“I see Republicans of all stripes here, and that's a strength,” Iverson said, pointing out Republicans with different philosophies in the crowd. “I don't see it as a weakness.”
Speaking to the opening reception at the Montana Republican convention, Iverson told how Republicans want to win statewide elective offices and control the Montana House and Senate. Iverson predicted that state Sen. Roy Brown, R-Billings, would unseat Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer and the GOP would win at least three of the top statewide offices and majorities in both chambers of the Legislature
On Friday, Montana Republicans will elect 22 delegates and 22 alternates to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., on Sept. 1-4.
In the binding Feb. 5 Montana caucus, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won the winner-take-all event, with Paul, a Texas congressman, finishing second and McCain, the Arizona senator, placing third. Romney won 34 percent of the vote, while Paul had 25 percent, McCain had 22 percent, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee had 15 percent and Alan Keyes had 1 percent. Romney dropped out of the race a few days after the Montana caucus.
In the nonbinding June 3 Montana Republican presidential primary, McCain won 76 percent of the vote, while Paul had 21 percent. Two percent of the voters had no preference. (The numbers don't add to 100 percent because of rounding.)
McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is not appearing at the Montana convention, but another McCain surrogate will speak Friday night.
Paul, who dropped out of the race earlier this month, will address the convention Friday night and is set to meet with his delegates to the convention before the polling begins to elect national convention delegates.
“We'll do our best to elect some Ron Paul people to go to national,” said David Hart of Kalispell, his Montana coordinator. “We're here to play the game. It's not for Ron Paul. He's obviously not in the race anymore. It's for the principles he stands for.”
Hart said he would sort through the delegate numbers Thursday night to help decide how many national convention delegate slots Paul's supporters will seek.
A national McCain campaign spokeswoman, Crystal Benton, declined to discuss convention strategy in terms of Montana delegates.
“Sen. McCain does enjoy strong support in the state of Montana,” she said in a phone interview. “He's a Western senator and Western states like Montana appreciate an independent streak in their candidates and someone who will represent states' rights and represent these voters.”
3 defeated GOP legislators to run as write-ins
By MIKE DENNISON
Missoulian State Bureau
HELENA - A trio of Republican state legislators defeated in the June 3 primary election said Thursday they were the victims of “last-minute, sleazy” campaign attacks, and are launching write-in bids to reclaim their seats this fall.
“I feel that I was beat by sleazy, untrue and probably immoral campaign tactics that represent only a small group of people,” said Rep. Carol Lambert, R-Broadus. “I would not sleep very well at night if I didn't try and overcome what I believe was very unfair and truthful.”
Lambert was joined at a Capitol news conference by Reps. John Ward of Helena and Bruce Malcolm of Emigrant.
Each of them lost a primary challenge to a fellow Republican in this month's primary election, and said they'll now run as write-in candidates in the general election.
Ward said he knows winning a write-in race is difficult, but that he's received encouragement from people in his district and has already begun raising money and organizing a campaign.
“I cannot stand by and let extremists profit from their last-minute, sleazy campaign tactics,” he said.
Lambert, Ward and Malcolm were among a dozen Republican House members targeted for defeat this spring by fellow Republican Rep. Roger Koopman of Bozeman, who called them “liberals” and “socialists” who had betrayed conservative principles.
They also were the targets of campaign mailers attacking them on a variety of issues, such as voting to repeal the death penalty, for energy-company tax breaks or against anti-abortion bills. For instance, voters in Malcolm's district received a mailing accusing him of coddling child-molesting serial killers such as John Wayne Gacy, and accused child cannibalizer Nathaniel Bar-Jonah. Malcolm had voted to repeal the death penalty.
The mailers were sent to voters in the last few days before the June 3 election and were rife with distortions and lies, Ward, Lambert and Malcolm said.
Several newly formed political action committees sent the mailers, including Mothers Against Child Predators and the Coalition for Energy and the Environment, both of which list a Bozeman address.
The treasurer for each group is Jennifer Paul of Bozeman, who is listed as a contact for the Big Sky Pachyderm Club, a Republican Party group in Gallatin County.
Paul declined to speak to a reporter on Thursday about the groups.
Lambert, Ward and Malcolm said they don't know who's behind the groups, but labeled them “extremists,” because they're attacking the trio for their work to help craft a compromise state budget during the 2007 Legislature.
Koopman said Thursday he had nothing to do with the campaign mailers and said they were in “bad taste.”
He also said it's “a complete fallacy” to blame the mailers for the defeat of Ward, Lambert and Malcolm.
“Voters aren't stupid,” Koopman said. “They recognize when something is over the top. I think these pieces had a blowback effect that actually lost votes for the conservatives (running against the incumbents).”
Lambert, from House District 39 in southeastern Montana, lost the Republican primary to Lee Randall of Broadus. Malcolm lost in the HD61 Republican primary to Joel Boniek of Livingston.
Neither district has a Democratic candidate, so the winner of the Republican primary is the district's next representative - unless he loses to a write-in challenger.
Ward lost the HD84 Republican primary to Mike Miller of Helmville. That district, which covers portions of Powell and Lewis and Clark counties, also has Democrat Wayne Lewis of Helena and Libertarian Ron Vandevender of Cascade in the race.
Koopman said Ward is helping Democrats by running as a write-in, potentially splitting the Republican vote and making it easier for the Democrats to win a Republican-leaning district.
“They're not showing themselves to be good Republicans,” he said of Ward and the others. “It's dividing the Republican Party in those areas at the very time when we need to be pulling together. I think they're having a hard time accepting the fact that they lost.”
Ward said if the campaign against him had been “conducted honestly and honorably,” without distorting his voting record, he would endorse the Republican nominee.
“As long as I have an option, I will not let my district be represented by sleaze, if I can at all help it,” he said.
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