Montana Lowdown

Reps. Llew Jones and Nancy Ballance are arguably two of the most influential lawmakers in the Montana Legislature.

Their admirers see them as pragmatic problem-solvers committed to finding bipartisan solutions to issues facing the state.

Their detractors say they are central figures in a group of "Republicans in name only," who are too quick to side with Democrats to pass policy and budget proposals that deviate from conservative principles.

A day after the session ended, Jones and Ballance gave their perspective on what they achieved and didn't achieve in the 2019 Legislature.

Burton K. Wheeler was an original maverick. A "Political Hellraiser," according to a new full-length biography of the former Montana Senator.

B.K. as he was known to his friends, was a champion of organized labor, a one-time vice-presidential candidate on the Progressive Party ticket, an anti-war, pro-New Deal Democrat, and a one-time ally of President Franklin D. Roosevelt who later spearheaded opposition to Roosevelt's attempt to pack the U.S. Supreme Court.

Wheeler was fiercely independent and defied conventional stereotypes of Washington, D.C. politicians.

Author and historian Marc Johnson and longtime political reporter Chuck Johnson join host John Adams to discuss the influential and controversial senator.

Over in his 16 years serving in the Montana Legislature, Sen. Jon Sesso, D-Butte, has served in Democratic leadership positions in both the House and the Senate.

As a freshman in 2005, Sesso was appointed to the powerful House Appropriations Committee, which set him on the path to becoming the Democrats' top budget negotiator. There are few lawmakers in the capitol with as much experience as Sesso, and as a top leader for the minority party, Sesso says the way to advance Democratic priorities is to find the middle ground.

Sen. Bob Keenan, a longtime conservative Republican from Bigfork, is one of the longest-serving lawmakers in the state capitol.

He served as president of the Montana Senate in 2003, and in 2006 he surprised many in his party when he challenged incumbent U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns in the 2006 Republican primary election.

Keenan, who returned to the Legislature in 2015 when he served as vice-chair of the Senate Finance Committee, is an outspoken critic of one of Legislature's most influential lawmakers, fellow Republican Rep. Llew Jones, of Conrad.

In this week's podcast, Keenan lays out his complaints what he's calling the "unicameral Legislature."

Copper made Butte the "Richest Hill," and its also the reason the historic city is home to the nation's largest Superfund site.

Hosted by Montana Public Radio report Nora Saks, and set in what was once the copper mining capital of the world, Montana Public Radio's "Richest Hill" podcast explores Butte's history, culture and environmental calamity.

The New Yorker calls the "Richest Hill" a "must-listen podcast about Butte, Montana."

MTPR news director and "Richest Hill" executive producer Eric Whitney joins Montana Lowdown host John Adams to talk about the new podcast that explores Butte's past, present and future.

SB 331 is only three pages long, but is widely seen as one of the most significant and far-reaching pieces of legislation state lawmakers are considering this session.

The bill would allow NorthWestern Energy to purchase an additional 150 megawatts of power from Colstrip Units 3 & 4 at a cost of no more than $1 and would limit the Public Service Commission's oversight authority over how NorthWestern passes on the costs of acquiring additional Colstrip generation to its customers.

Sen. Duane Ankney, R-Colstrip, isn't the lead sponsor of the bill, but by all accounts, the proposal is his idea.

In the second part of a two-part Montana Lowdown podcast exploring SB 331, Ankney, a former coal miner, explains why he thinks SB 331 is a good bill, and why NorthWestern ratepayers shouldn't fear rising utility cost because of it.

Senate Bill 331 has emerged as one of the most significant and controversial bills of the 2019 Legislative session.

Backers of the proposal say it shores-up baseload electricity generation for the state's largest utility, NorthWestern Energy, while giving some hope to the community and workers in Colstrip, where the Colstrip power plant is located.

But opponents say the bill does little more than give the monopoly utility and its shareholders a "blank check" courtesy of NorthWestern Energy's electricity ratepayers.

In the first installment of a special two-part Montana Lowdown podcast, longtime environmental advocate Anne Hedges of the Montana Environmental Information Center explains why she and other opponents think SB 331 is the worst bill since the Legislature's deregulation of Montana's power industry in 1997.

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock remained noncommittal about his presidential aspirations, but continued to express interest in potentially joining the ever-growing list of 2020 Democratic hopefuls. Bullock said for the time being he has more pressing priorities to address before he makes a decision.

Bullock, who is more than halfway through his second and final term as governor, said that before he decides whether to run for the nation's highest office, he first wants to finish working with lawmakers in the Republican-controlled Legislature to renew Medicaid expansion, fund infrastructure projects, and increase funding for preschool and higher education.

"I've been both traveling and talking about Montana and listening, but I've also said that the Legislature, doing the work here, comes first," Bullock said. "For me right now, that's as far as it goes."

Medicaid expansion is going to be one of the most hotly debated issues the 2019 Montana Legislature will tackle this session, and Rep. Mary Caferro, D-Helena, and Rep. Ed Buttrey, R-Great Falls, will play critical roles in determining the final outcome.

In 2015 these two lawmakers worked across the aisle to craft a bipartisan bill that expanded Medicaid health care coverage to nearly 100,000 low-income Montanans.

Supporters say Medicaid expansion has been a boon to Montana's economy. It's cut an estimated $400 million in uncompensated care in half, supported thousands of jobs, and improved health outcomes for tens of thousands of Montanans.

But the Medicaid expansion lawmakers passed in 2015 is set to expire in July unless the Legislature votes to renew it.

Democrats say the 2015 compromise is a model for the country and should be renewed with only a few minor changes, but Republicans say the cost to the state is too high, and some sideboards need to be added to limit the number of people receiving the benefits.

That debate is going to heat up as lawmakers head into the last half of the session.

Sen. Steve Fitzpatrick is in the middle of a longstanding political battle over who has rightful control over the Cascade County Republican Central Committee. This is a debate that has gotten pretty ugly in the last couple of years.

"From my point of view, I really don't want to be involved in central committee politics, but I just can't sit by and have a central committee that espouses racist things in meetings, that threatens people in meetings, and just acts in a way that is so out of the norm of normal human behavior," Fitzpatrick said.

Fitzpatrick wrote a bill this session, which Republican Rep. Frank Garner is carrying in the House, that would change state laws governing central committees. Among the changes is a prohibition on the use of "secret rules," and the bill makes it illegal for central committee members to vote another member's proxy without permission.

The conflict is another battlefront in the longstanding struggle for the heart and soul of the Montana Republican Party, one that's waged between those who pride themselves on being independent thinkers, and those who demand fealty to the party platform.

"I refuse to subscribe to this notion that I should be a brain-dead legislator and simply turn my vote over to party leadership and let them tell me how to vote," Fitzpatrick said. "I'm going to sit down, I'm going to read the bills, and I'm going to make sure they're good for the people I represent, and then I'm going to vote on them."