Is conservative mandate already derailed in Helena?

When Montana voters handed huge legislative majorities to the GOP this November, those elections carried a powerful conservative mandate. A mandate that was resonating across our nation.

With an economy in shambles and personal liberties in grave peril, we demanded an end to Big Government’s “business as usual. Yes, we knew both parties shared the blame for the abyss we were in, but we also knew only one party had the potential to lead us back into the sunlight. We voted Republican.

A little over a month has passed, and there is already strong indication that Republican legislators will once again abandon the conservative mandate that got them elected. It is an old story here in Montana, where only the dates and names seem to change. For 35 years, I have observed our Republican Party squander its majorities through philosophical division and a lack of resolve — two qualities that seldom encumber the Democrats. But this time, the conservative mandate is so clear and the need for change so great, that a floundering GOP, spending the next 90 legislative days fumbling the ball and punting to the Democrats, is a GOP that may never regain the trust of the people.

Consider what just happened in the House of Representatives. While holding a 68-32 majority over the Democrats, House Republicans proceeded to select as their leader, a liberal-leaning Mike Milburn of Great Falls. Milburn’s combined conservative voting record for the 2007-2009 sessions was 30 percent (source: Montana Conservatives “TAB” legislative voting index). Senate Republicans, meanwhile, chose Jim Peterson as president. Peterson’s conservative score was a whopping 22 percent.

Both Milburn and Peterson are altogether decent chaps. That’s not the issue. The question is, where will they lead? Will they accommodate the conservative mandate? We can hope for that, but historically, when moderate-to-liberal Republicans are in control, they give more attention to the Democrats than to the conservatives in their own party.

A good predictor of what’s to come are the all-important committee chair appointments. Several selections were solidly conservative, but the overwhelming majority of key committees were handed to left-of-center Republicans. In the House, those included Appropriations (McNutt, 17 percent conservative rating), Business & Labor (Arntzen, 19 percent), Local Government (MacLaren, 25 percent), Federal Relations (Klock, 14 percent) and Fish, Wildlife & Parks (Washburn, 28 percent.) On the Senate side, Finance & Clams went to Lewis (9 percent conservative), Public Health to Murphy (20 percent), Energy to Olson (9 percent), and Transportation to Jones (11 percent). Both houses selected Education chairs hostile to market-based school reform.

If you are wondering why Montana’s conservative majority keeps getting the short end of the stick, session after legislative session, it is because we rely on a Republican Party that does not exist. In reality, there are three major parties in our state: the Democrats (100 percent liberal), the Conservative Republicans, and the Liberal Republicans. The “LRs” represent about one-third of elected Republicans, and they vote with the Democrats most of the time, counteracting any effort to advance a conservative agenda.

A poignant example is liberal Republican poster child Sen. Taylor Brown. While conservatives are trying to finally bring some school reform into our state, Brown (an 11 percent conservative) is making plans to carry a bill for Democrat OPI head Denise Juneau to extend the number of days of forced attendance in public schools!

If there is any hope for conservative Montanans in the coming legislature, it will come from a highly organized, principled group of Republican legislators who will simply not allow the conservative mandate of November 2 to be stolen from them and turned into a Frankenstein for Big Government. They will need to go to the people, early and often, sounding the alarm and holding forth the prospect real change. And they will need to remind themselves daily that they serve the people, not their liberal-leaning leaders.

Roger Koopman is a two-term former state representative from Bozeman. He is currently president of Montana Conservative Alliance.