Debating Myself

Only the most obsessive political junkies may have noticed it, but this week the opening shot was fired in what could be another great democratic primary race. That’s right, I’m talking about the Montana Gubernatorial Primary. It is already attracting some attention in the blogosphere…

The storyline is eerily similar to the national race–an upstart ticket taking on the democratic establishment hoping to alter the national conversation about a number of issues, grounded in grassroots campaigning, and supported by a very slick online presence. Yes, the Neiffer/Pogreba ticket has a unique opportunity to make some noise, even if it is just a little, in what was promising to be an open and shut nomination for incumbent (and widely approved) Governor Brian Schweitzer (I’m a big Schweitzer fan myself…)

Neiffer and Pogreba know they face long odds, but it seems their hearts are really in the right place. As the Billings Gazette story on the two reports:

They are especially interested in offering their views on education, environmental and energy policy.

“We’re not overwhelmingly optimistic there is going to be a great discussion of education in a general election campaign,” Pogreba said.

If you check out their website, also found in the Blogroll, you can get a good idea of the kinds of innovative ideas these two stand for. If they could push even some of their ideas about education onto the state agenda Montana students would be much better off. Why shouldn’t a couple of dedicated teachers make a political statement and push their own ideas onto the agenda–outside of the traditional channels of the teacher’s union and Office of Public Instruction?

There are of course many naysayers. Some argue that these two are just running to allow Brian Schweitzer to raise more money in the primary season by facing a contested primary.

Doubtful. These are two guys who are passionate about teaching and with strong political ideas about how to improve the state of education in Montana–they just happened to be savvy enough (or perhaps crazy enough) to jump into active politics in an effort to actually get something changed.

Kudos to them. Can’t wait to see how the primary race unfolds.

For more, be sure to check out their long running blog on politics in Montana and the wider world…

Noah Millman over at The American Scene has some great stuff, not the least of which is this highly entertaining/so true it is sad characterization of the current mess that is the Democratic primary. No excerpt here… just go read it.