with doors to open on March 15th, so he’s basically up to his ass in alligators.  He’s been working 12 hour days, and more, for quite a while, so this is a big sacrifice for him.  He’ll be repaid like the rest of us.  In the hearts of his countrymen.

Dave Luketic from Kasich’s office is proving most helpful.  The Governor is following through on what he promised, and Dave just asks who he should call.  Unfortunately he doesn’t have any influence with Scott Sales’ of the world.  But who does?

This isn’t going to be easy.  On the other hand, it’s never been done in the history of this country.

It shouldn’t be easy.

That’s what we were looking at in the Montana House Judiciary Committee, so Matthew asked for a week’s delay.  We should have a week to get a vote.  We’ve got some ideas.

The news from the Wyoming Senate Rules meeting is a death knell for the Compact.  Nick Dranias was at the Goldwater Institute when he came up with this scheme, and he managed to get two states.  But he’s running on fumes and it’s too bad.  He got out of committee in the Wyoming House right before us, by the same vote.  He was all jacked up.  He’s a good guy, and I hope he figures things out and joins us.

The news from the Montana Judiciary Committee today will be almost as devastating for CoS.  They put everything they had into Montana, ran a first class operation.  We both wanted Senator Roger Webb as our sponsor  — they got him.  We both wanted to turn out the grass roots.  They did, and we didn’t.  Rep. Bob Brown of Thompson Falls told me he got a letter of support for CoS from a constituent that didn’t smell right.  So he called the guy up, and the guy didn’t know what he was talking about.  It was a fake letter.  That is the last act of a desperate campaign.

There are good people working with CoS, all across the country.  Their man in Montana is an outstanding example.  He figured it out.  Hopefully the rest of them figure it out as well.

In time for them to do us some good.

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.

Or 10-11. Either way in Montana House Judiciary.  We may lose two or three Republicans, we may win one or two Democrats.  We’ll find out Friday morning.

At a meeting of Reagan Project Co-founders (Me, Darren and Brendan) in Bozeman last night we decided that Brendan and Darren should try to raise some money on this web site.  We’ll form a LLC, get an EIN, obtain 501  (c) (4) status as tax exempt, get a Paypal account, a post office box and a bank account.  Darren will do most of that as well as redo the site.  He’ll work with Brendan to get lists of target donors, and Brendan will dial for dollars.

Bill Fruth told me this morning he’s about tapped out.  Without him going to Capitols and doing his pitch we’re in big trouble. I can’t spend any more of my wife’s and my money   — she wouldn’t put up with it and  I don’t blame her.  We cannot and should not depend on yet more generosity from the Biddulphs.   That’s wrong.  Task Force fundraising has been abysmal.

I believe my boys can pull it off.