Montana GOP set to win House

HELENA – Montana Republicans harnessed tea party fervor and anti-Washington, D.C., sentiment to stake big election wins, sweeping Democrats out of the state House and grabbing control of the Legislature to an extent none thought possible before Election Day.

Even Republicans themselves were stunned Wednesday morning to learn they likely will hold as many as 68 of the 100 seats in the House, while also improving their 27-23 margin in the Senate by at least one seat.

The big story was in the House, which was split evenly 50-50 going into the election. Republicans won every battleground race and then some – including seats in traditional Democratic strongholds of Butte, Helena and Cascade County.

After being deadlocked – or close to it – for several legislative sessions, the Republicans now control the House in a way neither party has in many years.

“I have spent the morning trying to digest the scope of this landslide,” said state Sen. Jeff Essmann, a Billings Republican who led the party’s legislative campaign effort.

Montana Republicans ran hard on campaigns that tied local Democratic legislators to President Barack Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and initiatives like federal health care reform.

It helped that the GOP message was spread by a huge influx of unregulated money from out-of-state groups that filled mailboxes with attack advertising. The commissioner of political practices was caught in pre-election court battles and was virtually ignored by the largest of the groups even after he told them what they were doing was illegal.

“There was an enormous amount of money spent in those Republican races, that negative mail coming in from those out-of-state groups,” said Sen. Carol Williams, D-Missoula. “If that is the way the game is going to get played, yes, that is how we are going to have to play the game. None of us want to.”

Several races were still too close to call. But if Republicans end up winning the races they were leading on Wednesday, they would claim 68 seats in the House and 28 in the Senate.

The one bright spot for the Democrats came in the state’s most-watched battle pitting Democratic Rep. Kendall Van Dyk against incumbent Billings Sen. Roy Brown, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2008 against Schweitzer. Both sides combined to spend more than $200,000, and Schweitzer stepped in to help down his former nemesis.

Van Dyk was confident Wednesday with his 16-vote lead, with provisional ballots still being gathered. Those provisionals wouldn’t be counted until next week, which would set the stage for a near-certain recount – meaning the race could still be up in the air come December.

Democrats had disappointing losses all across the state. In Bozeman, incumbent Democratic Rep. JP Pomnichowski was down 64 votes to Republican Tom Burnett after the dust settled Wednesday – with almost no chance that enough provisional ballots would surface to change the outcome.

“My opponent or his supporters tied me to national policy,” Pomnichowski said. “I didn’t think the level of national discontent was so steep in Montana.”