“Somebody has to stop the bleeding,” Sen. John Brueggeman, R-Polson, said in an unsolicited e-mail to the Missoulian's State Bureau.
Brueggeman added that some other Republican legislators share his view, and he felt it was time to go public because their party is “kind of on the rocks right now.” The prospect of having Lange as the party's Senate nominee doesn't help, he said, because he can't win and he couldn't replace the advantages Baucus brings to the state as a senior senator.
However, Brueggeman said, if a “headlining” Republican runs for the U.S. Senate, he will happily support that candidate.
Brueggeman, 28, a residential contractor from Polson, served in the House from 2001-04 and has been in the Senate since 2005. He worked on former Republican U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns' unsuccessful 2006 re-election campaign, but wasn't on the staff in the final months.
Lange made news in the 2007 Montana Legislature when he unleashed a profanity-laced tirade against Gov. Brian Schweitzer at an open Republican caucus in late April. A Helena television newsman took a video of the speech, which ran on television statewide and nationally and has been posted on YouTube.com.
At the conclusion of the five-day special session in May, House Republicans voted to oust Lange as their majority leader.
Lange couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday, but said when he announced on June 29 that the incident proves he's human and voters are going to hold him to a higher standard, which is fine with him.
“Montanans will forgive you for an incident, but they won't forget it,” Lange said then, vowing to keep his temper in check.
The new chairman of the Montana Republican Party, Erik Iverson of Missoula, didn't take sides in the dispute, but said the party welcomes differing views.
“Senator Brueggeman is a good senator and a sharp guy, and he's entitled to his own opinion,” said Iverson, who took office last month. “The Montana Republican Party is going to strongly support the Republican nominee in the general election, whoever that may be. Differences in the party are certainly welcome. I certainly respect Senator Brueggeman.”
So far, Lange is the only announced Republican to jump into the race against Baucus, who hasn't formally announced he is seeking a sixth, six-year term - although he has been raising money for several years.
However, Roll Call, a Washington, D.C., newspaper that covers Congress and politics, reported Tuesday that unidentified Republican leaders are urging former state Sen. Bob Keenan, R-Bigfork, to jump in the Senate race. They believe Keenan, president of the Senate in 2003, to be a stronger candidate than Lange against Baucus, Roll Call said, citing anonymous sources.
Keenan did not respond to several telephone messages from the Missoulian State Bureau. Keenan challenged Burns in the Republican Senate primary last year, but Burns won, 72 percent to 22 percent, with two other candidates splitting the rest of the votes.
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