Consarn those public schools!
Not long ago, Majority Leader Austin Knudsen (R–Folksville) announced committee assignments for the Montana State House. Seniority did not rule the day. Two freshman representatives, Jeff Essmann of Billings and Art Wittich of Belgrade, became heads of the Human Services and State Administration committees, respectively. Sarah Lazsloffy, daughter of Montana Family Foundation president Jeff Laszloffy and Helena’s youngest legislator, leapfrogged senior colleagues to chair the Education Committee. Besides their unexpected rise to power, what these representatives have in common is their loyalty to the conservative faction of the Montana GOP. You might remember this schism from the 2013 session, when moderate Republicans joined Democrats to vote down Knudsen’s proposal to use public funds to finance private schools. You might also remember the leaked email chain in which Essman, Wittich and alleged partner/family member abuser Jason Priest hatched a plan to “purge” said moderates from the Republican Party. Montana politics is awesome, and you can read all about it in my column for this week’s Missoula Independent. We’ll be back tomorrow with Friday links, an alarming number of which involve close cooperation between government and industry, as well as police brutality. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
