Primary season kicks off in earnest

2014 will be a busy election year, starting with dozens of contested primary races across the state and plenty of them here in the Flathead Valley.

Congratulations are in order to Montana Democrats for recruiting candidates for every legislative race in the state for the first time in recent memory. That certainly hasn’t been the case with Flathead legislative races in recent election cycles, but this time around, voters will have the deserved opportunity to make choices in local races in November’s general election.

Meanwhile, there will be five contested primary races for Flathead legislative seats, four of them between Republicans and one between three Democrats.

On the Republican side of the ledger, many contested primaries across the state involve a dynamic between two factions that have emerged in the party. It will be interesting to see who prevails for control of the GOP legislative caucus. One group styles itself “Responsible Republicans,” and the other group more or less asks, “Responsible for what?”

On the downside of last Monday’s deadline for people to file as candidates, several Flathead County races have only incumbent officeholders running, including sheriff, county attorney, county treasurer and justice of the peace positions. That can be just fine when the incumbents are entirely competent, but even then a good dose of competition is always preferable.

Fortunately, that will be the case with the contest for a county commissioner seat this year. Commissioner Cal Scott, who was appointed to the position two years ago, will seek election on his own as a Republican. He will face former Whitefish council member Phil Mitchell in the primary. On the Democratic side, two lesser known candidates — Jack Garlitz of Whitefish and Stacey L. Schnebel of Coram — will square off in June.

Throw in the national race for control of the U.S. House and Senate in the mid-term elections, and 2014 promises to be a political year to remember.

Editorials represent the majority opinion of the Daily Inter Lake’s editorial board.