Morning Digest: Montana Republican who assaulted a reporter and lied about it will run for governor

Montana's At-Large Congressional District Rep. Greg Gianforte (R)

_{The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, Carolyn Fiddler, and Matt Booker, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.}

Leading Off

● MT-Gov: GOP Rep. Greg Gianforte, who infamously assaulted The Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs on the eve of his 2017 special election win, filed paperwork on Thursday with the state for a 2020 bid for governor of Montana. Gianforte's spokesman confirmed that the congressman, who represents the entire state in the House, would make a formal announcement during the state's Republican Party convention that opens June 13.

Gianforte is, of course, best known for that unprovoked attack on Jacob two years ago, but as we'll discuss, that ugly story doesn't even end there, nor is that Gianforte's only liability.

A wealthy businessman who made his fortune in the tech sector, Gianforte was Team Red's 2016 nominee against Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock. While Montana is usually a reliably red state in presidential elections, Gianforte faced a challenging race against a popular incumbent.

Before he even entered the contest, Gianforte stumbled when he gave a speech at Montana Bible College declaring, "There's nothing in the Bible that talks about retirement. And yet it's been an accepted concept in our culture today." He continued by asserting, "How old was Noah when he built the ark? 600. He wasn't like, cashing Social Security checks, he wasn't hanging out, he was working." Gianforte concluded, "So, I think we have an obligation to work. The role we have in work may change over time, but the concept of retirement is not biblical."

A rich guy speaking out against the very idea of retirement certainly didn't look good, but it wasn't Gianforte's exhortation to voters to build arks until they die that caused him the most trouble. Democrats ran a barrage of ads portraying Gianforte, who is originally from New Jersey, as a greedy outsider eager to deny the public access to waterways for fishing and swimming that were located near his "riverfront mansion"—so much so that he in fact went to court. Gianforte ultimately lost to Bullock 50-46 even though Trump carried Montana by a dominant 56-35 margin.

Undeterred by his loss, Gianforte ran in a special election for Montana's lone House seat when Rep. Ryan Zinke got beamed up to Trump's cabinet. Democrat Rob Quist picked up where Bullock's allies left off and ran ads accusing the Republican of "trying to take our land for himself." National Republicans also took notice of this race and spent over $1 million to ward off an upset.

However, it was the night before Election Day when Gianforte made international news by body-slamming Jacobs after the reporter asked him a question about Obamacare. Jacobs recounted that the Republican "seemed to just snap," saying he "grabbed my recorder, and next thing I knew, I'd gone from being vertical to horizontal on the floor." Jacobs continued, "He was on top of me and whaling on me."

Gianforte filed a statement with the police afterwards in which he claimed that Jacobs had provoked the attack—an utter lie, and a particularly shameful one since several witnesses were present and the incident was also captured on audiotape. Gianforte ended up winning 50-44, but since most voters had already cast their ballots ahead of Election Day, it's not clear how much damage this story did or didn't do to the Republican's political fortunes.

A few months after the election, Gianforte pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault. The congressman paid a $385 fine and was sentenced to 40 hours of community service as well as another 20 hours of training for anger management. However, Gianforte was never charged with lying to the police. He and Jacobs also reached a settlement in which Gianforte accepted responsibility for his actions and agreed to donate $50,000 to the Committee to Protect Journalists, heading off a lawsuit by Jacobs.

However, just before the 2018 elections, Gianforte told the Missoulian that the false statement he had given to the police the night of the attack "was my recollection of what occurred," and claimed "I also am bound by my settlement agreement with Ben Jacobs to not talk about the incident."

In response to those remarks, Jacobs' attorney sent a letter to Gianforte's lawyer warning that these newest lies could lead to a rescission of their agreement and expose Gianforte to further legal liability. Jacobs' lawyers demanded that Gianforte "immediately cease and desist from further false and/or defamatory statements" about Jacobs and his interactions with him and noted that not only were the congressman and his spokespersons "telling lies about the assault," they were also telling lies "about their own prior lies." Gianforte had also completely made up his claim about any sort of confidentiality agreement, as there was none. Since then, he appears to have said nothing further in public about the matter.

Gianforte faced an expensive re-election contest last year against Democrat Kathleen Williams, who ran ads going after the incumbent for his attack on Jacobs. However, one high-profile Republican was very much not bothered by Gianforte's transgressions. Donald Trump ventured to Montana in October and told a rally, "Greg is smart and, by the way, never wrestle him." In case that was too subtle, Trump pantomimed throwing someone to the ground and added, "Any guy that can do a body slam—he's my guy." Gianforte went on to beat Williams by a modest 51-46 margin.

Gianforte will not have a clear path through the GOP gubernatorial primary to succeed his old nemesis Bullock, who is termed out. The field includes state Attorney General Tim Fox, Secretary of State Corey Stapleton, state Sen. Al Olszewski, and former state Sen. Gary Perry. Fox has already hinted that he'll use Gianforte's attack on Jacobs on the campaign trail: In March, Fox said he has "never compromised [his] personal morals" and that he has "never violated an ethics code."

Montana Democrats have held the governor's office since the 2004 election, but they have a challenging campaign ahead of them to extend that winning streak in this increasingly Republican state. No notable Democrats have entered the race yet, but Lt. Gov. Mike Cooney said back in March he was considering. MTN News also reported on Friday that state House Minority Leader Casey Schreiner is "said to be considering" a bid, but there's no other information about Schreiner's deliberations. In addition, Politico reported last month that former Ambassador to the World Trade Organization Michael Punke, who is the author of "The Revenant," was mulling either a bid for governor or Senate.

One further possibility, attorney John Heenan, may also be interested, but, reported MTN back in March, only "if Gianforte gets in." That in a nutshell likely sums up the feelings most Democrats have about Gianforte: Thanks to his many flaws, he'd offer them the best chance of extending their unlikely 16-year streak in the governor's mansion.

Senate

● AK-Sen: No notable Democrats have shown any obvious interest in challenging freshman GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan, but the progressive state blog The Midnight Sun is out with a survey from Democratic pollster Patinkin Research Strategies that finds him in a potentially vulnerable position. Patinkin tests Sullivan against Anchorage Assemblyman Forrest Dunbar and finds the two deadlocked 39-39. They also test a matchup where Dunbar runs as an independent instead, a scenario that gives Sullivan a 42-40 edge. The pollster tells us this survey sampled 1,000 likely voters and was in the field May 28-June 4.

However, it looks very unlikely that Dunbar, a Democrat who lost the 2014 race for Alaska's only House seat to GOP Rep. Don Young 51-41, will run for the Senate. Indeed, The Midnight Sun writes that they "haven't heard much about potential plans for Dunbar to re-enter statewide politics." Instead, they say that he's a rumored candidate to run for mayor of Anchorage in 2021 when Democratic incumbent Ethan Berkowitz will be termed-out. Dunbar was training with the National Guard when the site posted the poll, and they say he wasn't available to comment.

● AL-Sen: Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill told Inside Alabama Politics that he was still "seriously considering" joining the GOP primary to take on Democratic incumbent Doug Jones, and that he would "make an announcement by the end of the month."

● NM-Sen: Former Lt. Gov. John Sanchez told local political writer Joe Monahan that he is considering seeking the GOP nod for this open Senate seat. Team Red faces a very uphill race here, and Sanchez probably isn't strong enough to give them more of an opening. Sanchez ran for governor in 2002 and got crushed by Democrat Bill Richardson 55-39. Sanchez did become lieutenant governor in 2010 but he soon launched a Senate bid that went nowhere, and he dropped out long before the primary. Sanchez eyed runs for governor or Senate in 2018, but he ultimately stayed off the ballot last year.

Gubernatorial

● UT-Gov: Bryan Schott of UtahPolicy reported Thursday that Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman is still mulling a 2020 run for his old job as governor of Utah, and that he'd "met with political allies and advisers" back home about this race that very week. Unnamed sources said that the meeting was about "testing the waters" for a potential GOP primary bid, but there's no word on whether or not Huntsman is leaning towards running.

Back in April, when reports first surfaced that Huntsman was considering seeking the GOP nod for governor, he very much didn't rule it out. Instead, the ambassador would only say that there's "nothing to consider until our current commitment is done." Utah's candidate filing deadline isn't until March, and the former governor probably can afford to wait a while before deciding.

If Huntsman runs, though, he won't have a clear path through the GOP primary. Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox is already running, and a number of other Beehive State Republicans are considering. However, while UtahPolicy recently reported that former state House Speaker Greg Hughes planned to jump in this summer, it looks very unlikely he'd run if Huntsman did. Greg Hartley, a close Hughes advisor who is heading up his nascent 2020 operations, said in April that his boss and Huntsman are "close friends and communicate often and would both likely support each other in future endeavors."

● WV-Gov: While Donald Trump and his allies have showered plenty of love on West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice since he switched his party affiliation from Democratic to Republican two years ago, Justice is renewing a very public fight with a powerful state GOP leader.

Donald Trump Jr. will headline a fundraiser later this month Justice, and the invitation says that the attendees will include Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and Reps. David McKinley, Alex Mooney, and Carol Miller—West Virginia's entire GOP congressional delegation. Justice faces a primary next year against a few opponents including Woody Thrasher, who is his former state commerce secretary, and it would make sense for the governor to show that the party is unified behind him. However, that's not exactly what's happening.

State Senate President Mitch Carmichael will very much not be at the fundraiser, and Justice's campaign manager said that he "wasn't invited because he isn't aligned with the Governor AND the President on some critical issues." Indeed, Justice and Carmichael have been very publicly feuding over education. Justice, who is opposed to Carmichael's push to introduce charter schools and education savings accounts, declared at a recent town hall, "I have pleaded with our Senate president saying, 'Listen, you are imploding yourself. You are imploding the Senate.'" In a statement flecked with grammatical errors and strange Britishisms, Carmichael swung back on Friday with some text that pushes quite a few of Justice's buttons.

Carmichael began, "In recent days, often truant Governor Jim Justice, has attacked me for leading the charge on comprehensive education reform in our state." The "often truant" line is a reference to Justice's well-established habit of spending most of his time at his Greenbrier resort, which is 120 miles from the state capital in Charleston. Justice doesn't seem to be just working from home either, as the Associated Press reported in May that his schedule from the previous seven months showed that the governor "almost never meets with his Cabinet, is rarely at the capital and was largely missing at one of the most critical points of this year's legislative session." They went on to write that Justice spent his official time mostly at "photo ops or simply unaccounted for."

Carmichael didn't stop there. After a few paragraphs where he talked about the importance of his education positions, he continued, "Perhaps, the Governors inconsistent positions on education and other matters can be laid at the feet of his constant legal troubles with unpaid bills, worker safety violations, and delinquent taxes." Carmichael concluded, "The worry and stress about these conflicts possibly contributes to his poor judgement and leads him to lash out at policies that represent traditional conservative values. His personal issues have certainly been an embarrassment to our state."

Justice has indeed continued to attract plenty of headlines for the ongoing lawsuits from his companies' habits of racking up huge fines. On Thursday, Justice agreed to pay $1.23 million in court-ordered sanctions against one of his companies, which federal prosecutors say is a shell that only exists to protect the governor and his family from paying their debts. However, his legal troubles are hardly over. On Thursday, MetroNews wrote that the sheriff of Logan County has "been authorized to sell shares of two Justice-owned companies to settle yet another debt in the court system." The public auction will be held June 28.

Justice is certainly no stranger to messy fights with Carmichael. In April of 2017, when Justice was still a Democrat, he received a budget that was championed by Carmichael. The governor famously responded by dropping an actual pile of bull manure on a copy of the budget he vetoed it—because Republicans refused to raise taxes!

After Justice switched parties at a Donald Trump rally a few months later, it looked like he'd turned his relationship around with the legislature. A year later, Carmichael declared that Justice's switch had worked out "fantastically," and he went on to praise the governor's vision for the state. It seems that those bright days of detente are long gone, though. Still, at least Carmichael will be relieved to know that, for the moment at least, there's no actual bull manure coming from Justice.

House

● CA-15: Democratic state Sen. Bob Wieckowski announced Friday that he was dropping out of the race for this Bay Area seat, saying, "After much thought and review of the political landscape, I know I can best serve our community closer to home."

Wieckowski entered the race just a few weeks ago and said he'd only remain in the contest if Rep. Eric Swalwell didn't end up seeking re-election. Swalwell is currently running for president, but he's said that he will make a final decision on what election to compete in around the time of the December filing deadline. The only candidate who is still seeking this safely blue seat is Hayward City Councilor Aisha Wahab, who has not committed to deferring to Swalwell.

● GA-07: State Sen. Renee Unterman announced Thursday that she would join the GOP primary to succeed retiring Republican Rep. Rob Woodall in Georgia's 7th Congressional District, a competitive seat in the Atlanta suburbs. Unterman was the main Senate champion of the notorious law that banned abortion in Georgia after just six weeks, which is before many women even know that they're pregnant. Unterman's proud support for this bill, which she called the "culmination" of her more than 20 years in the legislature, could help her assuage social conservatives who might doubt her loyalty to the party she openly considered leaving as late as January.

Unterman had energetically but unsuccessfully opposed Brian Kemp during last year's GOP primary for governor, and a spokesperson for Kemp infamously dubbed her "mentally unstable" during the race. Unterman said that she'd made up with the new governor, but at the start of the year, Kemp's allies stripped Unterman of her chairmanship of the powerful Senate Health and Human Services Committee. Unterman was furious, and she told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she was actually considering joining the Democrats.

Unterman mused at the time that she agreed with Team Blue "on a lot of social issues," which reporter Jim Galloway interpreted to mean health care and the environment. However, Unterman also declared, "I'm a gun-toter. I'm a hunter. I'm a fisherman." Unterman also prophetically added, "I'm pro-life. I've carried every single abortion bill that's gone through the Senate." If Unterman was serious about possibly becoming a Democrat, though, she closed the door on that idea pretty fast. In early February, less than a month after she mused about switching parties, the 7th District Republican Party said that Unterman had met with them about running to succeed retiring Rep. Rob Woodall.

Unterman will face a competitive contest to win the GOP nod. A few other Republicans are already in, and the Unterman began attacking one of them, former Home Depot executive Lynne Homrich, well before this month. Homrich moved from the neighboring 6th District to this seat shortly before she announced in April, and Unterman quickly took to Twitter and dubbed her now-rival "that Buckhead lady" (Buckhead is an affluent Atlanta neighborhood that isn't located in either the 6th or 7th District). Unterman has continued to attack Homrich as an outsider and suggested she "might need some directions" to communities in the 7th District.

If Unterman makes it through next year's GOP primary, she's in for a tough fight in November. While Mitt Romney carried Georgia's 7th District by a 60-38 margin, Donald Trump won it just 51-45. Last year, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams, despite the taint of Republican voter suppression that marred her election, still managed to narrowly win the seat by a 50-49 margin. And while Unterman's support for the six-week abortion ban may aid her in the primary, it may be a big liability in the general in this highly-educated suburban seat.

● IL-14: State Sen. Sue Rezin said Thursday that she was still quite interested in joining the GOP primary to take on freshman Democratic Rep. Lauren Underwood, and that she expected to file campaign paperwork by the end of this month.

Rezin acknowledged that she lives in the neighboring 16th Congressional District, which is held by GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger, but she argued it hardly mattered because "the Senate district I currently represent includes both the 14th and 16th Congressional districts." That's true, but just barely: Rezin represents only about 4% of the 14th District compared to about a quarter of the 16th District.

● SC-01: Multiple media outlets report that Mount Pleasant Councilwoman Kathy Landing will announce Monday that she's joining the GOP primary to take on freshman Democratic Rep. Joe Cunningham.

● TX-21: 2014 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Wendy Davis told the Dallas News' Lauren McGaughy on Thursday that she would announce whether she'd challenge freshman GOP Rep. Chip Roy in about three weeks.

Davis, who was attending a gala for The Texas Observer, made her comments just after award recipient Marc Winkelman publicly said that Davis had told him she'd run. A number of outlets proceeded to wrongly report that Davis had announced a bid, but she reiterated Friday morning that she had yet to decide and that Winkelman "jumped the gun a little bit."

Other Races

● Orange County, CA Board of Supervisors: Former Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez lost an officially non-partisan March special election to Republican Don Wagner 42-37, and she announced this month that she would run next year for the full term. This once reliably Republican county has rapidly been moving to the left in recent years, but Team Red still has a 4-1 majority on the County Board of Supervisors.