Jim Hunt --(the Left's latest candidate, Part II)

Seems like we just wrote this post not too long ago: Democratic Party finds trial lawyer to be their token candidate against Congressman Denny Rehberg.

This time it is Jim Hunt. Last time, MH got some feedback saying that Steve Doherty wasn't a "real" trial lawyer, in the sense that he wasn't a guy who has made millions at the plaintiff's bar.

But it would appear that Hunt fits the bill, having been the "Montana Trial Lawyer of the Year" for 2003-4. He specializes in suing doctors and hospitals and in personal injury cases, from animal bites to wrongful death.

Don't get us wrong -- medical malpractice and personal injury from negligence do indeed happen, and those who suffer from that deserve good representation.

But we again note, as we did in Part I, that in the latest P-base polling, trial lawyers have the biggest negatives of any advocacy group among Montana voters.

So look for Hunt and the Democrats to play down the fact that Hunt makes his living from suing people.

And we doubt that Hunt will be advertising the fact that he was one of a handful of rich trial lawyers who wrote 5 figure checks to the MTLA's PAC to get their man, Justice Jim Nelson, re-elected to the Montana Supreme Court. As noted in Part I, Montana voters don't much like the idea of lawyers putting large amounts of money into the elections of judges and justices who will directly or indirectly affect the outcome of the cases they try.

Hunt is a veteran of the National Guard, which is a good thing. Of course, Conrad Burns served in the Marine Corps and was in a position to help veterans by being on the all-important Appropriations Committee. That didn't stop Democrats from savaging him.

And Rehberg is on the House Appropriations Committee -- the only member of the Montana delegation to be on an Appropriations Committee, and brave talk and empty promises from Sen. Tester and the Democrats notwithstanding, he will likely remain the only one on an Appropriations Committee for years to come.

We doubt that Montanans, having seen what happens when you lose a seat on Senate Appropriations, will be very quick to lose the one seat we have left by voting against Rehberg.

Hunt, as a trial lawyer, will have deep pockets and a ready donor pool, but given how much money the MTLA members are having to pour into sustaining the Democratic Party and financing judicial and AG races in this state, one wonders just how deeply they will dig for what is bound to be a futile race on Hunt's part.