Big Sky Times

If the response from a couple of Great Falls-area small business representatives is any indication, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock's name should be on the ballot for the 2020 presidential election next year - or not.

"I vote yes," Bill Sterling, owner of Sterling Embroidery & Screen Printing in Great Falls, told Big Sky Times when asked whether Bullock should remain in the presidential race.

Bullock, 53, a Montana native and former state attorney general, was elected Montana's 24th governor in November 2012 in place of then-incumbent Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat, who did not run again because of term limits. He was re-elected in 2016, taking more than half the vote from Republican challenger Greg Gianforte.

Bullock, who chaired the National Governors Association for the last couple of years, thus far hasn't been able to translate his popularity in Montana into a winning Democrat bid for president in 2020.

Big Sky Times reached out to about a dozen area small business owners, including Sterling, to ask whether Bullock should remain in the presidential race, despite currently polling near the bottom of the pack and having been excluded from recent debates.

One polling service recently found Bullock's national average at 0.4 percent and only 0.3 percent in Iowa, with a "Favorable/Unfavorable" average rating of -8.7 percent.

Bullock also has had trouble raising money for his campaign.

None of that seems to be dissuading Bullock, who earlier this month announced his first two TV campaign ads soon will be airing in Iowa.

The ads, which cost about half a million dollars, will air over the next few weeks, Bullock told the online political news service The Hill.

Meanwhile, back in Montana, Brad Bauer, business development director at Doctor Lawn Landscape Services in Great Falls, indicated in his own comment to Big Sky Times that Bullock doesn't really have a chance.

"Trump will be president for another four years after being re-elected," Bauer said. "(The) Democratic Party is washed up."