The Unsinkable Roy Brown

The Scoop came out of his sugar-induced coma today to attend the announcement tour of Montana Republican gubernatorial candidate Roy Brown, who criss-crossed the state introducing himself to voters.

While I have admired Brown from afar for years, I have never really met or heard him speak, except for an informative, yet brief, talk he gave during the 2005 legislative session.

His presentation was too short to make much of an impression, and sandwiched into a series of legislative updates that were poorly planned and executed. (Not unlike the ASUM-MontPIRG debate the other night on campus, except that Brown was speaking at a non-partisan event, not paid for by state money.)

I remember being impressed that he could prevail over the terrible format, much like our mainstream city council candidates did on campus the other night. (Bravo!)

So, I approached today with both great hope and trepidation, attending mainly due to the coverage Brown has received from his level-headed hometown blog, Montana Headlines.

Like most Montanans, the Scoop has been frustrated of late. It seems that outside of Rehberg, and since Racicot, Montana Republicans have lacked smart and articulate candidates that can inspire both the rank-and-file AND mainsteam voters. Today I was half expecting a dud, but instead was inspired, energized and quite frankly, surprised.

While the Scoop believes Republicans have a built-in advantage with Montana voters, they need a strong candidate to attract the independents and conservative democrats necessary to build a mainstream coalition. Roy Brown has that appeal, and is everything you would expect in a would-be governor.

Brown is bright, energetic, visionary, and an talented communicator. He is approachable and funny...an everyday kind of guy. He has a tremendous knowledge of the diversity, history and challenges of our state. Brown also has a tested political strength, having been the target of a left-wing, $100k spending offensive that tried to take him out during his last legislative run (the most expensive in the state) .

The result: Brown spent one-third the amount of his Schweitzer funded and backed opponent... and won handily...in a district that leans democrat.

Brown is also everything that our current governor is not: a gentleman, classy, civil and humble. He is style AND substance. He is what our current governor promised to be during his last campaign, but somehow forgot on his way to the statehouse.

Brown is quite simply the anti-Schweitzer, at least when compared to the one that governs.

No wonder they were trying to sink this guy!

To top it off, Roy Brown has a spot-on message: Schweitzer has recklessly increased state spending by over 40%, putting Montana's economic recovery at risk and setting the state up for inevitable future tax increases, all without fixing any of our substantive challenges like children's health care and education.

And, unlike the mainstream Montana media, Brown is not afraid to call Schweitzer out on his long list of unkept promises, such as his election-time commitment to make state government "leaner and meaner." Instead, our governor has increased state spending by $40,000 for every Montana family of four, and has hired over 1,000 employees into the very departments he once claimed needed the heavy hand of an efficiency seeking manager.

But, as I hear is typical Brown fare, his focus today was not on our failed governor, but on his own qualifications and vision for Montana. In short, he promised four things:

1. To promote Montana over himself. (So long, Jag!)

2. To focus his efforts on long-term property tax relief and elimination of the equipment tax.

3. To raise our campaign finance grade from an "F" to something more deserving of Montana voters.

4. To replace the out of control spending frenzy that dominates Helena with more responsible fiscal management.

Brown also showed off his civility and class. Rather than having Schweitzer read about his challenge in the newspaper, Brown felt compelled to call his office and speak to the governor personally. Unfortunately, and is often the case, Schweitzer was on an out-of-state trip, so Brown did the following...

"I left a message to tell the governor that I will run an honest and spirited campaign and that I will avoid any negative, personal attacks."

A message we are sure that our current governor will be eager to return...in the form of multiple 30-60 second hit pieces paid by for by his well-heeled, out-of-state buddies.

But, the Scoop thinks he may have met his match in the unassuming yet accomplished Roy Brown. If we tune off his last political dual with Schweitzer, he may just be the unsinkable Roy Brown.