I postulated that Baucus (whom is actually a Watergate baby like Harkin, having beaten a GOP House incumbent) might retire. Still, if I were the DNC, the last thing I’d want is a really ugly primary between Baucus and Schweitzer (think of what happened with Blanche Lincoln facing Lt Gov Bill Halter in AR). Baucus has generally tended to luck out by drawing weak opponents for years (his last opponent was the late Bob Kelleher, an 85-year old ultraleft Green moonbat who inexplicably managed to win the GOP nomination). Still, we must recruit a strong opponent.
Ordinarily, I might consider Rehberg again, but he blew a winnable race against a fluke moonbat, and so I think that rules him out. I worry that pushing Daines into the race might be too fast (a la Rick Berg). Baucus waited two terms in the House before running (despite the fact that he could’ve run for Mike Mansfield’s seat after a single term in 1976, but deferred to the more senior Congressman John Melcher).
Curiously, when Sen. Lee Metcalf died in 1978, the Democrat Governor, Tom Judge, passed on appointing Baucus and instead went with the state Chief Justice Paul Hatfield. Hatfield was such a disastrous choice that he lost the primary to Baucus by a margin of 65%-19% (!) That’s the last time an incumbent Senator was beaten in the primary in the state.
Rehberg’s loss was one big WTF moment, but then again, most of the competitive Senate races that year were WTF moments (seriously, we only flipped Ben Nelson’s open seat? I still am floored by that).
I think Berg also had a bunch of problems like using the franking privilege too much and coming off as an out of touch elitist. If Daines has a more down to earth appeal, he may do better. Then again, Montana isn’t that big population-wise, so perhaps we could pluck someone from the state legislature for the job. (I think Tester was Senate president or something) Or maybe Montana has a Ron Johnson-type somewhere?