I had heard differing accounts that his eyesight had been restored. In any event, I think that would make him an EXCELLENT candidate for the office. Overcoming adversity and triumphing. If Baucus tried to roll out his usual hate machine (like that disgusting gay-baiting sideshow farce (remember the “gay hairdresser” schtick ?) he employed on State Sen. Mike Taylor in ‘02), it would blow up spectacularly in his face.
BTW, do you happen to have an address to write Mr. Hill ? I’d like to write him a note of encouragement.
No I don’t have Rick’s address, I think he still lives in helena. He should be easy enough to find thru the MT GOP, they e-send me political MT news about once a week. Rick did real yeoman’s work in cleaning up the workman’s comp mess that the dems made. That’s what brought him to widespread popularity in MT, esp republican businessmen like my father. Incidentally, my father was one of the actual ELECTORS that voted for Reagan in 1980.
Rick has been out of the loop for quite awhile now. Have no doubt that baucus and his hate machine will hammer Rick’s age and eyesight problems. I did meet a fine young fellow from polson at one of Conrad’s campaign appearances : Bruggeman. He’s but one of many great young republicans that can take on baucus and WIN.
As for madmax, he stressed that he’d be the senior senator on the finance committee when the dems re-took the majority(in the 2002 election in which he trashed Mike Taylor). Well now they have the majority and MT hasn’t seen SQUAT from madmax yet. Talk, yes. Actual RESULTS, NO! Typical liberal.
The election is still 16 months away and even if Rick doesn’t run(or get the GOP nomination)I’m sure he’ll get out there and cheer on our nominee. A lot of old timers still remember Rick and the GOOD he did for MONTANA.
I’m not sure how much you know about the political complexion of Montana, it pretty much follows the national picture : big city dems, suburban/rural reps. To wit, missoula(liberal snake pit)butte, helena and great falls. Billings(biggest city)is also tending dem. Plus the indian reservations of course. Rehberg though is FROM billings(third generation)and so he’ll always carry it.
An anecdote : In the 2000 election for governor, Judy Martz(Marc Roscoe’s VG)was having her election eve party at the warbonnet inn in butte(her hometown). So, took mom down to it for a fun evening. Remember well the seesaw battle over FL. Anyway, in the early going we were running behind in the raw vote totals. Judy and I happened to be walking past each other and I asked her : are we going to lose this one Judy? Oh no she said, that’s just the early MISSOULA returns, the good precincts are still to come. She won by the usual 53% of course...same % as Rick Hill.
The real tragedy of her 4 years was losing Paul Sliter in a DUI accident(her own young advisor was the drunk driver). Paul was a natural shoo-in for governor, one of the nicest guys I ever met. His mother and I were in HS together. He would have TROUNCED BS for governor. We had what amounted to a state funeral here in kalispell for him. A truly great loss for Montana...almost as bad as tester slithering in with 1729 votes out of 250,000 cast; over Conrad. Still grieve over that...