Washington Post blog refers to Missoula, Mayor Engen and the Obama/Clinton campaigns

March 27, 2008 in 2008 Election, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Engen, Missoula, Montana

by Pete Talbot

Our little city and big state made the news again. This time it’s about our influence on the presidential Democratic primary race.

Chris Cillizza, whose political column, The Fix, appears on washingtonpost.com, wrote about the battleground state of Montana. (A tip o’ the hat to the anonymous, alert reader who forwarded the link to me.)

It’s an insightful piece about which Democratic candidate is going to come out on top in our June primary. It mentions Sen. Tester, the Good Gov. and the Honorable John Engen, Mayor of Missoula, among others. Take a look.

One Reply

  1. JC

    March 27, 2008 at 11:21 am

    As good of a read of Montana’s place in the national election scene as I’ve seen recently. Nice to see the Post take an interest in Montana politics.

    A few comments, though.

    Us Missoulians pride ourselves in putting Tester over the top, and tipping the Senate to the dems in the last election. The Burns/Tester election would be a good indicator of an Obama/McCain matchup.

    The Tester victory, in no small part was won with election day registration and a huge turnout–particularly at the U of M. The problem with the primary, is that the University will be out for the summer by June 3rd. So there will be quite a few thousands of potential Obama voters out of town.

    Obama’s key will be to continue to push registration in Montana, and get absentee voting from the University, in addition to attracting the Native American vote. Though, as Cillizza noted, that looks to be a battleground. Forget Great Falls and Butte, and look forward towards where real progressive steps are taking root in Montana.

    Obama needs to develop and articulate a vision of hope and change for America’s reservations and Native Americans. And he needs to speak to farm policy. That would put the icing on his campaign’s western strategy, now that the Denver DNC strategy for Clinton’s western front is going to go nowhere.

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