Kathy Love Debates Her Opponent

Republican Women held a debate on March 27 between Kathy Love and her opponent. There was a record crowd in the small space and 36 straw poll ballots were handed out to random attendees. Kathy won the straw poll with a 30-6 margin!

Click on the link below to watch.

Kathy Love Endorsements

I was recently honored and appreciative of two great endorsements in my bid for the legislature! Montanans for Limited Government and Montana Conservative Alliance have endorsed me as the most conservative candidate for House District 85. There are a lot of people that say they’re conservative but it takes determination and deeply held convictions to remain conservative in today’s world. Having grounded principles is the key to successfully representing the people!

MCA ENDORSEMENT STATEMENT

“Montana Conservative Alliance holds lawmakers and political candidates to a high standard of constitutional fidelity, philosophical consistency and personal character. Thus, we don’t endorse very many candidates.  To earn our MCA endorsement, a person must convince us that they have deeply rooted freedom-loving principles and convictions, and the courage and moral character to defend those principles – and the cause of liberty -- whenever and wherever challenged.

“Montana Conservative Alliance strongly supports Kathy Love in the HD 85 Republican primary, as a genuine and trustworthy conservative, who will be continually guided by constitutional principles and a love of liberty.  These qualities are rare in politics today – and desperately needed!  We believe Kathy will always stand strong in the Montana legislature, fighting for freedom, free markets, family values and better – not bigger – state government.  We are honored to give her our endorsement.”

                                                Montana Conservative Alliance

Kathy Love Speaks at Aiming for Victory Event

Ravalli County Republican Central Committee held an event on April 6 to introduce candidates to the public and let you get to know the people that want to represent you. It was a great turnout with over around 200 tickets sold. Each candidate was given 3 minutes to speak and introduce themselves. (As you can see, I went over the 3 minutes as did most of the candidates!)

Click the button below to hear my speech and get to know more about me!

Know How Your Legislators Are Voting

Montana Conservative Alliance

2023 GOP Legislator Voting Record Analysis

Precise conservative index, based on courage & principle, not politics

Introduction – an Appeal to Principle and Truth

You’ve no doubt seen a number of purportedly “conservative” ratings of legislative voting

records, put forth by various groups. Generally, these indexes mimic the positions of the house

and senate GOP leadership, and not surprisingly, almost all Republican legislators score high.

Is this approach a reliable indicator of true conservatism? We think not. Often, these reports

are very misleading, and help return to office, Republican politicians who are fundamentally not

free market conservatives, and who should be replaced. There is, in fact, a significant

percentage of Republican legislators who are guilty of:

(1) voting with the Democrats to defeat key conservative legislation, with the best bills usually

getting killed in committee. Thus, session after session, the conservative agenda goes nowhere.

(2) introducing a flood of bills that are anti-market, anti-liberty, and that progressively increase the size,

power, cost and interventionism of state and local government. Because these big government

measures are “Republican sponsored,” they stand a much better chance of passage. Republicans who

we think should know better, line up to support their fellow party members. As a result, no matter how

large the GOP majority, state government continues to grow every time the legislature meets.

MCA has always refused to play the “party politics game.” Those who do so only perpetuate the

problem. Our rating system is quite unique – independent of any “party” and totally focused on ideas

and principles rather than on currying favor from appreciative politicians. Let the truth be told,

unapologetically, and trust that an informed citizenry will then be equipped to do the right thing.

When you take a close look at GOP legislative voting patterns, suddenly something screams out at you.

The assumption that most elected Republicans believe and understand the philosophical foundations of

freedom, free markets and constitutional government is simply not true. They may be very nice people,

who “say” conservative things, but if they truly understood the ideas and principles that undergird our

free republic, they simply could not, in good conscience, vote the way they do.

Here are a few illustrations, taken from the current bills. If you’re a reasonably well-read, philosophical

conservative, you’ll have no trouble answering these questions. They all fall under the category of

“when does freedom fail us? When can freedom not be trusted, and government must step in?”

1. Do we need to have government force insurance companies to provide certain kinds of coverage, or

do these companies respond to the demands and “signals” of the marketplace, offering a wide variety of

competitive consumer choices on their own?

2. Do we need to have government induce private companies to do more hiring, through subsidies, tax

credits and other incentives, or are private companies capable of deciding for themselves how many

employees they should have, based on their own risk capital and the actual needs of their operation?

3. Is it sometimes necessary for a government program to step in and assist employers in the cost of

training incumbent or new workers, especially with trade skills, or is worker training a normal private

business expense, and the wisdom of this investment best determined by the company itself?

4. Do we need government licensing of 70 or 80 different professions, trades and other business types,

to ensure quality, safety and to guard against “uncontrolled, excessive and disruptive” market entry, or

do consumers, voting with their dollars in a free and competitive marketplace, do a better job of

deciding what kind and how many businesses should exist?

5. Should government remove all business risks from private monopolies that provide essential services

(like power utilities,) or should monopoly regulation include policies that function like market

competition, providing risk and reward incentives and company accountability to its customers?

For most of us, these and other questions are easily answered. We trust freedom, and do not believe

government is a substitute for the free market and the individual decisions of free people. Yet most of

the Republicans we send to Helena will vote exactly opposite to the way we think on these kinds of basic

issues. Truth be known, most Republican legislators never stop to ask the most fundamental question

for all lawmakers: Is this a proper role and function of government? They view their job as “passing

bills,” and many of those bills are not constitutionally authorized roles and powers of government.

A true conservative, in our view, is not only guided by principle, but is ideologically and philosophically

consistent. Looking at any given bill, a conservative instinctively knows if that measure is based on a

proper and constitutional function of government. He instinctively knows if the bill advances or

diminishes human freedom, and votes accordingly. He doesn’t compromise. Legislation that has “good

intentions” is not good enough. Bills that are “half good and half bad” are bad bills. Period. Push the

red button – even if you are the only one in the room who does.

When the average conservative, pro-liberty score among 101 GOP legislators is 37 percent – meaning

that, based on the index bills MCA carefully selected, the typical Republican legislator voted to defend

your freedom just over one-third of the time – we are led to ask the obvious question: are the

Democrats any more consistent as liberals, than the Republicans are as conservatives? Or perhaps an

even better question is, are the liberal Republicans more consistent and more dedicated to what they

believe than the self-described conservatives? To both forms of the question, the answer is YES!

We have not bothered to score the Democrats in this report, but it’s fair to say that they would average

no more than 5 to 10 percent conservative. That’s being generous. Every single Democrat among 49

legislators would fall under the “statist/left” category. They are ideologically very consistent. But

consider the Republicans, where only 16 out of 101 made it into the conservative zone, while 36 scored

either liberal or far left. Why, then, do liberals vote so philosophically consistent, while the best of

conservatives cannot get scores above 81%?

This constantly vexing question can only be briefly addressed here. But the short answer is this: It is

easy for a politician to be a liberal, and much harder to be a conservative. If you are a liberal

(Republican or Democrat,) you simply accept the assumption that while freedom might be a quaint idea,

when it comes to solving problems, government must step in. You buy into the statist notion that the

purpose of government is to fix what freedom and free people mess up. As a lawmaker, you lock in to

the premise that every problem requires a government response. (Never mind that government

intervention created the problem in the first place.) This elevated view of one’s job is a heady and

prideful experience, that makes a legislator feel extremely important – even indispensable! By

believing that every problem has a government solution, these so-called “solutions” become easy to

vote for. Every recipient of your “generosity” will appreciate you on election day! Not surprisingly, the

left wing of Republican legislators actually even calls itself “The Solutions Caucus.” When the session

ends, these liberals can go home and brag to their constituents about how many government

“solutions” they supported -- while at the same time complaining about the “obstructionists” on the far

right, whose only answer to everything is more freedom and less government. Guilty as charged!

Liberals have no imagination. No ability to dream, since they lack the knowledge of where dreams come

from: the human heart -- not political programs! Because they look only to government, they cannot

comprehend the creative energy of a free society – unplanned by laws and politics. Because the

miracles of freedom are, by their very nature, unpredictable and unplanned, liberals find it impossible to

trust freedom itself. Faith in the free society is faith in the yet unknown and unseen. It is exactly this

faith in the “unseens” of freedom that makes the conservative message much harder to articulate. Faith

in free markets. Faith in free exchange. Faith in the right to property and the right to contract –

unincumbered by government. These are philosophical abstractions that most public schooled

individuals have never heard before. It’s much easier for a voter to hear about some highly visible

government spending program that appears to provide blessings out of thin air, than being required to

contemplate the confiscated wealth that paid for those programs, and imagine what greater good could

have been accomplished if that wealth had been left in the free hands of those who created it. Yes, it is

a much easier sell to be a liberal. Consequently, even the best of the Republican legislators currently

find themselves voting for “government solutions” from time to time, possibly against their own

consciences. Freedom may be spoken rhetorically in the legislature, but very seldom is it truly

understood or boldly asserted.

We don’t wish to imply that having a bad voting record makes you a bad person. It just makes you a bad

legislator. Maybe taking time for personal study into the words of our founding fathers or the works of

great thinkers like Thomas Sowell, Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, Adam Smith and Frederic Bastiat

will provide the enlightenment necessary to turn these men and women into wise lawmakers someday –

assuming they have the public-spirited humility to listen, to learn and to grow. In the meantime, it is

quite evident that they lack the philosophical foundation needed to honor and protect our freedom.

These 33 house votes and 33 senate votes were carefully selected to provide the most accurate picture

possible of who, among the Republicans in our state legislature, are the liberty protectors and who are

the pretenders. In some cases, you will probably be shocked at the degree to which their record does

not match their rhetoric. Our intention is strictly to inform. Once informed, it is entirely up to you,

what action you feel individually called upon to take. The stakes are high, and we all need to do our

part.

Roger Koopman, president, Montana Conservative Alliance

811 S. Tracy Ave., Bozeman, MT 59715 faithfulandfree@protonmail.com

Scorecard Breakdown

60-100: generally conservative, 40-59: centrist, 20-39: generally liberal, under 20: statist/left

STATE SENATE

81 Steve Hinebauch

78 Theresa Manzella

69 Tom McGillvray

65 Daniel Emrich

59 Carl Glimm

53 Becky Beard

53 Forrest Mandeville

53 Mark Noland

50 Dan Bartel

50 Dennis Lenz

50 Keith Regier

50 Barry Usher

47 Ken Bogner

47 John Fuller

44 Bob Brown

44 John Esp

44 Mike Lang

44 Shelley Vance

39 Daniel Zolnikov

38 Greg Hertz

38 Jeremy Trebas

34 Brad Molnar

28 Chris Friedel

28 Jeffrey Welborn

25 Jason Ellsworth

25 Steve Fitzpatrick

22 Russ Tempel

16 Bruce Gillespie

13 Wendy McKamey

13 Terry Vermeire

10 Mike Cuffe

9 Walt Sales

6 Daniel Salomon

0 Jason Small

SENATE REPUBLICAN AVERAGE: 39

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

81 Caleb Hinkle

77 Lola Sheldon-Gallaway

75 Jedidiah Hinkle

69 Paul Fielder

69 Braxton Mitchell

69 Jane Gillette

68 Bob Keenan

66 Terry Falk

66 Lyn Hellegaard

63 Brandon Ler

61 Steven Gallaway

61 Jerry Schillinger

59 Amy Regier

56 Jennifer Carlson

56 Ron Marshall

56 Matt Regier

56 Tanner Smith

55 Fiona Nave

54 Nelly Nicol

53 Rhonda Knudsen

53 Terry Moore

52 Greg Kmetz

50 Bob Phalen

48 Bill Mercer

47 Zack Wirth

44 Neil Duram

42 Sherry Essmann

41 James Bergstrom

41 Lee Deming

41 Steve Gunderson

41 Kerri Seekins-Crowe

39 Joe Read

38 Edward Butcher

31 Katie Zolnikov

29 Jodie Etchart

29 Mike Hopkins

28 Larry Brewster

26 Casey Knudsen

25 Steve Gist

25 Scot Kerns

25 Russel Miner

25 Linda Reksten

25 Sue Vinton

22 Tony Brockman

22 Joshua Kassmier

22 Marty Malone

19 Marta Bertoglio

19 Julie Dooling

19 Greg Oblander

19 Michael Yakawich

16 Gary Parry

16 Wayne Rusk

13 Michele Binkley

13 Llew Jones

13 Courtenay Sprunger

10 Edward Buttrey

9 Fred Anderson

9 David Bedey

9 Ross Fitzgerald

9 John Fitzpatrick

9 Tom Welch

7 Brad Barker

7 Paul Green

6 Denley Loge

6 George Nikalakakos

6 Kenneth Walsh

0 Gregory Fazer

HOUSE REPUBLICAN AVERAGE: 36

AVERAGE, ALL REPUBLICANS: 37

35 Index Bills used in this MCA Scorecard:

House Bills

HB 2 (N)

HB 15 (N)

HB 37 veto OR (Y)

HB 41 (N)

HB 55 (N)

HB 115 (N)

HB 245 (N)

HB 257 (N)

HB 263 (N)

HB 284 (N)

HB 302 (N)

HB 317 (N)

HB 332 (N)

HB 338 (N)

HB 352 (N)

HB 449 (N)

HB 458 (N)

HB 520 (N)

HB 527 (Y)

HB 562 (Y)

HB 601 (N)

HB 648 (N)

HB 652 (Y)

HB 665 (N)

HB 819 (N)

HB 837- blast (Y)

HB 889 (N)

HB 965 (Y)

Senate Bills

SJ 15 (Y)

SJ 29 (N)

SB 337 (Y)

SB 370 (N)

SB 458 (Y)

SB 516 (N)

SB 522 (N)

SB 558 (N)

Kathy Love Speaks at Pachyderms

Kathy Love spoke at the local Pachyderm meeting on Feb 2 in Stevensville. Pachyderms is the local educational arm of the Republican Party.

Kathy shared her background because she feels that how you grew up helps shape who you are as an adult. She talked about her parents and siblings as well as her careers and involvement in political issues through out the years.

She grew up in Georgia, moved to Florida in 1985 and then to Montana in September of 1990. After graduating from college with a degree in Dental Hygiene, she practiced in Florida for 5 years before life led her to the beauty of Montana. She practiced Dental Hygiene in Ravalli county for 33 years with 30 of those years in the same office. She recently retired from practice in December of 2023.

Kathy also owns and operates Love2Shoot Firearms Training located in Hamilton. She teaches men and women with a particular focus on women. The business was born of the need for a woman firearms trainer to teach women. The business was started in 2018 and grew quickly with word spreading mostly by word of mouth.

In 2019 Kathy was asked to join a group called The DC Project, The group is now known as Women for Gun Rights. The group is composed of women from all 50 states that advocate in their states and Washington DC for 2nd Amendment rights and issues. Through this group Kathy is able to stay in touch and on top of issues that are happening elsewhere that could potentially affect Montana.

Veterans including her father, brother and a son is part of Kathy’s lineage. She has several uncles that served as well with others in the family that served going back several generations.

Kathy talked about issues that she is hearing from people and issues that are important to her as well. Those issues include election integrity, taxes and Second Amendment issues. These are just a sample of the issues we face but these three seem to rise to the top when talking to people.

Kathy ended the session with a question and answer period.

Click HERE to watch Kathy’s speech.

Should Illegals Be Allowed To Vote In Montana?

With our Southern border as porous as a sponge, do you feel that illegals should be allowed to vote in Montana? This past legislative session a bill, HB 402, was sponsored and/or voted on by four of your Ravalli County legislators that would have allowed people with “unverified citizenship” to vote in Montana.

The theory behind HB 402 was based on a court case out of Kansas where a young man moved from Texas to Kansas and wanted to register to vote there. When he was told he would need proof of citizenship to register, he sued the state. The court ruled that he didn’t need proof of citizenship to register to vote. He just needed to check the box on the form that confirmed he was a citizen under penalty of law.

HB 402 was designed to capture illegal voters because they lied on the form when they checked the box certifying that they were citizens. The flaw in HB 402 was that it was designed to let them vote before they were caught! A cast vote does not have any identification attached to it and cannot be retrieved! The same mechanism that you would use to catch them after they vote could easily be used to catch them after they REGISTER to vote and check that box certifying under penalty of law that they are citizens. They need to be caught before being added to the voter rolls not after they vote.

The bill also violated current Montana law which says that only citizens can vote and illegals are not allowed to vote here. It also violates the Constitution. The people responsible for HB 402 SHOULD know this. They took an oath to uphold the Constitutions and the law. One has to then ask, what was the real purpose of the bill?