The Challenge Of Spotting Political Chameleons In Montana – by Travis Mateer

When I heard that Lauren Caldwell, someone I already considered shady, was running multiple “Republican” political campaigns, I was confused. Lauren Caldwell is a Democrat and her Daddy, Burt Caldwell, is also a Democrat who retired from a local developer (WGM Group) that ALWAYS seems to win government bids for development projects. I wonder why?

To understand what might be going on let’s recall how the last legislative session featured a clique of “Republican” schemers dubbed the “Nasty Nine” who worked all session to undermine their own political party’s electoral success, which angered many conservatives.

While plenty of Montana conservatives came to despise these legislators, they ultimately delivered key parts of Governor Greg Gianforte’s agenda, but that still doesn’t explain why someone like Lauren Caldwell would be tapped to run conservative campaigns, especially when you know that Caldwell used her own kids as political props when she bought them to a “Drag Story Hour” in Helena for a dubious media platform to highlight.

Before I get to Caldwell’s new Republican clients, here’s a screenshot from the Daily Montanan “news” article:

With Caldwell’s liberal dedication to social engineering established, here’s an excerpt now from the Missoula GOP post, followed by a screenshot, that shows what this political chameleon is trying to do:

Public campaign finance filings show that Fireweed Campaigns, a Helena-based political consulting firm, is actively managing multiple Republican legislative campaigns in the 2026 election cycle.

The firm is led by Lauren Caldwell, who previously served as interim director of the Montana Democratic Party and currently works as Political Director for the Montana Federation of Public Employees, a major public-sector union aligned with Democrat political efforts.

It’s not just pushing nasty Republicans onto frustrated conservatives that Fireweed Campaigns is involved in. When I kept reading I discovered that Fireweed is also being paid over a hundred thousand dollars to keep the courts non-partisan, a covert partisan effort I wrote about last month.

Then I read this about Anne Avis and her connection to this nasty Republican scam, along with her role at another “news” outlet, the Montana Free Press:

Public records also show overlap between this network and Montana’s largest nonprofit news outlet, Montana Free Press.

Campaign finance filings indicate that Anne Avis—who contributed to multiple candidates connected to the Fireweed network—is also listed as Board Vice Chair of Montana Free Press.

Montana Free Press has received funding from national donors who have also contributed to political committees and PACs tied to the broader network described above.

It’s not unusual to find political confusion closely tied to media confusion, like Anne Avis getting confused about what the word “independent journalism” means. Or maybe it’s ME that has a problem with not seeing “independence” in Anne Avis’ journalistic project, Coda Media, an organization that gets money from the Open Society Foundation and the National Endowment for Democracy while featuring a dude by the name of Alex Jakana from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on its board. Gross.

For more on political/media confusion, an article from the Montana Free Press earlier this month tried making sense of what’s happening in Cascade County, where Libertarians have filed as Republicans and some Republicans might be cosplaying as Democrats. Has identity politics become an identity crisis in Cascade County?

Republican and Democratic political leaders in Cascade County allege that two candidates running as Democrats are not really Democrats, but Republicans trying to “game” the upcoming election for the Montana Legislature.

The two candidates, James Whitaker and Mark Winters, publicly identified themselves as Republicans in the past but, in interviews with Montana Free Press, denied allegations this week that they are trying to bamboozle Democratic voters.

Eric Hinebauch, chair of the Cascade County Republican Central Committee and a member of the Cascade County Commission, isn’t buying those claims. He believes the pair filed in Democratic primaries to deter Democratic voters from crossing over to vote in Republican primaries. He told Montana Free Press that he doesn’t believe either candidate is really a Democrat.

“This is a game,” Hinebauch said.

Cascade County can be forgiven for its political confusion since, in 2021, this County had a Sheriff make a big show of publicly divorcing himself from the Democratic Party because, apparently, they wouldn’t break the nominating rules to accommodate his question during the nominating process. This is the kind of Sheriff I suspect would wilt if confronted with a vigorous LEMON POUND CAKE terror campaign.

Another example Slaughter cited was Democratic leader Mary Sheehy-Moe allegedly declining to accept Slaughter’s question regarding police department funding during a Democratic candidates’ forum in 2020.

Taylor was not immediately available to respond; however, Sheehy-Moe said she is surprised to learn she had offended Slaughter.

“The event was not a forum, but a nomination convention,” Moe said. “While all Democrats are welcome to attend and to view the proceedings, the rules allow only precinct people to question the candidates. Jesse didn’t qualify, so as parliamentarian, I had to rule him out of order. Regardless of our office, we all have to follow the rules.”

Actually, Mary, you are VERY WRONG about the rules and who has to follow them, and no one knows this better than the jokes we call Sheriffs in Montana. That’s why I use simple strategies, like humor and Dr. Seuss cards, to educate my local community about long vowels, Brady cops, and retarded lawmen who engage in serious coverups, like Ryan Funke, Mineral County’s Sheriff embarrassment.

If you would like to help out a broke citizen journalist exposing how local power uses money to control narratives, donate here. Later this week I’ll be sharing some individual political donations I’ve curated from publicly available information to continue showing readers why local influencers, including my own father, would prefer to exploit my financial desperation and shut me up for good.

Thanks for reading!