Montana Democrats on Saturday picked a little-known state legislator as their replacement candidate in the November election -- after incumbent Sen. John Walsh dropped out of the race in the wake of a plagiarism scandal.
Delegates voted for state Rep. Amanda Curtis, of Butte, in a special nominating convention in Helena.
Curtis, who is also a teacher, defeated rancher Dirk Adams and will face GOP challenger Rep. Steve Daines and Libertarian candidate Roger Roots in the November general elections.
Walsh had faced an uphill climb in the race against Daines, a first-term congressman who has raised more than $4.4 million in his Senate bid.
Daines is expected to have an even bigger advantage against a new candidate after Walsh dropped out over allegations he plagiarized a 2007 U.S. Army War College research paper.
Montana's Senate contest was widely seen as an uphill battle for Democrats even before Walsh dropped out.
Republicans need a net win of six seats to take control of the Senate, with most political analysts putting Montana in their 'likely' win column.
Daines had been ahead in most statewide polls by about 10 points prior to the plagiarism allegations and is now considered the overwhelming front-runner in the race.
Walsh officially dropped out of the race Aug. 7 after being dogged by allegations he lifted parts of his master's thesis.
The New York Times first reported the use of un-attributed material in his paper. Walsh initially called it an 'unintentional mistake,' but the Iraq veteran later told http://ift.tt/1m1lLds that part of the problem might be post-traumatic stress disorder -- and then added he wasn't blaming PTSD.
'The people of Montana have an important choice for their next senator: A Butte teacher, or a congressman with a record of shutting down the government and hurting small businesses, privatizing Medicare, selling off public lands, taking away the freedom of choice for women, and taking food away from hungry people,' Walsh said after Curtis's victory. 'I thank the Montana Democratic Party for putting faith in Amanda.'
Griffin said the 'silver lining' for Montana Democrats would be to use the opportunity to lay down a foundation for an up-and-coming politician.
Several other names had been floated as possible replacements for Walsh, including actor Jeff Bridges and former Gov. Brian Schweitzer.
Schweitzer claimed he was not interested, and Bridges said he decision to join in the balloting was a family decision.
Schweitzer was already in trouble following controversial comments he made in a National Journal article about former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who he said set off his 'gaydar,' and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, whom Schweitzer compared to a sex worker.
http://ift.tt/1m1lLds contributed to this report. Entities 0 Name: Walsh Count: 7 1 Name: Montana Count: 6 2 Name: Schweitzer Count: 3 3 Name: Senate Count: 3 4 Name: Daines Count: 3 5 Name: Curtis Count: 2 6 Name: Bridges Count: 1 7 Name: Griffin Count: 1 8 Name: Sen. Dianne Feinstein Count: 1 9 Name: Brian Schweitzer Count: 1 10 Name: Dirk Adams Count: 1 11 Name: New York Times Count: 1 12 Name: Eric Cantor Count: 1 13 Name: Associated Press Count: 1 14 Name: Steve Daines Count: 1 15 Name: Iraq Count: 1 16 Name: U.S. Army War College Count: 1 17 Name: Amanda Curtis Count: 1 18 Name: Jeff Bridges Count: 1 19 Name: http://ift.tt/1m1lLds Count: 1 20 Name: Amanda Count: 1 21 Name: GOP Count: 1 22 Name: National Journal Count: 1 23 Name: Roger Roots Count: 1 24 Name: Sen. John Walsh Count: 1 25 Name: Helena Count: 1 26 Name: House Count: 1 27 Name: Libertarian Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1kHfC8V Title: Taking a Spin: How Democrats Could Keep Their Majority Description: Democrats hold on to the Senate by the skin of their teeth by winning Arkansas in this week's spin of Leo's Senate wheels. Every week we generate random election scenarios based on the probabilities from the Upshot's Senate elections forecasting model. The result this week is one of the more reasonable spins that we've had so far this year.