‘What’s the deal?’ No deal, just collaboration, say ‘The Nine’

Senate President Matt Regier and Minority Leader Pat Flowers talk on the Senate floor. (Keila Szpaller/The Daily Montanan)

Sen. Gregg Hunter, R-Glasgow, said he was surprised when he showed up at the Capitol as a freshman lawmaker and other Republicans started telling him how he was going to vote.

Hunter, who represents a rural district in northeastern Montana, said he was instructed to help kill Medicaid expansion, for one — but he had campaigned on supporting it, given his district has five hospitals.

“And I didn’t appreciate that,” Hunter said. “I basically thought, I came over here to take care of my constituents, to do what’s best for my district.”

Hunter is among nine Republicans who have joined Democrats this year in the Montana Senate to form a coalition that has become the working majority in the upper chamber.

By the numbers, Democrats are in the minority with just 18 votes, and Republicans are 32 strong. But the blended majority block of 27 has whittled the strength of the Republican party’s caucus.

On the first day, the working majority banded together to push off an agenda for committees and Senate rules set up by their own Republican leadership.

A couple of weeks later, they bucked leadership again to send an internal investigation of one of their own to the Department of Justice, instead of dealing with it in house.

This week, they reshaped a couple of committees and started assigning bills to committees, work typically done by the Senate president.

So what’s the deal?

The apparent usurpation of political power from the Republican majority has prompted that question in the halls of the Capitol and beyond.

But Senate Minority Leader Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade, and members of “The Nine” insist there is no handshake deal. Rather, they have an alliance, they said — one common in the halls of Montana’s Capitol.

It’s about shared angst and shared interests, about fairness, about being part of the conversation, about giving Gov. Greg Gianforte’s agenda a fair shake, and about resisting a plan for Montana that some members of the group see as extreme.

Flowers, cheered and derided as the “de facto president” of the Senate, said before the session started, the Democratic caucus and some Republicans felt disenfranchised based on committee assignments.

“We found each other in that same space and recognized there were opportunities to work together on priorities for Montanans,” Flowers said.

The division and alliance have disrupted the Senate multiple times, including with tears, accusations of gamesmanship, and apologies.

Through the chaos, the working majority has demonstrated it can take the reins when it chooses, and although the coalition has elicited repeated protest from other Republicans, the dynamic isn’t new at the Capitol.

Longtime lawmaker Rep. Llew Jones, R-Conrad, said 2007 was the first year the Montana Legislature saw the emergence of a middle-ground “solutions caucus,” although he and others said “caucus” is too formal a word to describe the group.

He said 2013 and 2015 showed similar frictions, but Jones also said the tensions can be avoided.

“If you want to put yourself in the minority, disenfranchise a bloc of people, and you’ll stay in the minority,” Jones said. “Once she gets hot, she doesn’t just cool off easy.”

A similar coalition worked together in 2013 and again two years later, with Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock in office, and Medicaid expansion on the table a decade ago too.

Campaign finance reform and infrastructure funding were among the bills of interest to the bipartisan coalition then, according to reporting at the time from the Lee State Bureau.

“They’re just folks that come here and want to make a difference and not do a bunch of political statements,” Jones said.

But The Nine aren’t in lockstep with each other or with Democrats, and the Senate chamber is a living organism.

For example, Sen. Butch Gillespie, R-Ethridge, said he had concerns about the bill to require the Ten Commandments in classrooms, but he sits right between two supporters, including sponsor Sen. Bob Phalen, R-Lindsay.

Gillespie said Phalen is an energetic advocate for the bill, and he was swept up in his seatmate’s enthusiasm.

“He’s so darn passionate about it, and I thought, I can always vote ‘no’ on third reading if it passes,” Gillespie said.

The bill eventually failed, although Gillespie ended up supporting it, along with a motion to indefinitely postpone it, and legislators among The Nine said if they have split views on bills, or want to throw a bone, they’ll split their votes, too.

Medicaid expansion, which passed a key vote in the Senate on Thursday, is the item that has come up the most in discussions about a deal, but it passed with a wide margin, and without The Nine in lockstep. Hunter said there’s a lot people don’t understand about it either.

Hospitals are the biggest employer in almost every community in his district, he said. But if you take away a hospital employee, you also take away that person’s spouse, employed at another business, you take their children out of school, and you diminish the tax base.

“It’s a ripple-down effect. It affects all the business in town,” Hunter said.

Medicaid expansion is in Republican Gianforte’s budget, and it’s a priority for Hunter and others, but Flowers said health care isn’t the only one. Rather, he sees a coalition of interest around housing, child care, and other affordability issues affecting Montanans.

This year, the emergence of the working majority appeared on the first day of the session, when Flowers made a motion that upended the plan for committees from Republican leadership.

Leadership said it tried to give most people what they wanted with committees, but members of The Nine said the setup would have blocked them from having the ability to influence legislation.

Sen. Wendy McKamey, R-Great Falls, a member of the working coalition, said her interest is in fairness. She said she sees compatibility among the lawmakers working together.

“It was an alignment more than anything else,” McKamey said. “There is no deal.”

She said she believed Republican leadership had assembled a committee to resist Gianforte’s agenda, and she wanted to counteract it.

“I simply did not want the governor to become collateral damage,” McKamey said, who, like other members of The Nine, said she is not defined by her votes with the “working majority.”

Gianforte had been working on his budget for 18 months, she said, and his proposals deserve to get a fair hearing.

McKamey said she also wanted the governor’s appointees to be interviewed by legislators with topical expertise, routed to committees by subject, as has been standard in the past.

The Governor’s Office did not respond to a question about to what extent the administration works with the coalition.

The original plan for committee assignments would have routed all appointees to an Executive Review Committee, which had been described as a “parking place” for legislators viewed as out of step with Republican leadership.

Some senators worried the assignments were meant to give more conservative Republicans the ability to kill bills they didn’t want, such as Medicaid expansion, in multiple committees.

Gillespie said being part of the coalition allows him to keep his options open, especially on bills that are particularly important to his constituents, including Medicaid expansion.

“I just want to be assured that I’m not going to be locked out of certain conversations and the ability to influence certain policies,” Gillespie said.

Sen. Russ Tempel, R-Chester, said he also was displeased at being assigned to the Executive Review Committee, which he said “had no function,” but he pushed back against the idea he was bucking his party.

Tempel pointed to another faction within the Republican party, the Freedom Caucus, which gave a rebuttal to the governor’s State of the State address in a bid to push a more fiscally conservative agenda.

“We’re the party,” Tempel said of the minority group of Republicans. “ … Those people are not Republicans. They’re John Birchers, in my opinion.”

The John Birch Society is a far-right anti-government group that formed in the 1960s, lost influence as a fringe movement, but has had a resurgence in mainstream rightwing politics.

Tempel, who only characterized the John Birch Society as a group started by a “rich dude” that pushed conspiracy theories, pointed to an allegation the coalition wants to oust Sen. Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, as president of the Senate as an example of a conspiracy.

“That’s totally unfounded,” Tempel said.

Sen. Josh Kassmier, R-Fort Benton, also one of The Nine, said he doesn’t view the group as working with Democrats — Kassmier said Democrats are working with Republicans.

However, Kassmier said the Senate sees plenty of straight party votes too, 32-18.

The division, or alliance, has frayed nerves in the Senate, and in its first Saturday session, this past weekend, Sen. Christopher Pope, D-Bozeman, said the body needed to recover.

The Senate had taken up a rare, second floor debate on the bill requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.

Pope told his fellow lawmakers he believed they would be better off personally adopting the ideals, and he respected the sponsor’s desire to use them to “get to a higher place,” but he cautioned against the charged discussion.

“This is stretching this body’s ability to heal and hear each other,” Pope said.

A couple of days later, Monday evening, the Senate held a protracted meeting where the coalition of minority Republicans and all Democrats muscled through a 20-motion agenda, this time, referring bills to committees with motions from Kassmier.

Kassmier said his interest was in simply getting bills directed to committees, and Flowers said he believed those bills to be ones that had been sitting on the president’s desk the longest without referrals to committees.

Republican leadership has argued, with data from a legislative bill tracker, that the number of referrals roughly tracks with 2023, but the floor session, more than three hours long, saw more tension and breaches of decorum.

During one break in proceedings, Sen. Jason Ellsworth, R-Hamilton, stepped into the antechamber and took a few quick puffs of his vape pen, exhaling a pungent haze.

His actions — prohibited inside the Capitol — caught the attention of nearby senators, one of whom took to the floor asking for action to be taken against Ellsworth.

Later in the evening, Ellsworth spoke about the importance of following decorum on the Senate floor to raucous laughter from Republicans.

In a couple of weeks, the Legislature will be halfway through its 90-day session, and some of the priorities for more conservative Republicans already have fallen by the wayside.

President Regier acknowledged early on during the session that he was concerned about the ability to hold his caucus together, and Republicans have accused members of their party of handing the reins to Democrats.

This week, after the third public power play by the band of Democrats and nine Republicans, Regier pointed to bills from a select committee on judicial oversight that have been voted down as part of the priorities that his party won’t accomplish.

“There’s going to be, obviously, some political fallout to Day One for sure, on both sides,” Regier said. “I think a lot of people came in thinking we were in the majority, and when you realize a few Republicans have let the Democrats run the show, that changes the political mindset.”

He said he is disappointed to see some items appear in the governor’s budget without thorough discussion: “Hopefully we can find some area where there is room for conversation, and it’s not all predetermined.”

Regier said the allegation the more conservative Republicans are John Birchers is just a “talking point,” but he agreed the state has veered more to the right, and he said he’s glad to see the power of moderates diminish.

At the same time, he said, it comes with “growing pains,” and he wishes it would come with more reflection versus “colluding” to seize control.

“I think people need to look and say, ‘Wait a second, I’m more Democrat now than Republican,” or maybe Independent, Regier said. “And that’s where I wish that people would just be honest instead of taking over.”

At least in the Senate, the shift has meant trouble for his agenda, but it’s meant trouble for some members of the moderate group, too.

Sen. Denley Loge, R-St. Regis, said some constituents and other fellow Republicans are mad at him for “siding with Democrats,” and he went home and held a town hall meeting to talk about the work he’s doing.

Republicans fight about labels, and they don’t want to be called moderates or RINOs — Republicans In Name Only — but Loge said he actually has a more conservative record than even the Senate president.

The Montana Free Press Capitol Tracker from 2023 lists Loge as having a 94% record of aligning with other Republicans, and it lists Regier as having a 90% record.

Regardless, Loge said, his interest is in fair committees and in getting down to business.

“We’re here to represent people and not just someone else’s ideology,” Loge said.

The question about a deal reared its head most loudly on Feb. 6 after the group of Republicans and all Democrats voted together to direct an investigation into criminal and ethical allegations by the Senate Ethics Committee against Ellsworth out of the Senate.

The Senate launched the investigation after a Legislative Audit review found a misuse of power and waste of state resources by Ellsworth in inking a $170,000 state contract with a colleague — findings his lawyer has said are defamatory.

The coalition paused the internal investigation and referred it to the Department of Justice, which this week launched a criminal investigation. Thursday, Senate Ethics Committee Chairperson Forrest Mandeville, R-Columbus, announced the internal work would resume on the ethics allegations.

Earlier, Republican majority members told the coalition during a heated debate that they had stripped Senators of the ability to police their own body, and that worry remains at least for some.

Sen. Greg Hertz, R-Polson, said he understands dealmaking as a politician, and lawmakers negotiate, but he did not understand the protection of Ellsworth. He confirmed Thursday he continues to have questions about the Senate’s ability to hold its own accountable given the earlier vote.

“Why would Democrats want to harm the integrity of the Senate?” Hertz said. “To me, they
must have been promised something fairly large.”

In part, Democrats argued Ellsworth deserved due process, and they feared he wouldn’t get it in the Senate, and their allies agreed.

Flowers said Thursday he concurs with the relaunch of the internal investigation given the determination from the Department of Justice that ethics is the charge of the Legislature, but at least one member of The Nine still has concerns.

McKamey said the earlier vote to refer the investigation to the DOJ wasn’t related to the working majority’s other priorities in the Senate, but for her, the common thread is fairness.

She said she believed the first chairwoman and subsequent chairman of the ethics committee had the ability to conduct a fair hearing. At the same time, she said once they started speaking publicly about the issue, she felt the matter would best be handled elsewhere.

“It has the appearance of already passing judgment,” McKamey said.

She said Thursday she continues to question the process because she believes some senators are voting against bills based on the sponsor, and it makes her wonder if “there isn’t any type of retribution that is happening.”

Ellsworth is part of The Nine, and he has brought his own complications to the Senate, with allegations of wrongdoing, and accusations from other Republicans that he pledged to cause chaos if he wasn’t elected president again.

Ellsworth disputes he promised to be disruptive, but he acknowledged his own actions have brought on part of the pain he’s feeling in the Senate, although he said he stands by his decisions.

He said he faces pressure from the Freedom Caucus, and he and other members of the nine, at times referred to as “The Nasty Nine,” have said they face snide remarks inside the Capitol, although they wouldn’t name names. Online and in text messages, they’ve received threats of primaries or recall or censure.

“I am contacting you today regarding your deplorable voting record as a Republican,” read one text message to one of The Nine. “Exposure is coming to you because of your deceptive tactics and dirty politics.”

Sen. Shelley Vance, R-Belgrade, said her faith helps her get through the tough days, and she has turned to Exodus in the Bible for reassurance.

“I am God’s treasured possession,” the verses tell her. “Followed by, ‘Thy will be done.’”

Gillespie said he expects to take heat, but he knows who he works for too.

“I’d rather catch hell from them (other Republicans) than my hometown people,” he said.

But he laughed at the political reality in Montana.

“I’ll catch hell from them, too.”

Loge said online, one commenter accused him, tongue-in-cheek, of losing his rubber stamp.

The Freedom Caucus appears to have foreshadowed some results coming out of the Legislature this year at least so far.

In a rebuttal to Gianforte’s State of the State address, Freedom Caucus member Rep. Jerry Schillinger, R-Circle, said Republicans have an easier time aligning around culture war issues, but not as easy a time squeezing down spending — at least to their satisfaction.

Already, a couple of the culture war bills have moved swiftly through both chambers, including a “bathroom bill,” with all Republicans in support, albeit some with private reservations.

Medicaid expansion passed a big hurdle in the Senate, but members of The Nine don’t anticipate their work is done, or that calm will necessarily prevail the rest of the session.

“We’ve got to find the solution for property taxes, since that is what the constituents probably want the most,” Kassmier said. “That’s what I heard most from the doors, and it’s getting tougher and tougher to live day by day.”

Property tax reductions appear to be a priority for all lawmakers, but the working coalition in the Senate appears to have power to steer the proposals it prefers with some flexing on the part of Kassmier and Flowers.

“We’re conservatives working to deliver results for our constituents, what we were sent here to do,” Kassmier said. “And the Democrats are going with Republicans, right?”

One morning after the coalition hoisted its agenda of assigning bills over Republican leadership, Gillespie said he had arrived with goodwill and donuts for the entire chamber and people in the gallery, and teased that if there was an extra, the president could have it “for all your good work.”

The business is messy, but Gillespie doesn’t believe it has to be, and he said Republicans historically have welcomed different shades of red.

“We’re a broad-tent party, but we’re not acting like a broad-tent party,” Gillespie said. “They’re still trying to treat it like a small-tent party … I think that’s a real mistake.”

Regier sees a different mistake. Montana gave President Donald Trump more support in 2024 than in 2020, and in doing so, he said, voters helped put in office an aggressive force aimed at shrinking the size and scope of government.

This year, Montana also voted out the only Democrat elected statewide when it ousted U.S. Sen. Jon Tester. The message from voters, Regier said, is Montanans want conservatives, both in Washington, D.C., and at home.

“To me, it is a harbinger of the direction that Montana is going,” Regier said. To that end, he had advice for the minority Republicans.

“If you don’t like the way the Republican Party is going, change parties.”

Editor’s note: Reporter Micah Drew contributed to this story.