Home

The late Bob Toivonen was an incredible teacher.

As a junior at Butte High School, I had Mr. Toivonen for algebra 2. I was not much of a math guy, but Mr. Toivonen helped me understand it.

When I took college algebra at Montana Tech my freshman year, the class was a piece of cake because I had Mr. Toivonen at Butte High.

One day, however, Mr. Toivonen gave our class a lesson that had nothing to do with math. It was not a lesson that he planned. It was just something that came to him in the moment, but it had everything to do with looking out for his students.

That day was in October of 1991. Back then, the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings in the Senate dominated the news. The nation tuned in to see if Thomas would be confirmed to serve on the Supreme Court, even though a woman named Anita Hill accused him of some disgusting workplace sexual harassment.

While the nation was not as politically divided to the degree as it is today, the Hill accusations split the country. Many people thought she was lying, even though it made no sense for her to fabricate that story. Her life was turned upside down by the scrutiny of her accusations.

Hill had nothing to gain and everything to lose.

That day, Mr. Toivonen started his class by asking for a show of hands of the female students who thought Hill was lying. The teacher was dismayed when he saw about half the girls in the class with a hand in the air.

“Your homework tonight is to go home and hit yourself over the head with a 2×4,” Mr. Toivonen told the girls who raised their hand.

“If women won’t believe women, then who is going to believe women?” he asked rhetorically.

Those words made everyone in the class think. They hit home with the girls and some of the boys.

Mr. Toivonen’s words always come to mind when I see so many women calling for Democrat Alani Bankhead to drop out of Montana’s Sente race so “independent” Seth Bodnar can take on Republican Kurt Alme.

It is infuriating that anyone thinks it is acceptable to undermine the voters of the state by calling for the candidate who won the Democratic nomination fair and square to leave the race. It is just baffling that some call for Bankhead to leave the race because they say, “A woman can’t win in Montana.”

It is as if they do not even realize that Montana currently has a female secretary of state. It appears to be lost at them that Jeannette Rankin, the first woman to hold federal office in the United States, hailed from the Treasure State.

It is also insulting to women and men that they blame misogyny on the fact that their female candidate did not win in previous elections. Candidates lose for lots of reasons, and it is hard to believe that it is simply because most of the state electorate is comprised of Archie Bunkers.

The words of Mr. Toivonen really ring true when I see the many allegations from women about mistreatment by Bodnar and other University of Montana officials are so easily dismissed.

While Bodnar was not the only reason the University settled a major federal sex-discrimination and Title IX lawsuit filed by 18 current and former female employees, he did have more allegations levied against him than Thomas did in 1991.

Granted, those allegations are not as disgusting as what Hill levied against Thomas, but they are repulsive nonetheless. He is accused of fostering a retaliatory culture, allowing a hostile “good ol’ boys club” environment, and engaging in personal and professional mistreatment of female employees.

That allegedly includes telling a woman she was moody and needed to smile more. It includes allegedly telling a woman she was too fat to be the face of the university.

Why would a woman lie about that?

Now that he is a candidate for the Senate, though, so many people seem to so easily dismiss those claims. They say the lawsuit “lacked merit” because the plaintiffs did not get much money once the $350,000 settlement was divided by 18 and had substantial lawyer fees deducted.

Even worse, many have claimed that the women are still not telling the truth.

When it comes to Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein or Bill Cosby, we are told we are supposed to believe women. But when it is a candidate who agrees with our politics, we suddenly become experts in deciding which allegations are real and which ones are not?

That makes no sense. There is never any kind of justification to so easily dismiss claims of workplace sexual discrimination because the claims are made against a fresh-faced candidate with a three-day beard.

Looking like he is a combination of Crockett on Miami Vice and Ryan from The Office (when he was the sleazy executive) does not give Bodnar a pass. He still has some questions to answer.

Attempting to give him a pass on those questions cannot be dismissed as political hypocrisy, either. It is much too damaging. Our daughters are watching, and they are going to be less likely to report such behavior after the way they see the plaintiffs in the University of Montana case have been treated and dismissed in this case.

They are watching as these women are being drug through the mud in the name of winning one election.

The 18 women who sued the University of Montana had very little to gain and everything to lose — even if they won. Yet they did it because it was the right thing to do. They did it because staying silent would have been worse.

It should not matter if the one accused of doing the discriminating (or cowardly looking the other way) is the candidate you think can win. Believing women is not something we should only do when it is politically convenient.

We either believe women, or we do not. The burden of proof should not solely rest on the shoulders of the abused.

Not only are so many of Bodnar’s supporters willing to turn a blind eye, so many are actively trying to bully those who speak out against his actions — or inaction — surrounding the lawsuit.

Day after day, people who speak out in support of the defendants are attacked on social media by Bodnar supporters. If you question why Bodnar has never sufficiently addressed the allegations publicly, you might be invited to fist fight or have your livelihood attacked. Or, in my case, both.

We will give the campaign the benefit of the doubt and assume that these attacks are not coordinated. But they do not exactly do much to counter Bodner’s reputation of hostility and retaliation.

If you are going to vote for Bodnar because you believe his claim of independence and think he would be a good senator, then good for you. Put up your yard sign and give Bodnar your scratch.

If you want to vote for him because former Democratic stalwarts like Jon Tester, Max Baucus, Nancy Keenan and Carroll Williams have turned their back to their party and endorsed him, more power to you.

If you simply do not care that Bodnar was accused of mistreating women or looking the other way while women were discriminated against, then that is your prerogative, too. You are the one who must stare at that reflection in your mirror.

However, if you are supporting Bodnar and are in any way diminishing the validity of the claims of the many women who say they have been mistreated by the candidate because those accusations are politically inconvenient, then that is a different story. You have some explaining to do to the women of today and tomorrow.

And Mr. Toivonen has a homework assignment you might want to consider.

— Bill Foley, who has no problem with his reflection, can be reached at foles74@gmail.com. Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74 or Bluesky at @foles74.bsky.social. Listen to him on the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.