Senate Bill 566; Is It Just To Oust Tester & 3rd Party Candidates?

Anyone that follows politics knows America will be watching when John Tester runs for Senate in the next election.  Right now, the Senate sits at 48 Democrats and 49 Republicans.  Again, both parties are going for numbers and control.

Senator Tester will be running for the 4th time.  According to Politico, Ryan Zinke and Matt Rosendale are talking about running to unseat Tester.  There's another group that is talking about having the Governor of Montana, Greg Gianforte, and the Montana Secretary of State, Ryan Knudsen mount campaigns to unseat the Senator.

In fact, Steve Daines was quoted as saying

Jon Tester just made the same mistake Steve Bullock did in 2020. Both should have ended their political careers on their terms. Instead, they each will have their careers ended by Montana voters.

There is something else a tad bit disturbing happening in Helena.  Libertarians are saying it's an attempt to wipe out their party and bolster whomever runs against Tester.  It's called Senate Bill 566, proposed by Senator Greg Hertz, R-Polson.  According to the Flathead Beacon

(SB 566) would reshape the 2024 U.S. Senate race in Montana, creating a top-two primary in which third-party candidates have almost zero chance of advancing to the general election. The bill would apply exclusively to the upcoming U.S. Senate race, would not impact any other statewide elections and would sunset after 2024.

Note that this bill is only good for the Tester Senate run, then it sunsets in 2025.  Hmmm...

This isn't setting well with the Montana Libertarian Party.  Sid Daoud, Chairman of the party said

This is a concerted effort by just a couple folks to kill the Libertarian Party

It's being said that the Republican party hopes that by eliminating a third party candidate, most of the libertarians will vote Republican.  It is a trend for libertarians to lean a bit more conservative.  To that, Daoud was quoted as saying

If indeed this Republican faction pisses off Libertarians enough, we might just vote for Tester out of spite

Spite voting is a thing.  Don't underestimate pissed off Montanans.

We have had such a deluge of people moving to Montana in the last couple of years that it's anyone's guess how this coming election will shake out.  I can't really tell if a lion's share of the folks moving here are conservative or liberal.  One party is much much louder than the other, but it doesn't mean the others aren't here.

One thing is for certain, if you care about Montana, if you care about America, this will be an election that you need to RESEARCH and cast your vote.  PLEASE don't allow yourself to be taken in by gas-lighting and shock advertising.  I don't care what party you are talking about, their ads are NEVER EVER 100% truthful.  DO YOUR RESEARCH and consider what kind of Montana you want to live in.  It matters.