Here we go again:
The conservative group Americans for Prosperity Montana is running $560,000 worth of television and digital ads critical of incumbent Democrat U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, who is seeking his third term this fall.
The ads attack Tester over his votes on the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, and call for him to vote for a bill carried by Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, a Republican.
The bill is called the Improving Choices in Health Care Coverage Act. It would allow the duration of short-term health insurance plans to be extended to just shy of a year and be able to be renewed. The Affordable Care Act, a hallmark piece of legislation championed by former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, capped those plans at three months in an effort to move people to more long-term plans purchased on federal marketplaces.
Americans For Prosperity-Montana, a conservative group funded by the Koch brothers, has long opposed the Affordable Care Act, blaming it for increasing health insurance costs.
“Again and again Tester promised us relief from rising health care costs,” said AFP-Montana state director David Herbst, “Instead, we’ve had years of empty rhetoric and health care costs that continue to rise."
The Kochs still think this is 2012 all over again. Hence why they are resorting back to the attacks on Tester’s support for the Affordable Care Act which has now become more popular thanks to Trump and the GOP’s failed efforts to repeal it. Yes, Trump won Montana by over twenty points but the Kochs and the GOP wish Obama was still around to tie Tester to. It’s really a lazy, re-hashed attack strategy:
Republicans don’t think they need to do anything fancy to beat Tester. The party’s candidates in Montana say they just need to remind the state’s conservative electorate of Tester’s vote against the confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch, his vote against tax reform and his vote for Clinton in 2016.
“He comes back and tries to act like he’s this jolly old farmer, and that may well be so,” said Matt Rosendale, the state auditor and the front-runner in the June GOP primary. “But he’s not representing us well. He’s been one of the most reliable votes for [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer.”
Senate Democrats’ narrow hopes of winning the majority in 2018 — or at least not falling deeper into the minority — rest on how well Tester and several colleagues can fight that charge. He is one of 10 Trump-state Democrats up for reelection this year, and one of five from states the president carried by double digits. Of those five, Tester is the least likely to vote with the president. But Tester, North Dakota’s Heidi Heitkamp and the others won their seats in the first place thanks to unorthodox ideological profiles and unique personalities that appealed to voters who usually stick with the GOP — and they are quick to fire back at anyone who dismisses their chances.
“Do they bring up the fact that [Steve] Bullock won by 4?” Tester said, referencing Montana’s Democratic governor to rebut the GOP argument that Trump’s 2016 margin dooms him. “Do they bring up the fact that when Mitt Romney won, I won?”
Butte, where Tester spent St. Patrick’s Day, symbolizes both Tester’s strategy of Montana appeal and Republicans’ hope that the state craves a more Trump-friendly senator. The mining city is a traditional stronghold of labor and Democrats, and Tester won more than two-thirds of the vote there in 2012. But Trump also did better in Butte than any Republican presidential nominee in recent memory, and any erosion could doom Tester, who has yet to win more than 49 percent of the vote in two statewide elections.
But Tester believes swing voting is ingrained in Montanans’ character, and he put his campaign cash where his mouth is in his first TV ad. It’s a rare Democratic ad that mentions the president without bashing him, as Tester and other Montanans tick off the bills he’s sponsored that Trump later signed into law. The list includes a slew of measures to help veterans, firefighters and police officers, and to improve cell service in rural areas.
“Washington’s a mess, but that’s not stopping me from getting bills signed into law that help Montana,” Tester says.
Tester stops counting at seven in the ad, a nod to the three missing fingers on his left hand, which he lost in an accident with a meat grinder in a child. The meat grinder is still in the butcher shop on Tester’s farm, and the missing fingers have become his personal symbol. As Tester walked the parade route in Butte, passersby saluted with seven fingers. A group of women ran into the street to take a photo with him.
But the Kochs will spend more money in this race for sure. However, Tester is raising serious cash while the GOP dukes it out:
Montana U.S. Sen. Jon Tester has built a huge fundraising lead over four Republicans hoping to challenge him this fall — and he may need it as outside money starts pouring into a race the GOP wants to pick up to maintain its majority.
Tester, a two-term Democrat from Big Sandy, raised $2 million in the first three months of 2018 and had $6.8 million in cash on hand as of March 31, according to campaign filings with the Federal Election Commission.
That's five times more cash than all four major Republican contenders combined: Big Sky businessman Troy Downing, former District Judge Russ Fagg, state Sen. Al Olszewski and State Auditor Matt Rosendale.
Fagg reported the most cash remaining, $633,000, among the Republicans in the June 5 primary. Rosendale was close behind with $541,000 in cash.Rosendale's getting a strong push from political committees bankrolled by conservative mega-donor Richard Uihlein of Illinois. Those two committees — Restoration PAC and Americas PAC, have spent more than $1.2 million to support Rosendale. Three more so-called super PACs spent an additional $84,000 on his behalf.
No other Republican in the race has benefited from independent expenditures, according to FEC records.
But we have to make sure Tester’s campaign remains fueled and good to go in order for Democrats to have a majority in the U.S. Senate. Click here to donate and get involved with Tester’s re-election campaign.