Do You Know Who Brian Schweitzer Is?

And if you don't... shouldn't you?

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0412.sirota.html

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There aren't too many states in the union redder than Montana. George Bush won the state by more than 20 points in November. The state legislature and governorship in the capital, Helena, have been in GOP hands for 16 years. Sparsely-populated Montana is represented by only one congressman, the far-right Rep. Denny Rehberg, and by two senators, an ultra-conservative Republican (Conrad Burns) and a conservative Democrat (Max Baucus) who often votes with the Republicans. The state's electoral votes are conceded so automatically to the GOP that neither party's candidate campaigns there. Culturally, with the exception of a few rich Hollywood types who weekend in places like Big Sky, the state could hardly be further from the metro-cosmopolitan culture of the coasts. To give but one example, Montana has the highest percentage of hunters of any state in the union.

But in November, a Democrat, Brian Schweitzer, won the state's race for governor. Schweitzer not only won, but he also won decisively, beating his opponent Bob Brown, the Republican secretary of state and a two-decade fixture in Montana politics, by a solid four points. His victory was so resounding and provided down-ballot party members such strong coattails that Montana Democrats took the state senate and four of five statewide offices.

How did Schweitzer pull off such a dramatic victory in an election year when Democrats seemed to have lost their capacity to win red states? The answer should give Democrats everywhere some hope and Republicans reason to worry.

The story begins with the man himself. If you look in an encyclopedia under Montana: Self-Image of, you'll find a picture of Brian Schweitzer. He is the grandson of Montana homesteaders and looks the part: He is a burly six-foot-two, always clad in jeans with a gilded silver belt buckle. Schweitzer put himself through college by mopping floors at sororities, got a master's degree from Montana State in, of all things, soil science, and then worked for eight years on irrigation projects in the part of the world that's hardest to irrigate—the Sahara Desert. When he returned to Montana in the late 1980s, he built a farming and ranching business from scratch—no small task at a time when corporate agribusiness was swallowing huge swaths of America's heartland. He is gregarious, tough-talking, and utterly without self-doubt.



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n/t

Proud to be a former and future Montanan!

He's part of a gang I like to refer to as 'The Future'.

Warner, Obama, Spitzer, Schweitzer, Ford Jr., Hackett, Kaine, Anthony G. Brown.

Can you tell me more about his positions on the issues? Is he considered to be reasonably progressive? I'm quite interested in learning more about him.

on bringing home the national guard. Schweitzer said something along the lines of, "Bring the guard home for the Montana wildfire season. This is where they belong, not in Iraq fighting a war." He also spoke out very strongly against Bush's push to privatize social security.

One of the few elected officals who doest govern by polls at all.

http://www.brianschweitzer.com/issues.html

Why would you think DUers wouldn't know who he is, though?

Westerners are beginning to awaken to the destruction wrought by the republican policies that have been imposed on their states and the many acres of public lands we hold in trust. Starting with Reagan, we have had Interior Secretary's, like James Watt and his proteges, that have instituted policies of rape and pillage in the name of conservative politics. By uniting the far right isolationists, anti-government gun nuts, and the enviro-haters they have ignored and trampled on the very values of western conservatism. A conservative attitude that is more in line with American Progressive values than most would admit.
Watch for more democratic/progressive gains in western states like Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada as we kick the carpetbaggers back into the distant past they emerged from.