News that Mayor John Engen endorsed Obama was first reported in Chris Cillizza’s political blog “The Fix” in the Washington Post.
Cillizza’s post examines Montana’s political landscape and tries to conclude whether Obama or Sen. Hillary Clinton has a better chance of pulling off a win in the Big Sky state.
Cillizza compares the heated presidential primary to Montana’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in 2006 between then-state Senate president Jon Tester and state Auditor John Morrison.
“Tester’s path to victory in the primary was built on a huge margin in Missoula County n an area dominated by the college-town of Missoula where the University of Montana is located,” Cillizza writes.
He goes on to say, “In many ways, Tester’s primary win is a blueprint for how Obama hopes to carry the state. Obama has shown considerable strength on college campuses over the nomination fight and has been actively organizing in Missoula for quite some time. Obama also has the support of Missoula Mayor John Engen, a popular and influential figure in the city.”
Engen was at lunch on Monday with organizers of the Obama campaign when he told them that he would endorse the Illinois senator.
Though Engen said he holds both candidates in high esteem, the “inclusive message of change and vision and energy that Obama delivers time after time after time is inspiring to me,” Engen said Friday.
He compared Obama’s energy to that of Tester’s.
Cillizza goes on to say that Clinton may do well in places like Silver Bow and Cascade counties because of the number of blue-collar workers who may be “attracted to the New York Senator’s message on middle-class voters and their economic struggles.”
To check out the whole Washington Post item, go to http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/03/montana_a_june_battleground.html.
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