Following Money and Votes in Montana’s 2018 Congressional Races

 
 
Absentee ballots go out in about 3 months.
 
The four people pictured above will try like hell during that time to get your vote.
 
Sadly, each one of these candidates has serious flaws. No matter which two of them get elected, I don’t think much in your life will change.
 
These are politicians.
 
They don’t work for you; they work for the people that pay them.
 
Let’s take a look at each of these people today, the money they take, where it comes from, how it dictates their votes, and why they think this qualifies them to help you and your family.
 
 

​
​The Senate

 
Matt Rosendale will be 58 next week. He’s lived in Montana for most of this century and made his money via real estate.
 
Rosendale has upwards of $32 million to his name, though most of that is in land and real estate and his real estate property company, MBA Consultants.
 
He came to Montana to get away from Maryland, and then got elected to represent Glendive so he could start to turn Montana into Maryland.
 
Most out-of-staters that move here and get into politics do the same – they turn this place into the place they tried to get away from.
 
 
Here are some things Rosendale has voted for:
 

• Prohibiting the enforcement of federal gun laws
• Allowing concealed weapons
• New high school districts
• Restricting income tax brackets
• Firearms on college campuses
• Repealing same-day voter registration
• Tax deductions for educational charities
• Repealing the medical marijuana laws

 
 
Here are some of the things Rosendale has voted against:
 

• The 2015 expansion to healthcare
• Requiring certain political groups to disclose expenditures
• Funding so 19-year-olds can go to school
• The 2015 Water Rights Compact
• Funding for the teacher’s retirement system
• Expanding Medicaid eligibility
• State employee pay raises (both ’11 and ’13)
• The 2013-15 state budget
• Same-day voter registration
• Requiring religious groups to report campaign finances
• Increasing public education funding
• Giving oil and gas revenues to schools
• Warning labels for medical marijuana
• Prohibiting enforcement of federal greenhouse gas regulations

 
 
Here are some interesting groups Rosendale has taken money from:
 

1. Club for Growth: $171,272
2. JC Billion Inc: $16,200
3. Occidental Petroleum: $10,800
4. Gregory Pharmaceutical: $10,800
5. Don K Whitefish: $10,800
6. John Bolton PAC: $10,000

 
 
The 10 major industries giving money to Rosendale are as follows:
 

1. Republicans: $308,000
2. Retired: $102,000
3. Securities & Investment: $61,000
4. Oil & Gas: $40,000
5. Manufacturing: $36,000
6. Livestock: $33,000
7. Real Estate: $28,000
8. Insurance: $22,000
9. Lawyers: $20,000
10. PACs: $15,000

 
 
 
Jon Tester will be 62 in two months. He’s lived in Montana for his whole life, aside from the time he’s spent in the District of Criminals.
 
Tester has made most of his money via his farm and his work in the Senate. He has a net worth upwards of $6.2 million, though most of that is his farm. He has upwards of $220,000 in the bank.
 
It’s interesting how Tester’s net worth has changed over his years in the Senate:
 

• 2008: $926,000
• 2010: $1.1 million
• 2012: $1.1 million
• 2014: $1.6 million
• 2016: $3.8 million
• 2018: $6.2 million

 
 
Here are some of the groups giving money to Tester:
 

1. League of Conservation Voters: $327,113
2. Goldman Sachs: $118,750
3. Paul, Weiss et al: $66,110
4. Comcast Corp: $54,450
5. Citigroup: $54,200
6. Berkshire Hathaway: $54,095
7. Blackstone Group: $48,400
8. Capital Group Companies: $47,800
9. Charter Communications: $47,800
10. MetLife Inc: $46,150
11. JPMorgan Chase & Co: $37,101
12. Visa Inc: $34,800
13. AT&T Inc: $32,364

 
 
The major industries that are giving to Tester are as follows:
 

1. Lawyers: $1.8 million
2. Securities & Investment: $1.3 million
3. Retired people: $1.1 million
4. Democrats: $694,000
5. Real Estate: $624,000
6. Lobbyists: $522,000
7. PACs: $476,000
8. Insurance: $451,000
9. Commercial Banks: $400,000
10. Big Pharma: $240,000
11. Telecoms: $168,000

 
 
It’s very hard to look back at all the things Tester has voted for and against, as he’s been casting votes for decades now.
 
We do know that Tester mostly writes or sponsors legislation to help these groups:
 

• Armed Forces: 33% of his bills
• Government Operations: 19%
• Native Americans: 17%
• Education: 11%
• Public Lands/Resources: 8%
• Health: 7%
• Other: 5%

 
Tester votes a lot more than most Senators. Since he started in 2007, he’s missed just 29 out of 3,463 roll call votes, or 0.8%.
 
Some of those votes, however, are quite questionable. I’m thinking of his decision to keep prescription drug prices high and his decision to rollback Wall Street regulations. Besides that, there’s all that money. He pretty much takes from anyone that’ll give it.
 
Here are some things Tester’s recently voted for:
 

• Rolling back Dodd-Frank
• Allowing Dreamers to stay
• Allowing airlines to reduce leg, seat and aisle space
• The Keystone XL Pipeline

 
 
Here are some things Tester’s recently voted against:
 

• Net Neutrality
• The Trump tax cuts
• Ending the Iraq War last September
• Repealing Obamacare
• Labeling genetically-modified foods
• Making the Federal Reserve more transparent

 
 
Those votes take us back to 2013.
 
I think with Tester you get some good things – his votes for minimum wage and paycheck fairness and letting Dreamers stay.
 
Sadly, you get a lot of strange stuff that Tester’s voting for as well, like letting airlines screw us more, keeping the Iraq War going, letting the Fed continue to run amok with no oversight, and rolling back Wall Street regulations. Hell, he even co-sponsored the bill to build the Keystone XL Pipeline!
 
Democrats hold their nose and ignore those things…if they’re even aware of them.
 
 
 

​
​The House

 
Greg Gianforte is 57. He’s lived in Montana for over 20 years, and before that called places in California, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey home.
 
Gianforte has a net worth of around $200 million, mostly in property, businesses, and investments.
 
Here are the major groups and industries giving money to Gianforte…though many of these totals probably come from last year’s special election:
 

1. Retired: $840,000
2. Livestock: $174,000
3. Real Estate: $170,000
4. Oil & Gas: $145,000
5. Securities & Investment: $144,000
6. PACs: $111,000
7. Republicans: $104,000
8. Auto Industry: $85,000
9. Yellowstone Bank: $51,000
10. JC Billion Inc: $43,000
11. Daines Construction: $21,000
12. Triple Creek Ranch: $21,000

 
 
Here are some things Gianforte has voted for:
 

• Tougher requirements to get food stamps
• Keeping families together at the border
• Giving housing vouchers to people overcoming addiction
• Medicaid services for opioid addicts
• Incentivizing early release from prison
• Rolling back Dodd-Frank
• A balanced budget amendment
• Exempting certain coal-refuse plants from EPA regulations
• Delaying when brick and wood heater makers have to follow EPA rules
• More law enforcement in schools
• More nutrition content info at restaurants
• More oversight of the billions we give to the World Bank
• The Trump tax cuts

 
 
I’d list some things Gianforte has voted against…but the truth is he votes for almost everything that comes before him.
 
 
 
 
Kathleen Williams is also 57. And like Gianforte, she also moved to Montana in 1995. She’s lived in numerous states, and went to college in both California and Colorado.
 
Williams has a net worth upwards of $422,000…the fewest assets of anyone running in these congressional races (her lowball figure is $118,000). Most of this is probably her home, though she does have some mutual funds.
 
Here are the top groups and industries giving money to Williams:
 

1. Other: $58,000
2. Retired: $49,000
3. Livestock: $14,000
4. Agribusiness: $17,000
5. Finance/Insurance: $9,000
6. Business Services: $5,600
7. Education: $5,300
8. Real Estate: $4,800
9. Lawyers: $4,200
10. Construction: $3,400
11. MSU: $3,000
12. Wildcor LLC: $2,700
13. Oula Studios: $2,550
14. Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes: $2,500
15. UBS AG: $2,500
16. Debruycker Charolais: $2,400
17. Brian Baird for Congress: $2,000
18. Fibk: $2,000
19. Mse Inc: $2,000
20. Bozeman Health: $1,750
21. Energy & Resources: $50

 
 
Most of these numbers are so low that I’m not sure we need to look into them…though we will.
 
Fibk, for instance, is First Interstate Bank. Mse, Inc. is an engineering firm in Butte. Debruycker Charolais is a cattle company in Dutton. Wildcor LLC is an outdoor consulting business in Missoula. Brian Baird was a U.S. House member from Washington State who decided not to run again in 2010.
 
 
Here are some of the things Williams voted for between 2011 and 2015:
 

• Infrastructure
• Prohibiting bullying in schools
• Giving money to the teacher’s retirement system
• Allowing undocumented migrants to work
• Increasing public education funding
• Doctor-assisted suicides
• Requiring PACs to disclose finances
• Pay hikes for state workers
• Warning labels on medical marijuana
• Enforcing federal greenhouse gas regulations
• Giving undocumented workers access to worker’s comp

 
 
Here are some things Williams voted against:
 

• New high school districts
• Tax credits for charter schools
• Closing the MT Development Center
• Raw milk
• The 2015 Budget
• Texting while driving
• Drug tests for those on welfare
• Repealing same-day voter registration
• Guns on college campuses
• Oil and natural gas revenue for schools
• The 2011 Budget
• Repealing medical marijuana laws

 
 
 

​Conclusion

 
Let’s begin with Tester and Rosendale.
 
Tester’s camp is worried because Republicans outpolled Democrats in the primary by 38,000 votes. At least we know he has the money to overcome this.
 
When you look at the major groups and industries that are giving to these two men, you see major differences not so much in the groups, but in the amounts given.
 
For instance, Tester’s largest contributor group are lawyers, giving him $1.8 million this cycle so far.
 
Damn…I didn’t know lawyers were such big fans of organic farmers and former music teachers. Tells you what I know.
 
When it comes to Rosendale, his largest contributor group are Republicans, giving him just over $300,000 this cycle.
 
At least with Rosendale, most of his industry donors make sense. Oil and gas? Yeah…we expect them to give to Republicans. And I’m not surprised that insurance groups are trying to influence our State Auditor, though it’s only $22,000 (they gave Tester over $400,000).
 
When we look at the votes, we see Rosendale voting about as we expect him to…as a Republican.
 
For Tester, however, we see him voting this way many times as well. It’s very frustrating for Independents to see this, though Tester is relying on his Dem base to ignore these transgressions enough to give him another 6 years.
 
Will it work?
 
Probably, but it doesn’t really matter to me. I’d like to see Tester lose, but I don’t want to see Rosendale win.
 
Just like the 2016 presidential race, whichever one wins it’ll be a loss for the people.
 
 
 
Let’s finish with Williams and Gianforte.
 
I agree with a lot of the things Gianforte is voting for in Congress. In fact, many of those votes look like Democratic votes – helping opioid addicts, more nutrition content, getting people out of prison early, and balancing the budget.
 
He also has some things I don’t like, though, such as the EPA regs and making it harder to get food stamps.
 
When I look at how Williams is voting, I also see that she’s voting for things I like, and against things I don’t like.
 
With just $90,000 in the bank right now compared with the $1.1 million that Gianforte has.
 
Unless the economy really slumps over the next 3 months, I don’t see Gianforte losing this race. It is his race to lose. And what happens during the last 3 to 4 weeks won’t matter – most Montana voters vote absentee now.
 
So there really is about 3 months for Williams to travel the state, saturate the airwaves, and spam our inboxes, telling us why she’s the right candidate.
 
That’ll be damn tough to do with so little money, and even tougher considering the Republicans outpolled the Democrats in the primary by 25,000 votes.
 
Absentee ballots go out in about 3 months.
 
Hang onto your hats ‘till then!
 
 

 
Notes
 
Cates-Carney, Corin. “In Montana Politics, Personal Wealth Goes A Long Way, To A Point.” Montana Public Radio. 12 April 2018. http://mtpr.org/post/montana-politics-personal-wealth-goes-long-way-point
 
Dennison, Mike. “No shortage of multimillionaires among MT’s 2018 congressional candidates.” 15 February 2018. http://www.ktvq.com/story/37519453/no-shortage-of-multimillionaires-among-mts-2018-congressional-candidates
 
“Greg Gianforte’s Campaign Finances.” Vote Smart. Retrieved 26 June 2018. https://votesmart.org/candidate/campaign-finance/168594/greg-gianforte#.WzJmEdIzrIU
 
“Greg Gianforte’s Voting Records.” Vote Smart. Retrieved 26 June 2018. https://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/168594/greg-gianforte#.WzJkotIzrIV
 
“Jon Tester.” Open Secrets. Retrieved 26 June 2018. https://www.opensecrets.org/personal-finances/net-worth?cid=N00027605&year=2015
 
“Jon Tester’s Voting Records.” Vote Smart. Retrieved 26 June 2018. https://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/20928/jon-tester#.WzJUTNIzrIU
 
“Kathleen Williams’ Voting Records.” Vote Smart. Retrieved 26 June 2018. https://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/120842/kathleen-williams/?p=1#.WzJihNIzrIV
 
“Matt Rosendale’s Voting Records.” Vote Smart. Retrieved 26 June 2018. https://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/120815/matt-rosendale
 
“Montana Senate Race.” Open Secrets. Retrieved 26 June 2018. https://www.opensecrets.org/races/industries?cycle=2018&id=MTS1&spec=N
 
“Rep. Greg Gianforte – Montana District 01.” Open Secrets. Retrieved 26 June 2018. https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/summary?cid=N00040733
 
“Sen. Jon Tester.” Govtrack. Retrieved 26 June 2018. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/jon_tester/412244