I just had to do a diary on this story. It’s simply too incredible to believe. We all knew that republicans had no serious challenger for Montana’s Democratic Senator Max Baucus, but they did have a state Representative Michael Lange was was supposed to win their primary with little trouble. Well, that didn’t happen. In fact the guy who won the republican primary this week by a 13% margin could more accurately be called a socialist or Green party member than a republican.
Meet 85 year old Bob Kelleher. Until this week when he won the primary Kelleher didn’t even have his own domain website. He had what amounted to an AOL personal webpage and essentially didn’t even campaign for the nomination. Basically everything on his new website is “under construction” with dead-end links.
Here is Kelleher’s prior electoral history:
http://www.ourcampaigns.com/Ca…
1968 – Ran for MT-02 congressional district as a Democrat. Lost the general by a 68-32% margin
1980, 1984, 1988, 1992 and 1996: – Ran for Montana Governor as a Democrat. Lost every primary with less than 26% of the vote.
2002 – Ran for U.S. Senate as a Green and received 2% of the vote.
2004 – Ran for MT Governor as a Green and received 1.9% of the vote.
2006 – Ran for MT Senate as a Republican and received 4% of the vote.
That’s right- he’s run for office as a Democrat, Republican AND Green.
http://www.bobkelleher2008.com/
Some of his stances I pulled off of his old website before it was taken down:
http://www.votesmart.org/speec…
– In one of the republican debates Kelleher blasted his rivals for not pushing for serious gun control legislation. Uhh… ya. I’m sure pro-gun control candidates are wildly popular in Montana.
– Supports legalization of marijuana and other drugs.
– Anti Social Security Privatization
– Pro healthcare reform, apparently supports universal healthcare.
– In favor or eliminating the Bush Tax Cuts.
– Staunchly protectionist and anti free-trade.
– Wants the U.S. to change it’s government to European style Parlimentary form. Yes… I’m dead serious.
– Wants immediate withdrawal from Iraq.
Needless to say this should be one of the most entertaining races of the cycle. We have a republican candidate who is running on a more liberal platform than his democratic opponent Max Baucus, in a republican leaning state.
And one last thing, Kelleher has some kickass eyebrows. I’d probably vote for him over Max Baucus, that’s for sure.