HELENA — Four days into the Montana Legislature’s 69^th session, a split in the majority Republican party is lingering.

Senate leadership spent much of Thursday trying to get their caucus to unite behind a new rules package, but in the end, it was a group of nine Republicans voting alongside Democrats to keep temporary rules in place – just as they did on Monday.

Just after the start of the session, 27 of 50 senators voted to change the proposed initial rules the session would operate under. The biggest changes dealt with senators’ assignments to committees – the smaller groups that hear and debate bills on specific topics.

The first rules proposal, recommended by the Senate Rules Committee last month, had created a new “Executive Branch Review Committee,” which leaders said would handle legislation from the governor’s office and other state agencies. However, Democrats and Sen. Jason Ellsworth, R-Hamilton – the Republican named to chair the committee – questioned whether it was necessary. The revised temporary rules greatly limited what the Executive Branch Review Committee would take on and reassigned its members to other influential committees.

On Wednesday, GOP-led committees sought to address the holdouts’ concerns. The Senate Rules Committee amended the permanent rules proposal to eliminate the Executive Review Committee entirely, and the Senate Committee on Committees – which recommends committee assignments – proposed new assignments similar, but not identical, to the ones in the temporary rules.

The Senate was scheduled to vote on the rules resolution at 1 p.m. Thursday. When the Senate convened, Republicans broke off into what became a highly charged caucus meeting.

Jonathon Ambarian

Senate President Sen. Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, and Majority Leader Sen. Tom McGillvray, R-Billings, urged their members to support the new rules proposal. They said they had heard what Regier called “angst” about the new committee, and that the changes should have addressed that issue.

“We gave you everything you asked for – what do you want?” said Sen. Barry Usher, R-Yellowstone County. “If we go out there again and we continue to fight over these rules, the Republican Party will be hurt.”

Sen. Becky Beard, R-Elliston, said the Republican split had distracted senators from their work.

“We have frittered away now four days dealing with this, when we should be serving the state of Montana and our voters,” she said. “This is not getting to the goal.”

Jonathon Ambarian

Holdout Republican senators said they felt some members hadn’t been treated fairly when committees were assigned. Sen. Wendy McKamey, R-Great Falls, was critical of the Executive Review Committee.

“It was, someone said, a parking place for people, to kind of keep them out of the way,” she said. “I don’t know whether it was or whether it wasn’t; what I do know is it was kind of an affront to the governor. I do not want to see us fighting the governor, I want to see us making good legislation, I want to see us getting to work, I want to see us getting stuff done.”

Conservative groups like the Montana Freedom Caucus sharply criticized the nine Republicans who broke with their party on the rules, accusing them of essentially handing power in the chamber to Democrats. Sen. Denley Loge, R-St. Regis, one of the holdouts, defended himself in the Thursday caucus, saying he had acted independently, not joined with Democrats.

“I’m the kind of person that if I got treated fairly, I still want to watch out for the ones that didn’t,” he said. “And so that’s why I’ve been in on this, as one of the ‘dirty nine,’ I guess you want to say, but I am a Republican.”

McGillvray responded to Loge.

“You’re not ‘dirty nine,’” he said. “You are a Republican.”

Regier ended the caucus meeting with a final appeal for unity.

“My resolve is to never stop fighting for the 32 of you,” he said. “I will not let the Democrat minority run the floor – that is my line.”

After the meeting, leaders delayed the vote, saying they planned to return to negotiations, including potentially further updating the committee assignments to satisfy the holdouts. However, the Committee on Committees was set to meet at 3 p.m., recessed until 5 p.m., and then chair Sen. Carl Glimm, R-Kila, announced they would adjourn without considering new assignments.

The Senate then returned to the floor at 6 p.m. Without debate, they voted down the rules resolution – again on a 27-23 vote, including the same nine Republicans.

“I’m going to keep pushing forward with what Montanans have sent us here to do,” Regier told reporters after the vote. “I would love it if those nine would join the caucus that they ran on, that they won in and stop this procedure.”

John Riley

Regier said the Senate has to move forward with its work, and committee meetings will be getting underway. MTN asked him if the chamber’s business would be getting back to normal.

“We’re going to get back to business, but it won’t be as normal,” he said. “Fifteen minutes into the entire legislative session, to have a vote like we did on Monday, like I said, that really jars the confidence from the rest of your peers in your caucus.”

Friday will be the fifth day of the legislative session, with 85 still to go.