Montana voters smashed the
trash-can lid on the “blame the environmentalists” rhetoric so in
vogue with right-wing Republicans earlier this year.
To
no one’s surprise, Montana voters went solidly for President
George Bush and overwhelmingly reelected their sole Republican
congressman, Dennis Rehberg. But in that light, consider this:
Brian Schweitzer will become Montana’s first
Democratic governor elected in 16 years, defeating the
sophisticated, shrewd and affable Republican Bob Brown.
Two progressive candidates for the Supreme Court won handily.
Democrats took control of the state Senate and put their
candidates in all but one statewide office.
Gallatin
County, which voted 56 percent for Bush, also passed a $10 million
bond to conserve working farms and ranches to benefit clean water
and wildlife habitat. The measure passed 63 percent to 37 percent.
Rural Rosebud County, on the prairies of the Yellowstone
River, voted for Bush 55 percent. Those same electors voted 80
percent to restrict coalbed methane development, in an attempt to
protect soil and water from polluting runoff.
Even my
staunchly conservative home, Flathead County, elected its first
Democratic county commissioner in 14 years. Voters picked a
candidate who wants common-sense land-use planning over a heroine
of the Wise Use movement who promised more scattershot development
and local rebellion against the Forest Service. This was in a
county that gave Bush a resounding 68 percent of its vote.
But here’s the race that cheered me most: The
mining industry tried mightily to turn back Montana’s ban on
cyanide heap-leach gold mining, a practice that has tainted streams
across the state. At the last count, it pumped $3 million into an
ad campaign promising high-wage jobs, always a tempting argument in
chronically under-employed Montana.
The mining Goliath
outspent David conservationists by 10-to-1.Yet David won big:
Montanans rejected the mining company’s plea, 58 percent to
42 percent.
See the trend here? Even conservative voters
approved conservation. If Republicans are paying attention, they
would be well advised to drop some of their tactics. In recent
years, Montana Republicans have bashed environmentalists any time
there was a microphone or TV camera nearby. Conservation-minded
Republicans have been also marginalized within the party. Rather
than assume responsibility for the economic conditions of the state
it has run for more than a decade, the Republican elite simply
blamed environmentalists for every economic woe. This din grew
deafening during the Republican primary for the governor’s
race.
Republican candidates outshouted each other,
denouncing environmentalists while extolling the joys of extractive
industry. Even the Republican candidate for governor, Bob Brown,
who is an avid fly fisherman and once was a moderate
conservationist, joined this shrill chorus in order to win his
party’s endorsement.
This split was apparent during
the general election between Schweitzer and Brown. Schweitzer, for
example, stood against the measure to bring back cyanide-based gold
mining; Brown toed the party line and stood alongside the mining
companies.
Supreme Court races are supposed to be
nonpartisan, but the split was clear here, too. Conservative
challenger Cindy Younkin said incumbent Justice James Nelson was an
“activist” judge, liberally exalting Montana’s right to a
clean and healthy environment over the rights of industry and
property-owners.
But come Election Day, Republicans hit
the end of this rope like a rodeo calf.
Make no mistake.
Montanans resent many environmental groups, particularly
out-of-state organizations that seem oblivious to the opinions and
welfare of local residents. But at the same time, Montanans love
— no, revere — their clean water,
their hunting and fishing opportunities, and their working farms
and ranches. They want to pass those things on to future
generations, well-used but unspoiled.
Montanans want to
make a good living, but they know Montana’s clean water,
wildlife habitat and working farms and ranches guarantee the good
life. They realize what academics first noticed years ago:
Traditional industries like mining and logging no longer drive the
state’s ever-changing economy, and our scenery, clean water
and world-class habitat are priceless economic assets.
Voters — in Montana and everywhere else — care a lot
more for their families, their freedom, their communities, their
future than they do about party loyalties. They pick and choose
from one column to the other, one candidate to the other, one issue
to the other. The wise politician pays attention.
Ben Long is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a
service of High Country News in Paonia, Colorado
(hcn.org). He writes in Kalispell,
Montana.
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