Nope, not talking about the NFL – they’re three weeks into the pre-season with one more to go before the real stuff starts. Not Carroll College’s Fighting Saints who blew Azusa Pacific out of the game early on last Saturday afternoon. Even the Capitol and Helena High initial gridiron matches are in the history books.

But this Tuesday, September 1, the starting pistol for the campaign for the seat on the Lewis & Clark County Commission goes off with an unusual bang: Andy Hunthausen will be the guest speaker at the Last Chance Pachyderm Club luncheon.

“What makes this the opening salvo?”, you ask. After all, it is Andy’s cohort Mike Murray who is up for election next year – not Andy. For most residents of Lewis & Clark County that’s a difference without much distinction these days. Our own hometown version of the Three Stooges – Ed Tinsley, along with Mike and Andy, ganged up on the citizens of this county with a couple of dishonest and heavy-handed attempts to implement emergency water restrictions and an unconstitutional road fee a few years ago that had nothing to do with good governance and everything to do with a liberal anti-growth agenda.

As the soap opera unfolded, it became apparent that the commissioners, led by Tinsley, but eagerly trailed by Tweeledee and Tweedledum, were – shall we say – a bit over zealous in their haste to impose unwarranted and unnecessary restrictions by, ummm, somehow causing the results of certain chemical analysis data to be “misrepresented” by county staff. This idiocy cost Tinsley his seat last November. More recently, District Judge Jeff Sherlock (no right-wing thinker himself) came down with a sharply critical ruling about the commissioners’ “arbitrary, capricious and unlawful” actions in imposing development fees far in excess of the justifiable costs. But instead of learning from the election results, Mike and Andy are reluctant to see the error of their ways and have publicly continued to defend their decisions. Ergo, they have huge targets painted on their behinds.

Since Murray was on the commission when the illegally astronomic road fees were assessed, he seems to be hiding behind the ever-popluar “no comment on pending litigation” excuse. So Andy is the designated sacrificial lamb who has to defend these outrageous actions to a group of well-informed, educated, articulate, conservatives who haven’t been all that impressed with very much of anything involving governmental regulation lately. Things could get kind of exciting at Jorgenson’s this week.

Cue the lions.