Senator Barry Usher, District 19 (Majority Whip)

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Amazingly, the Montana Senate “Nasty-Nine” and the Democrats hosted a town hall in a Democratic-run city. NO ONE from Senate Leadership or the Freedom Caucus was invited to offer a balanced perspective.

Fortunately, I find it easy to rebut a lot of what they said:

1) They assert that the conflict in the Senate between the “Nasty-Nine,” the Democrats, and the true conservatives started on day one with the rearranging of committees. They say they did this to be fairer because some of the “Nasty Nine” felt disenfranchised with their committee assignments. However, it’s important to know that we have a copy of a handwritten list of members Sen Ellsworth specifically wanted to be on the new Government Oversight Committee. Former Senate President Ellsworth personally picked each of the members to be on the committee, who became known as the “Nasty Nine”.

2) Senate Leadership did not force anyone to vote certain ways, as they say – we caucused (the “Nasty Nine” did not show up), we discussed, and as a Republican Caucus, we worked together with twenty-three strong, principled Republicans.

3) The “Nasty-Nine” seemed to live on the 2nd floor, taking their orders and direction from the Governor’s Office. I’m not sure how they can portray the separation of powers with three equal branches of government, as they repeatedly acknowledged that they were committed to the Governor’s agenda. The result is an 18% budget growth.

4) As you can see from the article and the video, the “Nasty-Nine” made the Democrats very happy – how could they not be happy, they got almost everything they wanted because the “Nasty-Nine” gave them the power.

5) As Sen. Neuman says in the video (in the first comment), the Democrats helped the “Nasty-Nine” save Sen Ellsworth from being expelled for waste, fraud, and abuse of power when he tried to give a contract to a friend by bifurcating it, which put it under the threshold to be put out for bid.

6) Recent Tax Foundation and Frontier Institute articles highlight that we went into the 2025 Session with a $2.3 billion surplus, promising property tax reform. What the Governors’ “Nasty-Nine” and the Democrats gave us is a Property Tax Shift. The citizens of Montana will pay for this shift somewhere or somehow

7) Judicial Reform – the “Nasty-Nine” combined with the Democrats, killed 75% of the Judicial Reform bills that came out of the Senate Select Committee on Judicial Oversight & Reform. Two of the “Nasty-Nine” (Senators Ellsworth and McKamey) were members of that committee, and most of the bills came out of that committee unanimously. Why the dramatic change in ideology?

REMEMBER that every member of the “NASTY NINE” was censured by the Montana State Republican Party, and several were censured by their own local county Republican Central Committees. They chose to stand by Sen. Ellsworth, who was adjudicated for several ethics violations, censured by the State Republican Party, and punished by the entire Montana State Senate.

As Legislators, we go where the facts and the evidence lead us. After considering the evidence presented above, who are you going to believe? Who are you going to trust?