by Travis Mateer

I have some new insights into the workings of Democratic politics in Missoula that some parents of the Missoula County Public School system might be interested in exploring.

Let’s begin with Erin Erickson, a lawyer and community organizer in Missoula who does LOTS of stuff, like run the community organization known as MISSOULA RISES. Erickson is so busy, apparently, that she hasn’t had the time to check off all the transparency boxes for the Facebook page, though that hasn’t stopped them from running political ads:

Let’s learn more about what kind of lawyer Erickson is from her office’s website:

Erin M. Erickson is a managing partner and shareholder at Bohyer, Erickson, Beaudette & Tranel P.C. She has been a member of Bohyer, Erickson, Beaudette & Tranel, P.C. since she began practicing in 2002. Erin focuses her practice on civil litigation, including construction defect and personal injury, and insurance disputes. Erin and her firm have developed an innovate approach to handling cases – they are resolution-oriented and are not driven by billable hours. The result is efficient resolution for the clients and decreased legal spend and cycle times for the insurance carriers. This has proven to be a highly successful model for Erin and the firm.

While this excerpt makes taking cases on contingency sound like some kind of amazing legal innovation, I’m more interested in the name “Tranel”, since Monica Tranel is one of the many Democrats chomping at the bit to run for Montana’s brand-spanking-new Congressional seat.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Here’s more about Erickson:

Erin earned her B.A. from Gonzaga University and then graduated from University of Montana School of Law in 2002. While in law school, she gained experience as an intern with the US Attorney’s Office, then continued onto private practice with her current firm. Erin is admitted to practice in all Montana State and Federal Courts, as well as the Confederated Salish & Kootenai and Blackfeet Tribal Courts. She has experience practicing within the Montana Human Rights Bureau and the Department of Labor and Industry. She has also served on the Montana Medical Legal Panel to adjudicate medical malpractice claims.

Why the emphasis on the Montana Human Rights Bureau? Because it’s the agency that allowed Joshua Manning to right the wrong done by Run Wild Missoula when they discriminated against a hand-cyclist:

Montana Human Rights Bureau investigator found that the Missoula Marathon and its parent organization Run Wild Missoula discriminated against disabled athletes who wanted to travel the course using a hand cycle.

In findings submitted to the bureau last week, investigator Josh Manning sided with Joe Stone, a quadriplegic athlete who has worked with Run Wild Missoula since 2012 so hand-cycle racers can compete in the marathon without prohibitive restrictions.

Joshua Manning, for those who don’t know, is the son of Tracy Stone-Manning, a political career-climber who successfully leveraged her brush with environmentalist saboteurs back in the day for a shot at running the Bureau of Land Management under Biden.

Joshua Manning is definitely his mother’s son, using his “former” intelligence bonafides and corporate media connections to Russiagate true believers, like Malcolm Nance, to raise his profile among Mommy’s political players.

I’ll leave it there for now, but trust me when I say there’s MUCH more to discover about the political entanglements involved in pushing unpopular and unscientific political policies, like mask mandates, that I will now be investing some time and energy to uncovering.

Thanks for reading.