Democrat Party Chair Robyn Driscoll appears on KGVO’s Talk Back

KGVO’s Talk Back show spent some time on Monday visiting with Robyn Driscoll, former Legislator and current Chair of the Montana Democratic Party, as she fielded questions from listeners.

Driscoll made a point at the outset of the interview to answer questions from a listener who had questions from a previous KGVO interview regarding the priorities of the Democratic Party in this legislative session.

“His concerns were that the Democrats are not the party of the middle class or low income anymore,” said Driscoll. “So I just wanted to let him know that I heard his frustration. If he's listening, and hopefully he is, I do want to reassure Conrad that the party is fighting for working families in the legislature. They've introduced bills to lower taxes for low and middle income Montanans, and a bill to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit which again would help lower and middle class Montanans.”

Driscoll provided two examples of Republican legislators who, she said, were dissatisfied with the direction of the party in the current session.

“The Republican legislator said just recently that the dividing lines within the caucus still very much exist,” she said. “There's still a power divide, because basically she (the legislator) said she doesn't feel like they've done anything for jobs or for getting businesses open or for workers. She feels like all they’ve (the Republican majority) done is to fan the flames on transgender rights and on abortion.”

Driscoll provided another example of what she sees as Republican dissatisfaction with the progress of the current session

“Even some Republican lawmakers are just reaching a tipping point when it comes to social issues and would prefer to focus more intently on what they ran on,” she said. “Issues like job creation and economic growth initiatives. He's even hearing from super conservative lawmakers that he said they're getting dangerously close to losing our common sense on a lot of this stuff.”

The legislature is currently well into its second half of the session. The only constitutional mandate of each session is to produce HB 2, a balanced state budget.