Steve Bullock in Buzzfeed.com
On Environment:
Passionate about protecting public land access for all
Montanans often complain that Bullock's just not very exciting. Earlier this year, the president of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers told me that he'd never really seen Bullock get worked up about anything--until a public lands rally last year in
Helena. (Public lands make up 29% of Montana, and campaigning on a platform of protecting them--which includes preserving access for all Montanans, whether to hunt or hike or fish--is one of the ways that Democrats get elected.)
Bullock spoke at the rally, which was held in the rotunda of the capital and was caught on video. "He was whooping up the crowd, yelling, a big ol' vein just pulsing his forehead,"
my source recalled. "And I was like, 'this is it, I'll follow this man anywhere.' "
Source: Buzzfeed.com on 2020 Democratic primary
Sep 29, 2018
On Government Reform:
Unlimited corporate spending has impacted our elections
Bullock launches into his dark money pitch straightaway. He talks about the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling and how unlimited corporate spending has impacted our elections. "Think about 2004. Five million dollars of dark money, undisclosed money,
was spent in our federal elections. Fast-forward eight years, and it was $300 million. A 6,000% increase in just eight years in dark money pouring into our election."And that's why he tries to establish the stakes of that political spending as a
central concern to the future of democracy: "If we wanna address all the other big issues in our electoral system, in our political system, if we really want to address income inequality, if we want to address health care," he continues, "you're not
gonna be able to do it unless you also address the way money is affecting our system." This, above all else, is the Bullock pitch: You wanna do all this progressive work? None of it can happen until we excise the very root of the blockage.
Source: Buzzfeed.com on 2020 Democratic primary
Sep 29, 2018
On Government Reform:
Signed the Montana Disclose Act into law
That's when Bullock first started going after his political white whale: dark money in politics, which, in a series of twists and turns, led him all the way to the Supreme Court. Bullock's crusade didn't ultimately affect
Citizens United, but it nonetheless positioned him for his 2012 run for governor. Once in office, working with a bipartisan group of lawmakers, he'd eventually sign the
Montana Disclose Act into law, which requires any groups funding election-related communication to disclose their donors. Earlier this summer, he signed an executive order requiring all recipients of government contracts to disclose
political spending; he features prominently in a dark money documentary, made by his high school classmate, currently making the indie circuit rounds.
Source: Buzzfeed.com on 2020 Democratic primary
Sep 29, 2018
On Gun Control:
Supports background checks & semi-automatic ban
Just weeks before Bullock graduated from Columbia in 1994, his nephew--an 11-year-old attending a Butte elementary school--was shot and killed, then the youngest victim of a school shooting. It's an event that, until very recently, Bullock declined
to discuss in public. This May, however, following the Santa Fe school shooting in Texas, he wrote an op-ed pairing that experience with that of his son shooting his first deer during hunting season--both of which, he says, shape his thinking on gun
policy, which includes background checks, banning semiautomatic weapons, and rejecting plans to arm teachers in the classroom. It marked the first attempt to make gun control--a mostly verboten topic in Montana politics,
no matter one's affiliation--part of his platform, rooted in the sort of compelling personal experience that would resonate with national audiences.
Source: Buzzfeed.com on 2020 Democratic primary
Sep 29, 2018
On Health Care:
Got Medicaid expansion through a GOP-dominated legislature
Bullock got Medicaid expansion through a Republican-dominated legislature, with a demographic makeup much like Iowa's. And he's worked with the state legislature to shed light on what campaign finance activists have termed "dark money"--political
contributions from outside interests that don't have to disclose their donors--in Montana politics. When Bullock talks about getting the Medicaid expansion through, someone lets out a low, appreciative whistle.
Source: Buzzfeed.com on 2020 Democratic primary
Sep 29, 2018
Page last updated: Sep 26, 2022