When can democracy become a bit too much for working politicians? In Montana politics, it seems, when leaders of the state’s solid Republican legislature go to court to complain that party orthodoxy is being unfairly compromised by non-conformist and moderate G.O.P. lawmakers daring to vote for such measures as expanded government health care, greater financial disclosure in elections, and a settlement with native Americans over water rights.
The two majority leaders, Senator Matthew Rosendale and Representative Keith Regier, filed affidavits last month in an ongoing federal lawsuit aimed at firmly securing state party ranks. They actually named 18 Republican lawmakers — 18, count them — whom they rated “distressingly low” in party loyalty and discipline because they sometimes favored measures also popular with Democratic legislators. “Their actions are demoralizing,” complained Senator Rosendale about these lapses into bipartisanship. The lawsuit filed by county Republican leaders aims to make the party even more hermetically sealed by ending the state’s open primary law to prevent Democrats and independents from crossing over to vote against Republicans favored by the party machine.
The alleged fifth columnist lawmakers were having none of the leaders’ complaint. They pointed out to the Associated Press that they were elected by the people to vote their conscience, not rubber-stamp an absolutist agenda. “Why does Matt Rosendale or Keith Regier have the right to say what the Republican message is?” asked Senator Llew Jones, Republican of Conrad.
The leaders’ basic complaint is that the dissident Republicans were voting and behaving too much like Democrats. “Really?” responded Senator Jones. “We should quit allowing them the right to define these as Democratic bills.”
The legislative leaders insisted their agenda was set fairly by a questionnaire that Republican lawmakers answered. But Senator Ed Buttrey of Great Falls, a Republican who bucked the party in a successful fight to expand Medicaid, said the questions were simplistic, allowing no nuanced alternative to simply opposing Obamacare. “They took some yes-or-no answers and they decided what that means for all Republicans in Montana,” he said without apology for scandalizing his party leaders with his independence.