Thank you for all your hard work!!!

Thanks to everyone for all of the work during this campaign, and thanks to all of you who turned out on election night to support our candidates.  One would probably have to go back to the Watergate era -- or perhaps even the 1930's -- to find an election in which we Republicans faced such a difficult election.

There were a lot of tough losses that we sustained in this election, but I want to highlight our victories in a number of hotly contested races in Montana.

Despite Dem's Mega $$$, Montana is still Conservative!!!

In spite of an unprecedented amount of money spent by the Obama campaign to win Montana (and in spite of an MSU-B poll giving a solid lead to Sen. Obama) our Republican team of McCain/Palin won Montana with a comfortable margin and with a majority of votes cast by Montanans.  This should remind us that the majority of Montanans, even in the most favorable circumstances for Democrats, are not buying what the left wing of the Democratic Party is trying to sell the country.

Let's remember that as we go forward.  In order to win, Democrats in Montana have had to embrace at least the rhetoric of things like gun-rights, law-and-order, individual liberty, our heritage as a state of hunters and outdoorsmen, and natural resource development.  We can view this as them "stealing our issues" -- I prefer to look on it as us having won those debates here in Montana, which we have.  Let's win some more of those debates!

Molnar wins in landslide!!!

In spite of being outspent by tremendous amounts of money and in spite of his being a major target of the Democratic Party here in Montana, Brad Molnar was overwhelmingly re-elected to another term on the PSC.  The Gazette is reporting Tussing has said he is leaving Billings, one way or another.  Thanks to Brad, it will be "another," and it can't happen soon enough for the City of Billings, which has already once paid him a quarter of a million dollars to leave.

Republicans Win Montana Senate!!!

In spite of being outspent easily 3 to 1 or more, Republicans went from a 24-26 deficit to gaining a solid 27-23 majority in the Montana state senate.  This was the top priority of the Montana Republican Party, and we achieved it, much to the chagrin of the opposition, which had hoped for clear sailing in this coming legislative session.  Part of this victory took place here in Yellowstone County with the election of Taylor Brown.  We had a heartbreaker of a close race with Jack Sands losing, but there, too, the Democrats had to spend untold amounts of money (and engage in the dirtiest tricks and worst lies imaginable) in order to squeak out that "win".

Republicans to split Montana House 50-50!!!

In spite of the huge amounts of money spent by the Montana Democratic Party, much of which was funneled in from out of state, Republicans have kept our 50 seats in the state House of Representatives.  There are still possible recounts in a number of close races, so this could change, giving the Democrats a narrow majority, but it appears for now that the state House will be tied.  Keep in mind that unlike the Senate, all 100 seats are up for grabs every two years -- given the climate and what happened in our statewide races, we could have had a real statewide blowout in the House.  The strong races run by our candidates in Yellowstone County (where we held on to every one of our Republican seats) and across the state made this happen.  This achievement took place with hard work, sweat, lots of volunteers, and very little money.

Hard Work pays off!!! Let's Celebrate!!!

Finally, a big part of the reason we had such success in the state legislature -- bucking both Montana and national trends -- was because of the strong, competitive races run by our statewide candidates.  While they were not successful in their own races, millions were poured into those campaigns by the Democrats -- especially into the governor's race -- that otherwise would have been spent working to defeat our legislative candidates.

There will be a time for regrouping and for working to come back strong as a party here in Montana at every level.  But for now, let's celebrate these victories that were achieved against all odds.