Independent-minded Republicans may guide fate of 2015 Legislature

So far this session, this cadre of Republicans has split from the majority of their party and teamed up with minority Democrats to pass a major campaign-finance reform bill, pass the Flathead tribal water compact and Medicaid expansion bill through the Senate, and kill measures to undo firearm restrictions.

Members of this loosely knit group hail from all corners of the state. But much of its core is from Great Falls and north-central Montana — and lawmakers from those areas say maybe that’s not just a coincidence.

MIKE DENNISON IR State Bureau

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