Yellowstone County Republican Website has moved!

Our website has moved to yellowstonegop.org

Come visit us there!

Press Conference with AG Candidate Tim Fox in Billings — July 21st

TIM FOX AND DENNIS PAXINOS TO MAKE MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT

Republican Candidate for Attorney General Tim Fox and Yellowstone County
Attorney Dennis Paxinos will hold a press conference to make a major policy
announcement on gun rights on Monday, July 21.

What:    Gun Rights Press Conference

Who:    Tim Fox, Republican Nominee for Attorney General
Dennis Paxinos, Yellowstone County Attorney

When:    Monday, July 21 at 2:00 pm

Where: Courthouse Park – south side of Yellowstone County Courthouse

For more event details, contact Chuck Denowh at 239-5952

Meet and Greet with PSC Commissioner Brad Molnar — July 25th

Meet and Greet

with Commissioner Brad Molnar

Join us for food and drink

Friday, July 25, starting at 6:30 pm

Location: 517 Lavender St.

Brad Molnar has served in the State Legislature for 4 terms as the House Representative from Laurel and is now our Public Service Commissioner. Brad is seeking re-election this coming November.

He is facing an aggressive race with opponent Billings Mayor Ron Tussing, who has funding from out of state special interests, partisan interests, and environmental extremists. Because of Brad’s detailed working knowledge of energy issues and consumer advocacy, it is vital that Brad maintain his seat on the P.S.C. to protect our jobs and homes.

Feel free to bring a friend to meet with Brad and share in good food, drink, and company!

You are welcome to drop by anytime between 6:30 pm – 10:00 pm. Donations appreciated, but not necessary.

Directions to 517 Lavender St: located on the West End of town, about 1 mile west of Central Ave. and Shiloh.

Go west on Central Ave., pass Central and Shiloh (40th St.) and 2 blocks past 48th St., make a right turn onto Grassland (takes you into subdivision). Go to the end of Grassland (about 2 blocks) and make a left and then a quick right onto Lavender. Light blue house on right side of Street.

RSVP mwoo@imt.net or 651-9103 if possible so that we can know how many to expect

Delegates to state nominating convention

Dear all –

Here are the delegates who were elected to represent Yellowstone County at the state convention last night.  They are listed in descending order, starting with our champion voter-getter Brad Molnar and working down.  I am happy to say that the Central Committee selected 27 people — i.e. they crossed a 50% threshold in the weighted vote totals.  The top 25 will be delegates, the next 2 will be alternates.  Thanks to Jack Chandler for his hard work on the speadsheet that made this possible and for doing all of the data entry for the weighted votes.  I have personally reviewed each ballot and and double-checked it with the spreadsheet.

Congratulations to all delegates and alternates.  Thanks to everyone who was willing to volunteer to serve.  Delegates must register and pay at the state party by close of business Monday.

This list will be put on the website and sent to the state party.

Delegates:

Brad Molnar
Brad Anderson
Ken Miller
Peggy Miller
Carl Pivonka
Susan Anderson
Max Miller
Tom Mcgillvray
Jan Rehberg
Roy Brown
Cary Smith
Tarey Mayne
Dennis Himmelberger
Steve Cross
Mae Woo
Laura Pivonka
Kirk Bushman
Wallace Bradberry
Ken Jahde
Jeff Essman
Susan Smith
Nicholas Rogers
Tonia Fisher-Clark
Dustin Frost
Jill Bushman

Alternates:

Audrey Walleser-Barnard
Jacob Busby

Delegate selection results pending

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Central Committee meeting tonight.

Watch this space for results when they are available. Jack had more work to do on the spreadsheet formula to make sure that the complex calculations are done correctly, and will be entering the results from the ballots in the morning when things are fresh.

We hope to have results posted by noon — stay tuned. When I know, you’ll know…

Remember, if you are selected as a delegate, you will need to go here to download the registration materials and the credentials forms right away, and will be responsible for getting that to the state party right away.

There is a form that will require my signature, and I have asked the state party to allow some latitude on that, since we couldn’t do that at tonight’s meeting without knowing who the delegates were, and since I will be leaving town tomorrow.

Robocalls by disruptors condemned in AG race

Automated phone calls purporting to be from a group claiming to support Lee Bruner for Attorney General were being made on the Saturday before the primary.  Both Republican candidates — Tim Fox and Lee Bruner — have denounced these calls.  They have presumably been made by persons unknown who wish to disrupt our primary, and Republicans should ignore them.  Please see the following press releases by Tim Fox and Lee Bruner.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 31, 2008

CONTACT
Chuck Denowh: 239-5952

GOP AG Candidate Fox and MT GOP Chairman Iverson Denounce Dirty Campaigning

(Helena) – Republican candidate for Attorney General Tim Fox today denounced illegal and deceptive campaign techniques being employed by a few Democrat operatives in Montana.  He specifically pointed to recent illegal auto-dial messages apparently paid for by a Democrat-affiliated group.

On Saturday, May 31, the Tim Fox campaign began fielding calls from supporters who had received recorded auto-dial messages that criticized Fox and urged voters to support Lee Bruner in the June 3^rd Republican Primary Election.  The auto-dials also contained the disclaimer language “Paid for by Citizens for Strong Law Enforcement.”  There is no record of such a group existing in Montana.  The Bruner campaign also received calls from Montanans who decried the use of these false and illegal recorded phone calls.

“This is politics at its worst,” said Fox. “This is the kind of mudslinging that has so many Americans turned off of the political process.  I can tell you plainly that I will not participate in this kind of illegal and negative behavior during the General Election.”

Montana campaign finance laws require any organization making expenditures in a political race to file campaign finance disclosure reports.  Recorded auto-dial calls of this type are illegal under Montana law.

“Lee Bruner didn’t have anything to do with this and obviously neither did Tim Fox. Which means its probably a group working to elect Democrats in Montana; and that’s very disappointing,” said Montana Republican Party Chairman Erik Iverson. “It seems that every election some Democrat-affiliated group pulls a stunt like this. Montana voters deserve better.”

###

News Release – Lee Bruner for Attorney General (R) Contact: Lee Bruner                                                                  For Immediate Release Phone: (406) 490-4887 Email: lee@leebruner.com Bruner disclaims phone calls attacking opponent BUTTE, MONT. — Lee Bruner, a Republican candidate for Montana Attorney General, today stated that his campaign was informed Saturday, May 31, 2008, that some voters received phone calls attacking his Republican opponent.  Bruner stated that he has no knowledge of the source of these calls, nor the responsible party. Lee Bruner stated, “As a candidate for Attorney General, it disturbs me that these calls may have been made in violation of Montana law.  I am, at this moment, perplexed.  All the information I have received is second hand, it is the weekend before the primary election, and I have no idea who is responsible for making the calls.”  Bruner went on to say that he does not approve of his name being associated with an attack on his opponent.  “I made a pledge to run my campaign without resorting to personal vilification, character defamation or whispering campaigns and I have held to that promise throughout the campaign.  I am asking that whoever is behind the phone calls to please stop immediately.” Paid for by Lee Bruner for Attorney General, P.O. Box 4964, Butte, MT 59702

State Party Convention — Missoula June 19-21

The Montana GOP state convention will be held in Missoula June 19-21.  Please click here for more information.  The registration fee and hotel expenses are discussed at that site.

All Republicans are invited to attend.  If anyone is planning to attend the convention and is interested in serving as a delegate, please contact me at yellowstonegop@gmail.com as soon as possible.

Executive Board openings — and new volunteer coordinator

1.  At the June 5th county meeting, we will also have elections for several Executive Board positions.  Anyone who is interested in serving on the Executive Board or who wants to suggest someone else for an Executive Board position should contact me.  We have a great Executive Board and whoever joins us will find the experience rewarding. 

A very important vacant position that needs filling is that of Secretary.  We have been truly fortunate to have Cindy Graf serve as our secretary, but she is stepping down now that her term is up.  She has graciously offered to help train her replacement.  Ideally, a candidate for secretary should have good computer skills, with familiarity in working with Word and Excel documents.  Please contact me if you would be interested in this position or know someone who would be a good candidate.

2.  The State GOP’s “March to Victory” plan calls for having a county-wide volunteer team, headed up by a volunteer coordinator.  I am pleased to announce that Tena Moore has graciously agreed to serve in this important position.  Our goal is to have a lot of volunteers, each doing what they are good at and are interested in doing — and each giving short, discreet amounts of time.  There are lots of things that need doing in an election effort — making phone calls with a phone bank team for a few hours, being part of a literature drop team for a couple of hours, being part of a team to help put up signs, being part of a letter-writing committee, helping with computer skills and internet savvy, or putting to use whatever other ideas you might have on how to help our candidates.

Tena’s job will be to put together groups of volunteers for each task that we have, avoiding the “volunteer burnout” that comes from asking the same people over and over again.

Our network of precinct captains is an important backbone to our volunteer network for the upcoming election — but many precincts do not at this time have a precinct captain in Yellowstone County.  Furthermore, each individual precinct captain has experience and expertise at different things and different amounts of time available.  So I encourage all precinct captains as well as all Republicans to contact Tena to get on our county volunteer list so we can start putting together a winning volunteer team. 

This is shaping up to be a year where things look very good for Republicans on many levels, from the Presidential race to control of the legislature.  The key this year is going to be grassroots volunteer effort at the local level. Volunteer today!

Call Tena at 855-6231 to get us rolling toward victory in November.

State and County GOP conventions

1.  The Montana GOP State Convention will be held June 19-21 in Missoula.  In a Presidential election year, there are actually three conventions that are held simultaneously:

a.  A meeting of the State Central Committee (4 Executive Board members from each county) will meet to vote on any rules changes and to elect a Naitonal Committeeman and National Committeewoman.

b.  A state party Platform Convention — eligible to vote in this meeting are State Central Committee members as well as those who will be running as Republicans in the fall election, holdover state senators, etc.

c.  A convention at which delegates to the Republican National Convention will be elected.  Up to 25 delegates can be elected from each county.  The vote from each county is weighted based on the number of votes cast in the Republican primary.  More about this in number 2.

2.  We will be holding a Yellowstone County Central Committee meeting/county convention in the first week of June — tentatively set for Thursday evening, June 5th at 7PM at the Crowne Plaza.  All are welcome to attend, but only those who are precinct captains/precinct committeemen and committeewomen as of after the June primary are eligible to vote.

This means that only those who turned in a notarized form in the last few months will be eligible to vote.  And (this is important) there are some contested elections for precinct positions — only the winners of those precinct elections on primary day will be precinct committeemen and women eligible to vote at the county convention.

It is very important that precinct committeemen and women/precinct captains all come to this meeting the first week of June.  We now have a large Central Committee here in Yellowstone County, and we need to have a big turn-out in order to have a quorum.

3.  Those who are interested in attending the Montana State GOP convention as a delegate or an alternate, please contact me.  Please note again the dates of June 19-21, and that the election of delegates from Yellowstone County will take place about 2 weeks prior.

4.  Those who are interested in attending the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis in September as delegates or alternates should read more information at the state party web site and fill out an application if you are interested in being considered.  There is a delegate selection committee that will review all applications, and that committee will recommend a slate of delegates at the state convention.  Other nominations will be allowed from the floor, and the delegate convention in Missoula will elect the delegates.

Steve Daines to speak at Billings Pachyderm Friday, April 4th — and new website

We are very excited to have Lt. Gov. candidate Steve Daines with us in Billings on Friday at noon at the Elks Club. He made a surprise appearance at the Yellowstone County LRDD on Saturday night after originally having a conflict, but he elected to have Sen. Roy Brown do all of the talking for their ticket that night.

Let’s have a big turn-out at Pachyderm for our future Lt. Governor!

______________________________

Please also note the new link to Rep. Ken Peterson’s website in the links to the right.