The Montana GOP held their annual convention this last weekend in Helena and had quite the time. Republicans gathered from each corner of the state to elect their new Chairman Erik Iverson and bring forth a plan to pick up "gains" in the next (2008) election cycle. Interestingly enough many questions remained unanswered as to where the party stands.

It was interesting to see the party members with such diverse ideologies come together to talk about where our party is headed. We had a showing of the strong conservatives such as Sales and Koopman all the way to the opposite end of the spectrum with log cabin Republicans such as the Jones Brothers who sided with the Schweitzer administration that latterly led to Montana's taxpayers receiving the shaft on tax relief.

Rising questions as to, "What is the Party's message?" and "Who is this young gun (Iverson) and what is his plan?" still remain flowing in murky water. Yet Iverson managed to drop a fiery speech that rallied Republican delegates to their feet, but in the end, no candidates emerged from the convention with announcements to challenge Gov. Brian Schweitzer nor Sen. Max Baucus.

The infamous Mike Lange who is better known for his arrogance and political incorrectness which ultimately led to his party firing him at the end of the Special Session, has been hinting for quite sometime about running for one of the two posts. Whatever he decides, the MDP would be happy to hear his announcement considering the lack of support from Lange's own party(http://www.helenair.com/articles/2007/06/24/montana_top/a01062407_01.txt).

Whatever the final outcome of the convention, Republicans should feel more secure knowing that at the very least, they have a newly elected leader who has been around the block a few times in his life and as some would say, "This isn't his first rodeo."