Rick Breckenridge (L) - A Matt Rosendale (R) - A+E
Jon Tester (D) - D
U.S. House of Representatives
Greg Gianforte (R) - AE
Elinor Swanson (L) - A
Kathleen Williams (D) - F
A note about Libertarian Party (LP) candidates for U.S. Senate
and U.S. House. A pair of stellar candidates have filed
for these federal offices under the LP banner. They returned
great MSSA Candidate Questionnaires. They are savvy,
dedicated, and understand RKBA issues. However and
unfortunately, they are not going to get elected. Also
unfortunately, LP candidates almost always affect such races as
spoilers (unintentionally), and just siphon off enough votes to
insure that the anti-liberty, anti-RKBA candidate gets
elected. That has happened far too many times in
Montana. Although it is unpleasant to do so, MSSA makes the
STRONG recommendation that voters concerned about the RKBA vote for
the candidates MSSA has endorsed in BOLD above. These
MSSA-endorsed candidates are proven advocates for the RKBA and are
very likely to win their respective seats if gun owners support
them.
Montana Legislature
Explanation about legislative candidate grades and endorsements
(please read): A HUGE amount of information goes into
compiling these grades and endorsements. MSSA tracks
legislative votes on gun-related bills before the Legislature.
For example, MSSA tracked 15 different votes for 100 members of the
House in the 2017 session. That's 1,500 pieces of data to
track. So, when an incumbent candidate is graded, know that
this is from hard data and historic performance. Votes cast
are highly relevant and dependable as a litmus of a candidate's RKBA
performance and attitude. It also means that the candidate is
an incumbent (usual) or has served in the Legislature before (so we
have a voting record). MSSA's
2018 Candidate Questionnaire (CQ) has 13 questions for a
candidate to answer with any one of five answers. That times
the 185 candidates just for the House in the General Election is
another potential 12,205 bits of data to receive, store, and
collate.
If a candidate returned MSSA's 2018 Candidate Questionnaire but has
not served in the Legislature (if the candidate has a voting record,
we consider votes cast to be a more reliable litmus and use that),
then the candidate is graded based on that CQ. Many candidates
(especially Democrats) are advised by others to NOT complete or
return MSSA's CQ, which is why the reader will see so many
candidates with a "?" rather than a grade. These candidates
have no voting record and no CQ on file with MSSA. It is
MSSA's position that these candidates are likely hostile to the
RKBA, which is why they didn't return MSSA's CQ. Rarely, MSSA
will grade a candidate with another basis. That's because MSSA
has some other source if information about the candidate than a
voting record or CQ. MSSA does compare notes extensively with
the NRA during the process of working up these grades and
endorsements, although MSSA and the NRA don't always agree on
appropriate grades (MSSA tends to be less forgiving of anti-gun
votes). For those few candidates who have a "+" after an "A"
grade, that is because MSSA reserves the A+ only for legislators who
have carried bills for MSSA. These are especially dedicated
and proven supporters of the RKBA. Endorsed candidates are in
Bold. Further note: Of the 242 candidates seeking the 125
seats up for grabs in the 2019 Legislature, MSSA has endorsed
72 Republicans, 2 Libertarian, and no Democrats. Thus, MSSA
has reason to endorse candidates in over half of the races for
legislative seats. Unfortunately, MSSA could not endorse any
Democrats, either because incumbents had poor voting records or
because new candidates chose to not return MSSA's Candidate
Questionnaire (or, rarely, did return MSSA's CQ but did not score
well). Honestly, MSSA would love to be able to endorse some
Democrats. However, we won't do that gratuitously. To
earn MSSA's endorsement, incumbents must vote for pro-gun bills and
new candidates must return a good CQ. Finally, what was said
above about LP candidates for federal office does not apply to the
two LP candidates endorsed below.
