election maneuvering created a major rift between the Copper Kings, and the next year he would become chairman of the Montana Democratic Party. He asked for Hammond's support and Hammond responded by delivering a Republican sweep of the Missoula delegation. This infuriated Daly, who declared war on Hammond and threatened to "make grass grow in the streets of Missoula". Several years later, as Montana's press was divided on whether to keep the state's capital in Clark's choice of Helena or move it Daly's company town of Anaconda, Hammond who was worried that further empowered Daly would weaken Missoula loaned The Missoulian to Clark's team, who derided Anaconda. "What has Anaconda ever done for Missoula, anyway? If Christ came to Anaconda he would be compelled to eat, sleep, drink and pray with Marcus Daly." Though the majority of Missoula County voted for Anaconda as capital, enough voted for Helena for it to win the statewide contest. In 1900, Hammond began selling stock in the Missoulian to political rival Joseph M. Dixon, who would later become a US Congressman, US Senator, and the state of Montana's seventh governor. In December 1906, Wilhelm's Magazine, The Coast, described the newspaper as "one of the best papers in the state of Montana and has the credit of being a strong paper in all matters pertaining to public and state affairs. It is large, well edited and a credit to Missoula." Dixon gained control over the paper in 1907, and brought in Arthur Stone, a former Anaconda Standard reporter and managing editor, as well as former Democratic state legislator, as editor. His experience would help further modernize the paper and expand its reach. The Republican Daily Missoulian (as it would be called until 1961) was soon rivaled by the Democrat-leaning Missoula Herald, published by the Hassler Brothers and its successor, the Missoula Sentinel, that was purchased in 1912 (one year after its founding) by Richard Kilroy for the purpose of politically wounding Dixon, as he ran for re-election in the first year Senators were popularly elected. (*note. Though the 17th Amendment to the Constitution was not ratified until 1913, the Montana legislature provided for the direct election of US Senators in 1911, in anticipation of the amendment's ratification.) Dixon would lose the election in a Democratic sweep and would lose the paper for financial reasons, five years later. Anaconda Copper Montana's press in 1912 was almost