Your Turn

For too long, the Rocky Mountain West has been a blank spot on the map of presidential politics. But that’s beginning to change, and Montana can do its part by joining other western states in coordinating our presidential primaries or caucuses. A bill now under consideration in the Montana House would give us that opportunity.

House Bill 797, introduced by Rep. Duane Ankney (R-Colstrip), would give the Secretary of State the authority to set the date of Montana’s presidential primary to coincide with other Mountain West primaries or caucuses. The bill had a hearing before the State Administration Committee on February 23.

Whether this particular bill is exactly the right vehicle for Montana to ride is a matter to which we’ll return later, but Montanans should not miss this opportunity to discuss among ourselves the best way for Montana to play its part in gaining a stronger voice for the Mountain West.

The first thing to notice about this regional effort is that it is not partisan. Last March, both our Democratic Governor Brian Schweitzer and our Republican Secretary of State Brad Johnson, spoke out in favor of Montana aligning its presidential primary with other western states. They were following the bipartisan lead of Govs. Bill Richardson (D, NM), Jon Huntsman (R, UT) and Janet Napolitano (D, AZ) who had already moved their states into alignment on Feb. 5, 2008.

“We don’t believe in the West that we ought to let Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina pick our presidents,” Schweitzer has said, while Johnson has pledged that, “by working together with my Democrat and Republican colleagues in other Western states I want to … make sure all voices are heard.”

There is justifiable concern now in some quarters that February 5 may become so crowded, with big states like California and Florida also considering moving their primaries to that date, that small population states like Montana would simply get swamped and ignored once again. Clearly, the front-end-loading of the primary calendar is now threatening to become so pronounced in 2008 that it might force the political parties (and maybe even Congress) to consider alternative approaches like a national primary or a rotating system of regional primaries, starting in 2012.

If Montana was just trying to make itself heard in the presidential sweepstakes, it would not make sense for us to move our presidential primary to the increasingly crowded February 5 date. We may almost as well leave it where it is now, in June, where we have no influence at all on the choice of either party’s candidate.

But this is not about Montana (or any other western state) gaining more clout for itself. The point is to give our whole region and its issues more attention.

Westerners are already working to do that in Nevada, where the Democrats will conduct their presidential caucus on January 19, between the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary, and where they are planning a candidate forum in August, focusing specifically on western issues. Meanwhile, the Western Governor’s Association and other western policymakers are planning their own candidates’ forum on western issues.

If these and similar efforts succeed in getting presidential candidates to address western issues like energy, National Forest management, or tribal issues, the simultaneous scheduling of western primaries and caucuses will take on a new significance. Most candidates still won’t spend much time in states like Montana or Wyoming, but if they address our issues when they stop in Denver or Salt Lake City, they will be seeking, not just our few delegates, but a much larger number of Rocky Mountain delegates. Our part of the country would then be viewed like a big state and treated accordingly. But that can only happen if the states of the Rocky Mountain West insist that the candidates address our issues.

Montana should be part of this united effort. Whether we do it by moving our presidential primary to February 5, or by encouraging both parties to hold caucuses that day, we should stand together with our western neighbors, unified to bring recognition to our interests, our concerns and our people.

Bob Brown and Daniel Kemmis are senior fellows at the University of Montana’s O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West. Brown is a former Republican xecretary of xtate and president of the Montana Senate. Kemmis is a former Democratic mayor of Missoula andsSpeaker of the Montana House of Representatives.