For Montana Democrats who want to beat Kurt Alme, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, their hope for a clean Bankhead bow-out disappeared on Monday. If Alani Bankhead stays the course, Alme should have an easy path to the Senate.
Is that the plan?
When I saw this social media assertion from the Bankhead campaign post a few days before her Monday announcement, I had a feeling a Democrat gender skirmish was brewing. The tell was how Bankhead refused to criticize prosecutors and law enforcement in her statement, instead gushing that THEY WERE AMAZING and FOUGHT FOR JUSTICE EVERY STEP OF THE WAY.
Victim LARP incoming, I speculated on X?
Was I right? Yep!
After the press conference, Montana Democrats tried building on the media attention by immediately going on Facebook to spread misinformation about Bodnar:
Sexual HARASSMENT allegations? Nope. It was actually sexual DISCRIMINATION allegations, and those allegations were settled two years ago.
Or were they?
A University of Montana lawsuit that began in 2021, involving 18 plaintiffs who alleged sex-based discrimination, ended on Jan. 9 with UM agreeing to pay a $350,000 settlement and provide “universally available” Title IX training to employees.
“This settlement provides UM and (the Office of Commissioner of Higher Education) with this opportunity to learn, grow, and improve,” Hillary Carls, lead legal counsel of the plaintiffs, said in a statement on Jan. 9. “With two hands, Montanans can build institutions of higher education for all.”
The lawsuit, first filed in August 2021, accused the University of mistreating female employees. The original four plaintiffs were Catherine Cole, former vice president of enrollment management and strategic communications; Barbara Koostra, once the director of the Montana Museum of Art and Culture; Mary-Ann Sontag Bowman, a tenured professor in the School of Social Work; and Rhondie Voorhees, the former dean of students. Cole, Koostra and Voorhees left the University since Bodnar became president in 2018. Bowman currently works at the University as a tenured professor.
Re-litigating a settled case with inaccurate rhetoric? What does Alani Bankhead think she’s doing?
She’s apparently doing something that she said those in her sensitive line of work should NOT be doing, and that’s pivoting from ICAC (Internet Crimes Against Children) to politics.
The tough work of fighting heinous crime through the ICAC network took Alani Bankhead to Hawaii. Before I get to why I think that’s relevant, let’s see what other people on Facebook are saying about yesterday’s press conference from this relatively unknown candidate:
To help provide the type of info Diane Sands is looking for, let’s consult this brief biography:
Mighty Sparrow Coaching is Bankhead’s current business, and it entails dealing with “imposter syndrome“, a pathological version of self-doubt that grifters see as opportunities to make money. I wonder how much money Bankhead charged the state of Montana last year when her “coaching” company did its thing for the Montana Board of Crime Control:
I find it interesting that Alani Bankhead is already connected to the Gianforte administration through her coaching work with the state. If she stays in this race and successfully takes out Bodnar for Alme, my hunch is that Bankhead will get a nice job “protecting children” in Montana.
Teaching kids is what a political blogger by the name of Don Pogreba did in Helena before he quit and moved to Hawaii for a new teaching opportunity. When “Pogie” closed down his blog, I wrote this farewell piece in 2021 which made an interesting connection between the school in Hawaii, where Pogreba went to teach, and a board member of that school:
Here’s more on Roy Simperman from the Carroll College website:
In 1965, Roy married Diane Corette (now late), daughter of Jack and Sallie Corette, whose tireless efforts and personal donations led to the building of the Corette Library. The couple moved to Seattle, where Simperman went to work for Boeing, coding and calculating trajectories for NASA lunar orbiter computer simulations, creating software for NASA mission navigation and guidance control, and working on a fusing system for a nuclear warhead in a missile. He later worked at Weyerhaeuser Timber, where he initially designed and developed a computer simulation to model the forestry program from genetics to timber harvest, making the company more profitable. At just 35 years of age, Roy was then placed in charge of the largest division of its kind in the world with 29 facilities in seven states including all of Weyerhaeuser’s nurseries, greenhouses, orchards, seed plants, and their genetics program. In 1985, he purchased Audio Control, a manufacturer of equalizers and signal processors for audiophiles. He also bought a stock photography company which sold photos online before the Internet was widely known. Simperman’s work at the stock photo company led to the creation of his company, Semaphore, in 1994. In 2001, Simperman began dating Frances Rogers, owner of a successful printing business in Seattle; she and Roy co-designed their home in Hawaii and married in 2004.
When I checked the donor data I found that Roy Simperman financially supported Greg Gianforte for Governor in 2020. Interesting.
While nothing directly connects Alani Bankhead to the Simperman fortune, the geography and timing definitely has me wondering IF there might not be something more direct lurking in the dark money shadows that helped catapult Bankhead to her primary win as a relative unknown:
Alani Bankhead came from financial nowhere to win the Democratic Senate primary. She had $23,884 to campaign with, including a $5,000 loan.
Only 30% of voters knew who she was until a pop-up PAC spent $3.3 million on ads and even phone banking to get out the vote for Bankhead.
That kind of election lightning is unlikely to strike again in November, when the retired Air Force special agent goes up against two far-better-funded candidates. Independent Seth Bodnar and Republican Kurt Alme have each raised $2 million. The entire Democratic primary field combined had raised less than $325,000.
And the PAC that came to Bankhead’s rescue in the primary? Progressive Vet PAC has given no indication it will be supporting a Democratic candidate for Senate in the general election.
While Alani Bankhead downplayed this explosion of PAC money yesterday, flanked by women holding handmade signs promoting their political currency as victims, it remains to be seen if liberal women in Montana will emerge as the angry, vindictive spoilers Bankhead wants them to be. If they do, I hope they take Bodnar’s hot dog and mount it on the wall of their sexist clubhouse.
One final note before I end this post. Since Alani Bankhead said we’re in the “Epstein era” yesterday, I was prepared to ask her a question about whether or not she’s used the Epstein DOJ search bar function online to look up Montana connections, and my follow up was going to be whether or not she thought local media have done an adequate job bringing Epstein’s Big Sky connections to the surface.
Instead of posing my question to this controversial candidate, I had to quickly pack up my stuff and leave because, if I didn’t, the continued fallout from this toxic relationship means I would have risked being arrested.
As I’ve said before, lawfare is a real bitch.
Thanks for reading!