Opinion: Building the Airplane While It's Flying

Gary Buchanan is on the ballot as an Independent running for the Second Congressional District. I helped a little by gathering the necessary signatures. It was a curious adventure.

When the signature drive started, the political operatives all nodded sagely and said, no way, he’s doing everything wrong. They had a point.

Gary signed up at the last minute, the very day candidate filing closed. He hadn’t decided to run until a week or so earlier. And he only filed as a matter of duty, because our current representative had so embarrassed Montana—again. (Ukraine, this time.)

But wait, there’s more. Gary had eleven weeks to gather 8,722 signatures. And him with zero organization in place. Does that mean paid signature gatherers? Nope, that’s how the other guys work. At least a paid coordinator to manage the amateur signature gatherers? They’re Montanans; they’ll know what to do. Yeah, that would pass for everything wrong.

Eleven weeks later, county clerks determined that Gary had almost 14,000 valid signatures. That’s equal to more than five percent of the total vote expected in November. Something like 450 people had spontaneously appeared to do the work.

I know it’s a sentiment fit for a motivational poster, but it looks like folks in Montana have hopes that democracy works.

Still, I kind of missed a proper campaign organization. Faith that everyday people will rise to the challenge is inspirational. But it’s not always the way to bet.

So for those of us accustomed to “real” campaigns, the good news is he now has an official campaign manager. He has young hot shots doing social media, not that I would understand. But even I would agree that’s not the impressive part.

What’s most amazing is that county groups started springing up without waiting for a central organization to gel. By my estimate, counties with something like two-thirds of the district’s voters already have local operations in place and active. People were already ready to see Matt Rosendale go.

Of course, there is the small matter of winning the election before that can happen. Some data wonks think 36 percent would be enough to win because there are four candidates in the race. I’m thinking more like the low 40s myself.

But however you slice it, Gary has to get large numbers of all sorts of voters, ones who otherwise would vote for a Democratic or a Republican candidate. He can’t just go one way or the other. He has to appeal to everybody and anybody who has been expecting better from the parties.

Matt knows this. He’ll try to keep his voters in line by painting Gary as a Democrat in disguise. This fails, first because everybody knows that Democrats, disguised or otherwise, aren’t doing well in this district at the moment. Even a wig and a false mustache couldn’t turn a Democratic candidate into a successful Independent.

Second—surprise—not every Republican loves Matt. One of my favorite stories about this came from another signature gatherer. When she cautiously asked a guy wearing a MAGA hat if he would sign to put an independent on the ballot against Rosendale, the guy replied, “Against that d***? You bet!”

Gary’s hole card may be the fact that Matt Rosendale is his opponent. Some voters can’t stand Matt’s positions, like his votes against Ukraine. Others can’t stand Matt’s style.

Things like yelling and frothing at a PTA delegation seem over the top even in these strange times.

Matt is the gift that keeps on giving.

Paul Cartwright is a former Helena city commissioner, a non-partisan position.