Missoula County Republican Central Committee Chair, Vondene Kopetski, called the police on yet another Republican during Tuesday night’s monthly Central Committee meeting. In 2021, Kopetski called the police on another individual at a committee meeting, a new member, claiming to police that the person had committed elder abuse because of a difference of opinion.

Kopetski’s recent target was a person who was a long-time Party member and current Central Committee member. This person, and other members, were asking for the minutes from a past meeting. The meeting that members wanted minutes for was one where bylaws were allegedly approved that amended how endorsements were to be made and party resources expended.

According to the person, in the past, the Central Committee members would vote on who the party would endorse and how much party resources to provide each candidate. Kopetski told the committee member that the bylaws had been changed so only the “Executive Committee” or a portion of it would vet the candidates. She explained that any change to expand what she called the “vetting committee” would require a change to the bylaws.

After this admission, additional members also expressed interest in the minutes for the meeting for which the bylaws had changed. Prior to Tuesday’s meeting, a discussion of the endorsement process was promised to be placed on the agenda by the Chair, but was not included, resulting in additional support from other members to make public the meeting minutes.

There was no physical altercation or name calling or other logical reason members could determine for the Chair to escalate the request for meeting information to law enforcement. But Kopetski called the police after one member pressed for the meeting minutes after being told by the Chair that the amendment changing endorsement procedure did not need to be approved by the committee because the new bylaws had already been transmitted and filed with the Secretary of State’s office.

That is a curious misrepresentation of official procedure for someone that claims to have taught courses on Robert’s Rules. Usually (and under the law), the board of an organization votes to approve or change bylaws and the submission of new bylaws to the state is a formal requirement for any similarly state-registered organization.

Many members were baffled and despondent at Kopetski’s action to call the police. Former Montana House Representative and current Executive Director of the Montana Public Service Commission, Brad Tschida, was at the meeting and sat with the person as they waited for police to arrive to escort them from the building.

The police came and left after Tschida spoke with a Missoula Police Department officer and a groundskeeper for the church where the committee meetings are held.

Notably, in 2017, Kopetski also went “scorched earth” for political power and control and was involved with a lawsuit where the deposits of the Missoula County Republican Women’s bank account were completely withdrawn in an obvious coup attempt after the GOP woman’s group voted to replace Kopetski.

Kopetski also went ballistic during a recent Pachyderm meeting in mid-February that was hearing a presentation on election integrity. Kopetski starting yelling at the presenter, shocking many in attendance. The outburst could be related to the fact that only Democrats and the Republicans looking to follow the Chair up the clout ladder are buying the excuses for the 4,592 extra ballots that were counted in Missoula County’s 2020 election.

Missoula County Young Republicans were also in attendance Tuesday night, by invite of the leadership. As the young bloods watched everything unfold, they no doubt received a real taste of what it means to be a Republican in Missoula and of Kopetski’s leadership style.

By all accounts, Kopetski has been Chair of Missoula County Republicans for at least a decade and Missoula has only grown more mired in Democrat-style politics including steadily rising property taxes, inflated bureaucracy, high crime, and a nearly all Democrat city and county governance that will continue to grow the leviathan.

Kopetski does not appear capable of mounting a serious challenge to Democrats in the county. She was unable to find a Republican candidate to run against Democrats in 2022 in five major races including Clerk and Recorder, Treasurer, Sheriff, County Attorney, County Superintendent of Schools, or District Court Judge for District 4.

It was only a handful of months before the 2021 Mayoral race against Engen that she finally put out a request for a candidate to challenge the 16-year incumbent mayor of Missoula.

She had 4-6 years to prepare a candidate to relieve Missoula tax payers and families of their pain and waited just a handful of months before the election to even begin the search.

Sure, Democrats are largely responsible for making Missoula even less safe and even more expensive for working families trying to put down roots, but blame should be spread to the Missoula Republicans lack of skill, planning, or seriousness in challenging the Democrat status quo. The failings start with leadership.

Many Missoula Republicans have told me that they believe the committee is run less for the benefit of Missoula, and more for the benefit of the political capital that can be expended on the progeny of the Chair.

Right now, the Missoula County Republican Central Committee is a “private club,” as Kopetski is fond of telling those she banishes, and it is obviously not run to the benefit of Missoulians.

Missoula conservatives and taxpayers should consider that taking back their city and county will require that they first take back their sclerotic and necrotizing county Republican central committee. Republicans need to get back to the important work of training conservatives to present a challenge to Democrat rule, rather than training Republicans on how to run a good “Lincoln-Reagan Dinner” and how to add 911 to speed dial.