Campaign for control of Legislature begins

HELENA (AP) — The campaign for control of the Montana Legislature got underway Wednesday with 125 House and Senate seats up for grabs in November’s general election.

State Sen. Ed Walker, the GOP legislative campaign committee director, said Wednesday he expects Republicans to unite for the general election despite harsh primary fights between conservative and moderate candidates.

“We always fear that these primaries are going to rip us apart but they really never do,” Walker said.

Republicans have controlled both the Montana House and Senate for the past two legislative sessions. But a redrawn legislative map based on the U.S. Census has thrown incumbents and candidates into new, sometimes unfamiliar campaign territories this year.

Democrats, sensing opportunity, are fielding candidates in each of the 100 House and 25 Senate races.

Walker acknowledged it will take work for Republicans to retain their legislative majority in November’s elections.

Lauren Caldwell, director of the Montana Democratic Party’s legislative campaign committee, didn’t immediately return a call for comment Wednesday. She previously said that redistricting made the elections “either party’s game.”

Incumbents mostly held on against primary challengers in Tuesday’s elections, though some races came down to the wire. Many of the Republican campaigns were marked by attack mailers by outside groups supporting rival conservative and moderate party factions, a spillover from a GOP rift in the 2013 session.

In one of the races, Sen. Scott Boulanger, a conservative from Darby who was appointed to the seat in 2012, lost in a squeaker to challenger Patrick Connell.

In another, four-time state representative Duane Ankney of Colstrip beat challenger Barry Usher after both were the target of campaign attack mailers. The attacks accused Ankney of excessive spending after he worked with Democrats to pass a budget during the 2013 legislative session.

The Secretary of State’s office estimated 217,764 people voted in Tuesday’s primaries, which is about a 33 percent turnout. That is slightly better than the 2010 midterm primaries, which saw 32.5 percent turnout.