November 8, 2007 - Matthew Frank, NewWest.Net

It appears Missoula’s highly polarized, fractious City Council will soon have a progressive majority.

The biggest swing was in Ward 2, where Pam Walzer narrowly ousted conservative incumbent Don Nicholson. In Ward 1, Jason Wiener thumped Justin Armintrout. And in Ward 3, Stacy Rye held onto her seat by handily beating former member Doug Harrison.

[...]

Matt Singer, director of the nonpartisan political action organization Forward Montana, knows his organization had something—and maybe a lot—to do with it, too.

During the weeks and months running up to the election, Forward Montana registered more than 1,000 voters—more than one-third of all the city’s new registrants. It launched the Pink Bunnies get-out-the-vote campaign, organized events such as Candidates Gone Wild, made hundreds of phone calls, and in general, worked to rouse a demographic often apathetic in the realm of local politics.

“I think it’s cool we had an impact without telling anyone what to do,” Singer said.

Read the whole story.

  October 9, 2007 - Lauren Russell, Montana Kaimin

Forward Montana’s “pink bunnies” may look cute and cuddly, but if you don’t re-register to vote, their fangs come out.

“Re-register to vote or feel my wrath” read stickers the group is distributing as part of their “pink bunny campaign” – their distinctive new strategy to re-register voters.

A small bunch of “bunnies” unveiled a proclamation from the mayor on Monday, encouraging all Missoula residents to register or re-register to vote before the close of registration on Tuesday night.

Read the whole story.

  October 9, 2007 - Timothy Alex Akimoff, Missoulian

The theory goes something like this: If you put a few pink bunnies on the street, they'll do as bunnies do - multiply fast.

Representatives of Missoula nonprofit Forward Montana hope this strategy works as they hit the University of Montana campus and the streets of Missoula in pink bunny ears and T-shirts in an effort to re-register Missoula's missing voters.

“We're obnoxious and we're cute,” said Jamee Greer, Missoula coordinator for Forward Montana. “So people wonder what we're doing.”

Some 11,000 ballots were returned to the Missoula County Courthouse as undeliverable in the primary election in September, in which ballots were delivered to individuals by mail.

Read the whole story.

  October 7, 2007 - Ed Kemmick, Billings Gazette

It's no secret that Missoula and Billings are very different towns in two very different parts of Montana. Ordinarily I wouldn't suggest following Missoula's lead on anything, and I wouldn't expect people there to follow ours.

But sometimes an idea comes along that is too good to ignore. Case in point: Candidates Gone Wild, a City Council campaign event held last week at the Elks Lodge in Missoula.

The soiree featured a DJ in an Afro wig spinning rap songs, a television meteorologist cracking jokes, one candidate singing a Bob Dylan song and all of the candidates doing a chicken dance. That and a full bar, too.

A cabaret troupe from Virginia City used song-and-dance numbers to provide biographical sketches of the candidates, and Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack" played every time the candidates got on or off the stage.

Read the whole story.

  October 5, 2007 - Ashley Zuelke, Montana Kaimin

Jamee Greer, a junior majoring in sociology and gender studies, is the Missoula coordinator of Forward Montana, a local progressive political action group. He supervises a couple of interns, but reports to Forward Montana’s director.

For Greer, being a student advising other students works out.

“It kind of places both me and the interns in an interesting position,” he said. But, with Forward Montana’s emphasis on many student issues, “It makes sense to me to have students do it (the internship supervising).”

Read the whole story.