The political season this year featured a new phenomenon in Montana never before seen on such a scale: ultra-conservative political candidates are running for office, but as Democrats rather than Republicans.

Most of this action is taking place in Bozeman. The candidates aren’t saying whether this effort was coordinated — but it seems plausible. Officials in the Democratic Party believe this is an organized effort designed to deceive voters. “It is sort of dirty politics at its worst,” said Democratic legislative campaign director Lauren Caldwell.  

Five of the identified TEA partiers running as democrats are from Bozeman, which makes it appear that the candidates are in cahoots. Three of these five used the same Bozeman address. A fourth has actually run for office once before as a Republican. He once described himself on his Facebook page as a “TEA Party extremist.”  The fifth is married to a Republican county official and has now become a plaintiff in a lawsuit with, and filed by, a cadre of Tea Party candidates.
The existence of this stealth Tea Party activity was first uncovered by the local political blog Montana Cowgirl, and the Great Falls Tribune. I decided to reach out to these candidates myself and see what they had to say.

First I spoke with Dane Peeples, who has an active account on the Tea Party patriot bulletin board called the Constitution Club. That’s the first clue to his true affiliations. Mr. Peeples is also a member of a local militia group called “The Irregulars.”

Mr. Peeples said he is running for office because he has a problem with how the incumbents are running things, but couldn’t name anything his opponent or any other legislator had done that he opposed. Nor could Mr. Peeples name any position of the Democratic Party he agreed with. “Is it illegal to run as a Democrat?” he fired back when I asked.

When I asked Mr. Peeples if he was working with other conservatives as part of a coordinated plot, he said he had to get off the phone and wouldn’t answer anymore questions.

Bozemanite Mike Comstock, a self described “Tea Party extremist,” is concerned with “one-world government” theories and worries that civilization is on the verge of a total collapse. His Facebook page reveals his belief that the muppets may be part of a socialist plot. The fact that he’s run as a Republican in the past hasn’t stopped him from calling himself a Democrat on the ballot this fall.  

Mr. Comstock told me he didn’t talk to any Republican party officials about his candidacy. He also told me pleasantly that Democrats in Bozeman are radical liberals who don’t believe in private property. He said that most Democrats in Montana didn’t vote for Obama, and that the national Democrats hold “San Francisco values” that include nationalizing all industry and a socialist one-world government. When asked what Democratic Party positions he agreed with, he said only medical marijuana.

Kathy Hollenback is married to GOP Precinct chair David Ponte --a man who ran for legislature on the GOP ticket in 2010. Mr. Ponte is precinct chair of the Gallatin Republican Party and has two current complaints filed with the Commissioner of Political Practices: one against a Democrat and one against a moderate Republican whose votes angered conservatives last session.  

Ms. Hollenback is also part of a lawsuit filed by a Bozeman TEA Party candidate for legislature named Matthew Monforton, who has sued seeking to block a ballot initiative to expand Medicaid which was supported by Democrats and moderate Republicans during the last legislative session. Monforton originally filed for office against Republican Rep. Ted Washburn, a candidate Ms. Hollenback has spoken out against in the past. For example, Hollenback criticized Rep.

Washburn’s support for a law to keep alcoholic energy drinks out of the hands of teenagers--because the bill was sponsored by a Democrat.

Monforton’s other plaintiffs included Ed Johnson, an MSU student running for the Legislature as a Republican; and former GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Miller’s daughter. Monforton is using Kathy Hollenback’s status as a Democratic candidate to claim his lawsuit has bi-partisan support. Even if that were true, it was thrown out by the Supreme Court in a unanimous decision.

When I called Ms. Hollenback about her candidacy she said she couldn’t talk then. But when I called her at home later at the time we had agreed upon no one answered.

Harry Pennington and Laura Springer both listed Dane Peeples’ Bozeman address on their filing papers.  But the Bozeman Chronicle reported Mr. Pennington is homeless and lives out of his car and Ms. Springer told reporters she is currently between homes.

Springer is a friend of Peeples from the Constitution Club message board. The board includes links to dozens of local and national conservative groups including Friends of Liberty, whose motto is “Radical, Revolutionary, Resurrection,” and Tenth Amendment Center, which advocates that states should nullify federal laws.

Pennington posted on his Facebook page that America needs to impeach Obama and “take back” the  U.S. Senate, which is already controlled by Democrats. Neither responded to my phone calls.

Two of these candidates, Harry Pennington and Laura Springer, were removed from the ballot for not filing the necessary paperwork to run for office. That leaves three Bozeman TEA Party candidates claiming to be Democrats still on the ballot and at least six in legislative races across the state.   

Jessica Rhoades has worked in politics and communications in Montana for the past decade and was an advisor to former Governor Brian Schweitzer.