It's A Beautiful Day in Montana

[Divine Ms Q]

Governor Brian Schweitzer will be inaugurated today at 10:00 AM MST.

The new Democrat Legislature will convene at noon.

Keep the faith, DU'ers...miracles do happen! :party:

[Florida_Geek]

1. Welcome to DU

:toast:

[ShaneGR]

2. Out of curiosity? What kind of campaign did they run?

Was it similar to what happened in Colorado?

[Divine Ms Q]

4. Schweitzer

Brian Schweitzer ran a very good campaign. The things he had going for him were:

1. Our state's economy in in the toilet thanks to 16 years of Repug "leadership"

2. Our last governor, Judy Martz, was atrocious.

3. He ran a very clean, issue-oriented, focused campaign, emphasizing fiscal responsibility and social progressiveness (he was one of the Dean Dozen)

4. He ran on a spirit of bipartisanship, including the unprecedented act of selecting a Republican as his running mate (actually, this person is a RINO).

I'm not sure how the Democrats managed to take control of the Legislature, though. Part of it was due to redistricting, that's for sure. I'm Billings, which is generally fairly conservative, yet the Democrat candidates for both my House and Senate districts won.

Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[autorank]

3. Welcome to DU!!! Mega Congratulations to MT Democrats--Inspiring!!!

[Endangered Specie]

5. Us NCers also took back our state legislature

:)

[Divine Ms Q]

6. This is the part of Howard Dean's philosophy

in which I am in total agreement. We need to begin at the base and build from there. City Councils, School boards, State Legislatures, etc. Once the general public learns to trust us in the positions that most closely affect their daily lives, then the Repugs won't be able to smear us in the national races.

What other states, besides Montana and North Carolina, have seen a more general trend towards Democrats in their state and local governments?

[Divine Ms Q]

7. article on Schweitzer

Here is a link to an article the Billings Gazette ran on Brian Schweitzer yesterday.

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/01/02/build/state/30-schweitzers-goals.inc

[ochazuke]

8. How much of an issue was the environment?

Drilling for oil and gas along the Rocky Mountain front made the national news. Lifelong Republicans were against the Bush policy of Total War on the Earth and voting for Kerry.

[David Ippolito]

9. Light is the only thing...

ONLY light can chase away the darkness.

Cynicism and anger don't chase away deceptiontion and anger.

Reason and Love are the solution.

Reason.

Truth.

Keep on keepin' on.

[ibegurpard]

10. I want to correct something for you if you don't mind

Please don't use Democrat as an adjective. The correct adjective form of Democrat is Democratic. The Republicans have steadily been trying to subtly control language by pushing this into the public discourse...they don't like the association between big D Democratic and little D democratic and so they're pushing this bad grammar and no one ever calls them on it. We need to stop giving in to even little word games like this.
Thank you.

[Redneck Socialist]

11. thank you

This is a pet peeve of mine too.

[Divine Ms Q]

12. sorry

I got it mixed up...I knew there was one "right" way and one "correct" way. :spank:

[ochazuke]

13. Yeah

I noticed that, too. I think the Republicans appeal to the crackers and red necks by saying "Democrat rules" and "Democrat ideas" and the like. To me, it sits in the ear like an N word.