Montana message: Democrats need gravitas

First-time candidate failed to appeal to Republican voters

WASHINGTON — Democrats received a strong reminder from Montana voters that it takes more than just liberal outrage against President Donald Trump and the GOP agenda to win seats that lean toward Republicans.

It takes serious candidates and a policy agenda of their own.

Their nominee, Rob Quist, hailed by liberal activists as a cowboy poet, delivered what most observers in Washington felt was an average performance in a race that was closely watched even before the Republican nominee was charged with assaulting a reporter on the eve of Thursday’s special election.

Some Democrats have responded to Trump’s victory by searching for their own unique candidates. But after receiving just 44 percent of the vote, Quist’s performance may demonstrate the limitations of quirky, first-time candidates.

What Montana showed was the need to field candidates with backgrounds that appeal to voters who have tended to back Republicans in congressional races. It’s not necessarily an ideological requirement to be a centrist — serious candidates, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., or Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., can reside at the edge of the ideological spectrum. But they nearly always need more gravitas than Quist brought from a decadeslong career as a guitar player in a popular bluegrass band in the Mountain West.

There are exceptions, of course. Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota is one — though it’s worth noting that Franken spent his first eight years in office avoiding the comedy shtick he was known for on “Saturday Night Live” because he recognized the need to get serious fast.

Of the three special elections this year, Quist clearly delivered the worst performance, based on a measure crafted by the smart analysts at the Cook Political Report. Democrats received 49 percent in the initial balloting in the old Atlanta district of Tom Price, Tom Price, the health secretary, and almost 47 percent in the race in southern Kansas, better than Quist’s 44 percent.

Moreover, based on recent presidential races, the Kansas nominee performed 12 percentage points better than an average Democrat would have been expected to show, according to Cook. In Georgia, Democrats performed seven percentage points better than an average nominee.

Quist outperformed an average Democrat by just 5 percent. And he lagged woefully when compared with Montana’s Democratic governor, Steve Bullock, who won by four points in November against Republican Greg Gianforte, the businessman who beat Quist on Thursday despite being charged with assaulting a reporter the night before.

Democrats in Washington saw that as justification for their decision to invest only $500,000 in the race, dismissing Quist as a “hype” candidate from backers of Sanders who did not realize he had a hard ceiling around 43 to 45 percent among voters.

“DCCC took a smart chance with its investments, refused to waste money on hype,” Meredith Kelly, communications director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, wrote in a Friday memo.

Because it was a special election, Quist won the nomination at a party convention where the most liberal activists held sway, rather than a broad statewide primary.