Dr. Annie Bukacek is the presumptive primary winner for Public Service Commissioner in District 5. She was the lone Flathead City-County Board of Health member to vote against shutting down businesses and stood up consistently for our liberties. Bukacek is also one of the few physicians, if not the only, who never closed their doors to patients during the COVID-19 lockdowns. And bravely, one of very few physicians who risked it all to consistently stand up against the COVID-19 narrative and to uphold the truth with real research and true science to back up her assertions.

Dr. Bukacek has proven to all who voted for her that she is completely capable of assuming this position and doing so very successfully. She is highly intelligent, an avid researcher and is always learning. She proved her capacity repeatedly for all to see during her time on the health board. She has also proven her capacity with her tireless collaboration with our Montana legislators on important legislation that protected life, medical freedom, and our Second Amendment rights.

It is particularly ironic that Dr. Bukacek prevailed over Derek Skees, the very man who was consistently throwing historical allies under the bus while defending his wife Ronalee Skees’ indefensible voting record on the very same Flathead City-County Board of Health. Beyond basically a, “Liar, Liar, pants on fire” defense, Mr. Skees never presented any actual facts to back up his rabid assertions. He simply relied on an endless repeating loop of bullying, gaslighting and deflecting, particularly on social media. However, his leftist tactics not only did not work, but they also actually had the opposite effect.

A particularly damning piece of evidence emerged shortly before the primary vote last week. The infamous March 19, 2020 Flathead City-County Board of Health meeting video was finally quietly made available on their website on May 12th, in two parts. The video completely validates what everyone has been saying in praise of Dr. Bukacek’s defense of liberty and concerns over patients not receiving care that was deemed non-emergent.

Dr. Bukacek asks a lot of hard questions and she uses real data, most of which she cites as directly from the CDC. But rather than refute what she is saying, she is either ignored or given what I call the “Cindy Lou Who” treatment. In one of my favorite movies, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, after the Grinch “thought up a lie and thought it up quick,” the Grinch gives Cindy Lou Who a cup of water, pats her head and sends her to bed. Well, Dr. Bukacek was having none of that and continued on with her valid arguments.

Bukacek’s most memorable defense of liberty and dismantling of the COVID narrative occurs at minutes 50:00 to 54:00 in the second part of the meeting archive video. She narrows her argument down to the fact that the entire narrative was based on junk science and real data demonstrated that the “pandemic” was no different than a “normal” seasonal flu. Her main argument was if the presupposition is wrong, then everything the health board was approving to lockdown the county was also wrong. The decision of the health board to shut down businesses would be endangering people’s livelihoods based on a flawed presupposition. Even County Attorney Travis Ahner admitted in his statement at 58:00, “I do think we’re operating under an informational void,” yet he still goes along with everyone else supporting the lockdown.

The video simultaneously validates the ire earned by Mrs. Skees and Commissioner Pam Holmquist, while completely destroying both Skees’ and Holmquist’s assertions that they had no choice, as Governor Bullock’s orders were already in place and this approval of the Health Officer’s order was basically a formality. At 47:00 in the second part of the meeting archive video, Health Officer Hillary Hanson is asked by Board of Health Chair Bill Berg if anything in the health officer’s order is not covered by the governor’s order. Her answer, “Yes. EVERYTHING [emphasis mine] in the draft order is NOT [emphasis mine] covered by the governor’s order.” In other words, the Health Officer’s order is a completely new set of orders in addition to those already put forth by Governor Steve Bullock.

The video completely discredits Mr. Skees “biggest liar” moniker slandered against Dr. Bukacek at local political groups and across social media. It is easy to make blanket assertions when the only evidence previously available was the absolutely pathetic meeting minutes for reference. Now that the video is available, Mr. Skees no longer has the shield of ignorance as protection. But be warned, the endless junk science, propaganda and fear-mongering by the medical establishment is nauseating; so even though the drama is popcorn-worthy, popcorn probably is not the best idea. Nux Vomica may be more appropriate.

Candidate Joe Dooling’s defeat in PSC 5, is also ironic. His wife, District 70 House Representative Julie Dooling, is widely known as one of the infamous Republican “Solutions Caucus” members in the Montana House of Representatives. This group has been responsible for helping the Democrats pass bad legislation, such as Medicaid Expansion and stopping good legislation, such as the Personhood Amendment; reform of entities like Child Protective Services and passage of bills that would protect parental rights, just to name a few. Even though Mr. Dooling is a rancher, there was widespread dismissal of his candidacy based on his wife’s abysmal voting record alone. To Mr. Dooling’s credit, not only did he refrain from defending his wife’s record, he actually attempted to distance himself from it.

Last but not least, candidate Dean Crabb, on the other hand, is a good man. He is very articulate and experienced and well-respected and any of us who supported Dr. Bukacek would have supported him, had she not been running. I would say that for the most part, had Mr. Crabb not been running, most of his supporters likely would have voted for Dr. Bukacek. I can say this with confidence, because I talked to several of them. It is possible to disagree on certain things and still remain respectful and stay friends and colleagues while having the same overall goals and principles.

Congratulations to Dr. Annie Bukacek for her presumptive primary win in this important race. We know you have what it takes to prevail in the election in November and to then help the citizens of Montana “keep our lights on.”