This past Election Day, Republicans not only took the majority in the US Senate and expanded their existing advantage in the House of Representatives, they also handily defeated Democrats at the state and local levels. One election where a Democratic seat was flipped red was Montana’s District 32 State House race. The district is home to a couple of Indian reservations and has consistently been a reliable Democratic stronghold. In the past, Republicans rarely even ran a candidate and the Democratic primary generally determined who would represent the district. However, this time around, Gilbert Bruce Meyers threw his hat in the ring to take on incumbent Democrat Clarena Brockie, who was finishing up her first term as State Rep. Meyers, a Native American and former director of the state’s Indian Affairs department, defeated Brockie in a close election that was decided by a handful of votes. Prior to and immediately after the election, there was no mention of a particularly troubling bit of information from Meyers’ past. Meyers was convicted of assault on a minor and sentenced to four years in prison. The conviction was over an incident of him abusing his eight-year-old son in 2005. The sentence was suspended on the condition that he does not reside in Broadwater County, where his wife and five children lived, and he paid restitution to his family. Per court records, Meyers’ wife at the time said that her and the children were all victims of his mental and physical abuse and that the children were scared to ride their bikes or sleep in their beds if they thought Meyers was in town. For some reason, this information was never brought to the attention of voters. The Havre Daily News, the local newspaper, ran a profile piece on Meyers a week before the election highlighting his accomplishments and showing his positions on specific issues. However, not one mention was made of his conviction, which would seem to be something voters in the district really should have been told. The paper’s post-election piece also failed to bring up his past as a child abuser. -politicususa
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 02:06:14 +0000
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