Sunday, December 23, 2007

Chamber for Brown

The Montana Chamber of Commerce has given Republican gubernatorial candidate Roy Brown a Champion of Business Award for his 95 percent "pro-business" voting record.

Ninety-five percent? Saddam Hussein didn't do much better than that when he was at his peak. Do you think the Chamber is on your side 95 percent of the time? Heck, I own a business, and I don't think the Chamber is on my side that often. Incumbent Gov. Brian Schweitzer, by contrast, rates only 12 percent.

I'm not too happy with either of those numbers. I'd like somebody who knows what it takes to help the economy but realizes that sometimes what it takes is slapping the Chamber of Commerce around a little.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The one issue that can sink Schweitzer is state spending under his watch.

A 40% increase in spending, after inheriting nice budget surpluses is indicative of a poor manager.

I've said it before, and I haven't changed my opinion, that Schweitzer is very beatable.

Chuck Rightmire said...

The Montana Chamber of Commerce is so dollar oriented it would sell out its mother for a dollar less in taxes and more in income. The Billings Chamber has gotten better but it has always been a chain dragging down the city as it moves toward any kind of progress that isn't related to bringing in new business. And the only reason that the state has a tax increase (I haven't seen it) and had a budget surplus is because the GOP fully mismanged the state and starved the services, such as education and infrastructure, that we badly needed. It wasn't good management; just management that put the holy dollar above services.

Anonymous said...

Eric, I think if you look that you will see that the increase is in line with the increases in the Racicot and Martz years. Also, if you look at all the $ associated with Roy Brown's votes, I think you will see that he voted to spend even more.

Anonymous said...

Better check your numbers anon.

1000 new state employees in 3 years. Wow.

Anonymous said...

Eric - analysis of the effectiveness of government solely by measurement of spending is very shallow. To say the least.