Sure you’re looking at a large amount of establishment Democrat support trickling down to down ballot statewide and legislative Democrat candidates – which is all well and good – except that Republicans have far superior candidates up and down the ballot in Montana this year.  From HelenaIr:

 He also thinks Republicans have a good chance to win a majority of the Tier B races and party control of the Legislature.

These races are where Republicans are concentrating much of their time and resources, because they want to rebuild the party from the ground up.

“My biggest emphasis, since I was elected chairman, has been the Legislature,” Iverson says. “If you want to get back to the majority, you have to start in the Legislature. That’s where you rebuild, that’s where you develop your farm team.”

Iverson says the Republican Party this year will spend four or five times the $165,000 it spent on legislative races in 2006.

Democrats hold a 26-24 edge in the state Senate now, but five of their seats are considered vulnerable this fall, including battleground districts in Billings, Whitefish, the northeastern corner of Montana and the lower Clark Fork River Valley in western Montana.

Republicans hold a 50-49 edge in the state House, where they have more turf to defend than do Democrats this fall. A dozen Republican-held seats are swing districts, while only a handful of Democratic seats are considerable vulnerable.

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