“I am officially opening up the Montana Division of Operation Chaos,” Andy B. Hammond wrote on his blog Wednesday. “It is the creation of Rush Limbaugh to create chaos in the Democratic primaries.”
His blog, The Hammond Report, is found at: www.thehammondreport.com. It said 160,000 Pennsylvania Republicans switched to the Democratic primary and helped Clinton defeat Barack Obama by 55 percent to
Montana doesn't have party registration. A voter receives both parties' primary ballots, votes one and discards the other.
With Montana and South Dakota having the final presidential primaries, Hammond said he will be voting for Clinton and has recruited eight other conservatives to follow suit. They, in turn, intend to find “many more” to do likewise, he said.
“While this will be fun, it's also serious business,” Hammond said on his blog. “We can't have either of these far-left liberals heading the country. It will be devastating on so many other levels. While I hold my nose about McCain, he is far, far better than Hillary and Obama.”
He also urged Montana conservatives and Republicans to tell pollsters they were voting for Obama, but then vote for Clinton on June 3.
“The strategy is to vote for Hillary to keep her in the race so they both continue to weaken each other financially and politically,” Hammond said in an e-mail response to a question.
Hammond said he is in his mid-40s and has blogged for about two years.
He said he is not in a position to raise money to promote Operation Chaos in Montana.
“I'm just a working stiff whose only political voice is the Hammond Report,” he said. “I have a family and a job to take care of first, with barely enough time to participate in the Montana Blogosphere.”
His effort will be to report, “such as it is,” on the effort and encourage Republicans to vote.
In response, Clinton's spokeswoman Kate Downen said: “Senator Clinton demonstrated last night in Pennsylvania and last month in Ohio that she is the strongest candidate to take on John McCain in the fall. She is the candidate with real solutions to the health care crisis, a real economic plan and a plan to bring our troops home from Iraq. Her victories in big states prove that again and again.”
Craig Wilson, a Montana State University-Billings political science professor, said this so-called “raiding” - trying to influence the other party's primary election by voting for a perceived weaker candidate - is always hard to prove.
“With an open primary, there's no real reason for Republicans to vote in a Republican primary this year,” Wilson said.
He noted the GOP has six little-known Republicans running for the U.S. Senate seat held by longtime Democratic incumbent Max Baucus.
“I think that gives them two real choices: Don't vote or vote in the Democratic primary,” Wilson said.
Republicans might stay in the GOP primary because of a hotly contested legislative race, he said.
It will be independents, not Democrats, who decide which Democratic presidential candidate wins Montana, Wilson said, and independents will vote in the Democratic primary in overwhelming numbers.
The other question, Wilson said, is whether Montana will still matter in the Democratic presidential battle by June 3.
“If we don't matter, any attempt to raid isn't going to be successful,” Wilson said. “If we do matter, an organized attempt to raid is questionable in terms of its effectiveness. A significant number of Republicans will stay home.”
|
 |
 |
Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)