The Race in Montana

The Republican candidate for Senate from Montana, Bob Kelleher, is an eighty-five year old man, a perennial candidate for office under the Republican, Democratic and Green parties, believes that the three branches of government should be replaced by a parliamentary system based on England’s, studied to be a Catholic priest before deciding he couldn’t be celibate and he is profiled in a NY Times piece today.

The article also discusses the problems Republicans are having in finding candidates to run in various Senate races, such as against Sen. Frank Lautenberg in New Jersey and Sen. Mark Pryor in Arkansas, who is running unopposed.

I personally don’t wish to see the Republicans pick up any Senate seats this year, but I think it’s interesting the way party systems become so entrenched in local government. Max Baucus has been the Democratic Senator from Montana for thirty years. That’s a long time. The Republican Party in Montana seems to be very unhappy with Kelleher’s primary victory (he’s been barred from speaking at the convention). The article doesn’t discuss how Kelleher was able to win the primary this year, and I’d be interested to hear it. If this guy won, what were the other candidates like?

While the presidential race is stable, with Obama consistently leading McCain by a small margin, down-ticket Republicans are having an extraordinarily bad year of it.