ELECTION RESULTS DON'T MAKE SENSE

I'd probably have as much luck reading tea leaves as I would making
sense of Tuesday's election in Montana, but it seems clear that the
perfect candidate in these parts would be a Democratic Republican who
buys his prescription drugs in Canada, grows his own pot and hunts elk
in the rotunda of the Capitol.

Nobody knew quite what to think when Democratic Gov.-elect Brian
Schweitzer showily reached over to the Republican Party to pick his
running mate, John Bohlinger, but it might have been the canniest
political decision of the year.

I'm guessing that Schweitzer's move has drawn the attention of
political operatives from both parties all over the country, since
politicians, like Hollywood producers, are eternally on the prowl for
winning formulas. Has Schweitzer spoken with John Edwards yet?

The governor's race also showed that Montanans, much as they may dread
the political season, will vote for the guy who revels in the
nitty-gritty of campaigning. Republican Bob Brown appeared eminently
respectable, intelligent and likable, but you got the impression he
was half hoping he'd lose, so he wouldn't have to shake any more hands
or have any more lunches at senior citizen centers.

Not so with Schweitzer. You could picture him standing in a receiving
line for two weeks, grinning at every last soul, and if it helped him
get elected he'd eat creamed chipped beef on toast in every retirement
home in Montana.

Puzzling, and pointless

So the Schweitzer vote at least made some sense. I don't know what to
make of two of the constitutional amendments we passed last week. One
was a vote "for recognizing and preserving the heritage of Montanans'
opportunity to harvest wild fish and game." Who would have thought
that something as deeply traditional as hunting and fishing would ever
need the protection of New Age, feel-good verbiage? What's next, a
constitutional amendment enshrining the right of the wind to blow in
Livingston?

It was almost as pointless, because Montana state law already bans gay
marriage, for us to pass a constitutional amendment recognizing
marriages only if they involve one man and one woman. That vote seemed
to run counter to the one on medical marijuana, where Montanans showed
more of their libertarian, live-and-let-live streak.

Of course, the vote in favor of medicinal weed may have been simply an
acknowledgement that most people will never have decent health-care
coverage, so they might as well get stoned in the event of a major
illness.

In Billings, the big surprise was the overwhelming vote for higher
taxes to support the police and fire departments. I'm sure it helped
that the biggest lobbyists for this ballot issue were George W. Bush
and John F. Kerry. Their constant talk of threats and lurking dangers,
the need for security and strong leadership, must have made people
feel they might as well spring for the only security they have much
contact with: cops and firefighters.

The public safety mill levy vote pointed to another possibility, that
if voters get the straight story and all the facts, they can be
persuaded to do the right thing, even if it hurts.

Another issue on the ballot drove home the lesson that if the facts
aren't on your side, spending millions to spread misinformation might
not help your cause.

Expensive instruction

The lesson was all the more memorable because it was delivered by
Canyon Resources Inc., the Colorado mining company that dropped $3
million trying to persuade us that cyanide leach mining was perfectly
safe, environmentally harmless and just all around swell.

Back in 1996, Montana voters passed an initiative making it illegal
for corporations to make direct contributions to ballot measure
campaigns. Two years later, Montanans approved another initiative,
this one outlawing the use of cyanide in mining operations.

Canyon Resources complained bitterly about the restrictions on
corporate spending, saying the anti-cyanide measure won voter approval
only because the corporations couldn't get their message out to the
people. Well, they would soon get their chance, after the ban was
struck down by the courts and then officially killed in 2001 when the
U.S. Supreme Court refused to take up the case.

This year, free to spend money like a drunken sailor, or a military
contractor, Canyon Resources cooked up I-147, aimed at repealing the
cyanide-mining ban. Then it dumped nearly $3 million into the effort
to "educate" Montanans on why we should vote for I-147.

What did they get for their money? Montanans upheld the ban by a
margin of 60 to 40 percent. Back in 1998, when corporations couldn't
spend money influencing the voters, the ban passed by a much narrower
margin.

If the mining companies keep coming back and throwing money at us,
eventually the ban on cyanide will pass unanimously.