Republican Greg Gianforte has been treated to a rash of ugly headlines in the final stretch of his campaign for Montana's lone congressional seat, and the latest is just gnarly: Last year, he donated to an unsuccessful state House candidate named Taylor Rose that the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League have identified as a white nationalist. In fact, Rose received support from a whole host of Republican leaders—after, the Missoulian notes, reports by the SPLC and ADL "gained traction on social media in Montana."
Earlier this week, Gianforte came under fire for a $47,000 investment in a French-Swiss company that's been accused of making payments to local security forces protecting a factory in Syria that may have made their way to ISIS. Notably, Donald Trump's campaign mercilessly attacked Hillary Clinton last year because the Clinton Foundation had accepted a donation from this same company.
Before that, it was Gianforte publicly distancing himself from the GOP's Obamacare repeal bill while embracing it in private. ("I'm thankful" for the legislation, he told lobbyists.) And before that came the news that Gianforte had $240,000 invested in Russian firms that are currently under U.S. sanction.
Democrat Rob Quist has faced his own share of rough news, mostly related to his financial woes, including unpaid debts, tax bills, and liens. But despite Montana's strong red lean, Republicans still keep acting like next week's election is no sure thing.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce just parachuted in with a new $200,000 TV buy (no copies of the ads are available yet), while the NRCC has launched two more spots. One hits Quist for his fiscal troubles and also accuses him of supporting "job-killing government regulations" and "higher taxes and more debt." The other is purely about Quist's debts, which Republicans obviously feel is a potent issue, given the number of ads they've devoted to the topic.
But when it comes to funding his campaign, Quist's had no trouble at all. On Thursday, his campaign announced that it had raised $5 million to date, a truly insane sum for such a cheap state. Even more amazing, Quist had reported raising $3.3 million as of May 5 in a recent FEC report, which means that he pulled in a massive $1.7 million in just the last two weeks. We may just be in for a very interesting election.
P.S. Note that Election Day is on Thursday, May 25, not Tuesday!