Appointed U.S. Senator John Walsh (D. MT) has been stepping up his game both in the Senate and the campaign trail. He's now starting to step up his game on attacking his likely opponent, Rep. Steve Daines (R. MT-AL):
http://billingsgazette.com/...
U.S. Sen. John Walsh, who filed Saturday to run for the seat to which he was appointed last month, leveled his strongest attack yet against his probable challenger, Republican Steve Daines, calling Daines the purveyor of a “cruel ideology” that “only seeks to preserve privilege.”
Walsh, speaking to the annual Democratic Mansfield-Metcalf Dinner in Helena on Saturday evening, slammed Daines for votes to “privatize Medicare,” cut tax rates for the wealthy, shut down the federal government last October and cut food stamps.
He also called Daines an extreme opponent of abortion rights, saying he opposes abortion even in cases of rape or incest and co-sponsored a bill Walsh said would ban abortion and outlaw birth control pills.
“He defends an ideology masked as principle,” Walsh said. “But the reality is that Congressman Daines’ ideology only seeks to preserve privilege. They claim freedom, but deny some people rights. … It is a cruel ideology, a cowardly ideology.” - Billings Gazette, 3/8/14
Those are some serious fighting words and they are very true, considering who's backing Daines' campaign:
http://online.wsj.com/...
A group organized by a New York hedge fund manager has given a significant boost to the Senate campaign of Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Daines.
Lee Newspapers of Montana reports Friends for an American Majority donated $192,600 to Daines on Dec. 31. That's about 8 percent of the money he raised for all of 2013.
The group is a joint fundraising committee led by billionaire Paul Singer of New York. It donated another $335,000 to Republican Senate candidates in Arkansas and Alaska.
Daines is seeking his party's nomination for the Senate seat now held by Democrat John Walsh.
The first-term Republican congressman had $1.9 million in cash on hand at the end of 2013, after raising nearly $2.4 million from individuals, political-action committees and joint fundraising committees. - Wall Street Journal, 2/24/14
And local press is taking notice of this:
http://billingsgazette.com/...
A recent Gazette headline stated that Rep. Steve Daines now has another billionaire backing his Senate bid, New Yorker Paul Singer. This in addition to the support already given from the billionaire Koch brothers group. The article states that Daines has raised 42 percent of his total from inside the state. It is easy to then deduce that 48 percent of his support has come from outside Montana. How much of that is from groups backed by billionaires and millionaires? Montanans must ask ourselves, why do the super rich want Daines in the Senate? Do we really want them pulling the strings of our representative?
Most people agree that Washington is broken and that big money and Wall Street have only made the problem worse. Will this get repaired by the same people who broke it?
Maybe Daines figured out how to fix Washington while he attended a retreat in Colorado last month as a guest of the billionaire-backed fund raising groups. We have better choices than Steve Daines. - Billings Gazette, 3/6/14
Oh, and here's another thing Montana voters are calling Daines out on:
http://www.flatheadbeacon.com/...
While I feel Congressman Steve Daines’s introduction of the North Fork Watershed Protection Act of 2013 is a great step forward, let’s not frame him as a conservation hero.
First of all, he has dragged his feet on supporting one of the largest and most important pieces of conservation legislation the state of Montana has seen in decades: The Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act. Rather than getting behind this broad-based, made-in-Montana collaborative he stands to be the biggest spoiler. The Heritage Act has a long history of collaboration. It’s a plan that is truly citizen based representing many stakeholders. The Rocky Mountain Front is a working landscape, big and wide, and support for its protection has been overwhelming. It also has some of the wildest country left in the lower 48. Under the Heritage Act most traditional uses will remain intact while protecting the most incredible landscapes and diverse ecosystems Montana has to offer.
Then, Steve Daines introduces a timber bill that would probably make even most folks in the timber industry cringe. He basically throws the collaborative process out the window – a process of open dialog that most of the stakeholders took years to develop. His timber bill will impose mandatory timber targets for the Forest Service along with a ban on public participation. This takes us back to the dark ages – when collaboration was nonexistent – back to the days of the timber wars of the 1970s and ‘80s. - Flathead Beacon, 3/7/14
This race is really getting started. It won't be an easy one but Walsh is fighting hard for a full term. If you want to get donate or get involved with Walsh's campaign, you can do so here:
http://johnwalsh2014.com/