Mark Sweeney was senator representing Anaconda, Phillipsburg and Deerlodge. He passed away unexpectedly in the midst of a primary race for the new eastern congressional district. In one of my last conversations with Mark at a recent Local Government Interim Committee meeting, we discussed the invasion of Ukraine by President Putin. The conversation lead to mutual concern and admonition of the sitting congressman, Matt Rosendale. There’s a place for avoiding overseas conflicts as we’ve learned from failed and expensive forays into no-win situations. Senator Mansfield warned President Johnson of the consequences of involvement in Vietnam and Secretary of State Powell memorably coined the phrase “You break it, you own it” despite his faulty intelligence regarding Sadam Husein’s chemical weapons. Rosendale’s isolationist stance is worrying. As a sovereign nation, Ukraine looked west to the European Union as the country aspired to be transparent in trade and be a western liberal democracy. This was a threat to the Putin’s hegemonic rule of order in eastern and central Europe. The dissolution of the Soviet Union was a mistake, according to the Russian president.
I perceived Sweeney as an old style Montana citizen politician. As Democrats fall off the political map in rural and suburban Montana, Sweeney offered a template of sorts, a roadmap perhaps, for rural Democrats. Words and rhetoric matter. Issues such as second amendment rights, support and funding of law enforcement, public land access, support of agriculture, and strong public schools are issues important to many voters. Many Democrat leaning voters cross over in the primaries to have a proportional say in their political future. With Democrats difficult to elect, the nuances or often substantial differences among Republican candidates, are cause for independents and Democrats participation. Sweeney would have likely won the primary (he still could as his name remains on the ballot). He would have likely been part of a three way race that includes Independent Gary Buchanan, a respected Billings business man and former member of Republican and Democrat state administrations. Mark would have loved the race. What would the impact of an independent have been on a race that included Mark Sweeney? We can now only conjecture.