Get an insider’s look into what’s happening in and around the halls of power with expert reporting, analysis and insight from the editors and reporters of Montana Free Press. Sign up to get the free Capitolized newsletter delivered to your inbox every Thursday. Sign up July 16, 2026 Within a day of a district court judge slapping a restraining order on the Republican Party, members in Flathead County were battling their chairman over whether to comply. Flathead GOP Chairman Al Olszewski believed the court order blocking a slate of new MTGOP bylaws passed at the party’s June platform convention in Missoula protected only the party members who are suing the party. As for the rest of Montana’s Republican Party members, Olszewski figured, party-required “affirmations of support” and expulsion for “conduct deemed inconsistent with party purposes” would apply.  An orthopedic surgeon widely known as “Dr. Al,” Olszewski called for debate on the matter at the party’s July 9 meeting in the basement of a Kalispell restaurant. But things quickly went south at the gathering beneath Sykes Diner. Then-candidate Al “Doc” Olszewski in Kalispell on May 10, 2022. Credit: Mara Silvers/MTFP Credit: Mara Silvers / Montana Free Press Witnesses tell Capitolized that tempers flared and Olszewski told newly elected precinct committeewoman Catherine Hooper to “shut up” before announcing that he wouldn’t gavel in a meeting. Then, witnesses say, he headed for the exit and threatened legal action if the meeting continued without him.  The hundred or so Republicans assembled under Sykes handed control of the event to an 18-year-old attendee and drew up a proposal to end Olszewski’s chairmanship at their next meeting. The grievances against Olszewski, whom most Montanans know as an unsuccessful U.S. House candidate in the June primary election, ranged from improperly vetting Kalispell mayoral candidates for a party endorsement to improperly issuing financial aid to candidates and, of course, supporting the new bylaws.  The whole restaurant basement ordeal became an exhibit at the next court hearing about the temporary restraining order that Lewis and Clark County District Judge Michael McMahon had applied to the bylaws. Precinct committeeman Bill Moseley testified in court that backers of the bylaws have been conducting a campaign of intimidation against Republicans who disagree with them. The bylaws were proposed just weeks after a multimillion-dollar primary battle that pitted party hardliners against centrists known for bipartisanship in the state Legislature. The two sides fought more or less to a draw, according to election results. Collaborating with Democrats is reason for party-imposed discipline and revocation of party membership, according to the new bylaws, which ratchet up the pressure on legislative candidates while requiring publicly elected precinct officers to toe the line or face punishment up to replacement.  “The 2026 bylaws take it to the next step, where it allows the chair and other people to go to the state to remove us as precinct committee people if we don’t, you know, pass the right sniff test, the right allegiance, the right actions that he approves of,” Mosely said, referring to state party Chair Art Wittich. “It’s a campaign of intimidation.” Olszewski tells Capitolized the meeting that took place in his absence doesn’t count. The central committee meets the second Thursday of every month. Next time the Flathead County Republican Central Committee meets, he plans to propose a county officers convention in September. Precinct officers can then elect a full slate of party leaders. It remains to be seen if precinct officers will go along with the convention idea. Feelings toward Olszewski following the July 9 meltdown aren’t uniformly favorable.  “You told a female committeewoman to ‘shut up.’ Several members immediately asked that you apologize, and you declined,” committeewoman Tracie Smith Jensen wrote in a letter to Olszewski that was shared with Capitolized. “A short time later, when addressing a male member, you told him to ‘be quiet.’ When members pointed out the difference in how the two individuals had been addressed, you declined to acknowledge the concern. You went on to accuse another committeewoman of misogyny for pointing out the differences.” Olszewski says he doesn’t agree with the grievances, but he recognizes that his days as committee chair are ending.  “They want my head on pike,” Olszewski said. “They want to make sure that my removal is bloody and that I can never run for another office.” Precinct committee officers tell Capitolized that Olszewski was asking for oaths recognizing the power of the chairman before the bylaws were passed at the June convention.  GOP dissatisfaction with the Flathead County Republican Central Committee predates the new bylaws. Flathead County has the second-highest number of Republican voters in the state. Only Yellowstone County has more. Yet a Republican running in the nonpartisan 2025 Kalispell mayoral race lost. State law prohibits candidates in a nonpartisan race from declaring a political affiliation, but the First Amendment protects a political party’s right to endorse nonpartisan candidates. Democrat Ryan Hunter won the mayoral race.  Republicans were upset that the central committee didn’t endorse candidate Kisa Davison loudly and early. Instead, the candidate-vetting committee of the Flathead County Republican Central Committee entertained the idea of endorsing Libertarian Sid Daoud before circling back to Davison late in the process. It was Davison’s husband, a newly elected committeeman, who brought the July 9 motion to remove Olszewski. Then, in June, the central committee recommended against the reelection of Flathead County Sheriff Brian Heino, a popular Republican incumbent. Heino won by a large margin anyway, but feelings were hurt.  Frank Garner, a former state legislator from Kalispell, testified at the restraining order hearing that the bylaws create a scenario in which state party Chair Art Wittich could call for the investigation and removal of the Whitefish man who recently defeated Wittich for a precinct position in Flathead County. Plaintiffs argue that the state Constitution does not allow qualifying oaths other than the oath of office. “The state party chair, Mr. Wittich, lost a precinct race by a substantial margin,” Garner said. “The person that won his precinct race and is to be seated on that committee could be removed because they didn’t take the oath, or they didn’t pay the $20, or they were found to be not substantially in compliance with the party.” Garner, who successfully sponsored a bill in 2019 to make requirements like those in the beleaguered new bylaws illegal, testified that such actions are bad medicine for the health of the party.  —Tom Lutey Why are Republicans Rooting for Bankhead? Campaign finance reports filed this week by Montana’s candidates for federal office show Democratic Senate candidate Alani Bankhead continuing to run a less than financially competitive campaign. The first-time candidate exited June with $21,000 in the bank. She faces two candidates with close to $1 million each. But Republican pollsters are putting a skip in Bankhead’s step.  “This is how I know GOP leadership is scared of this campaign: DC insiders from their own right-leaning publications are seeing I am a better candidate than Seth Bodnar,” Bankhead told followers on Facebook on Wednesday. The referenced publication is the Washington Reporter, whose editor, Matthew Foldi, was a Republican candidate for U.S. House in Maryland in 2022. The publication’s stable of writers includes a former chief legal counsel for Republican Kentucky and former Senate President Mitch McConnell. An anonymous “political source connected to Senate politics” told the publication, “There’s a growing sense that Alani is in a better position than people expected a few months ago.” Another anonymous source with “Montana ties” said “people are seeing a path for her.” Driving the discussion is an independent poll by GrayHouse that shows Bankhead with 25% of a hypothetical vote, compared to independent Seth Bodnar’s 17% and Republican Kurt Alme’s 41%. Politico describes GrayHouse founder Landon Wall as a go-to pollster for the Senate Republican conference. Earlier Republican polling shared by Montana political operative Jake Eaton showed Alme with 45% of the vote and Bankhead edging Bodnar 25% to 20%. The conclusion of both polls is that Alme’s path to the Senate is cleared by Bankhead and Bodnar splitting the non-Republican vote.  —Tom Lutey The post Not what Dr. Al ordered in Kalispell appeared first on Montana Free Press. ...read more read less