
On Monday, March 21, it was reported that the PAC Make America Awesome launched three different Facebook campaign ads to hurt Trump among Utah voters.
One of these ads featured Trump’s wife in a provocative pose.
Trump fired back on Twitter saying he’d “spill the beans” on Cruz’s wife.
After that, things heated up as the men got into a back and forth slut-shaming each other’s wife.
The rumors of Cruz’s extramarital affairs began to surface.
It was on Wednesday, March 23, that the National Enquirer broke the story that “the staunch Republican is hiding FIVE different mistresses!”
“A HOOKER, A TEACHER & COWORKERS: 5 romps that will destroy Ted Cruz!” the story read.
Wow…that’s not what you want coming out about you on the campaign trail.
Is it true?
Does it matter?
We also know that “a half-dozen GOP operatives and media figures” have been “pushing charges of adultery for at least six months now.”
What’s more, “allies of former GOP presidential hopeful Marco Rubio were involved in spreading the smears.”
Oh…I guess you never heard of #CruzSexScandal, huh? What a pity.
We know that The New York Times, The Washington Post, ABC News, and many other outlets knew of the Cruz affair rumors but didn’t report them.
Here in Montana we know that the media has known of the rumors of Bullock’s alleged affair since early-December but they haven’t reported it.
Will that story eventually come out, as it came out for Cruz?
So far the Cruz affair story has had feet for a week. Has it hurt him?
It’s hard to say, but the seeds have been sown, doubt has been planted into the minds of millions.
Is Ted Cruz who he says he is?
Does it matter?
The guy is on the defensive now and every day when he wakes up he’ll wonder, ‘will I be asked about the affairs today?’
That’s stressful.
When you’re a candidate and you’re stressed, you make mistakes. When you make mistakes, you lose.
Ted Cruz is done.
Steve Bullock is done.
I went ahead and called up Nancy Keenan this morning (I actually called her twice, once at 8:00 and again at 9:20, before this post went up).
As with my other calls to her, I just got the machine.
I went ahead and left another message, again, telling her who I was, that I’m running for HD 99, and that Amanda Frickle, the head of MDLCC, won’t allow me to use the Voter Access Network.
It costs just $60 to get access to that. Instead of allowing me that, however, Nancy Keenan has instructed her staff to ignore me.
My, this makes them look stupid.
@africkle04 I've sent you two emails and called you twice, leaving a message once. Why won't you get back to me about my House race? #mtpol
— Greg Strandberg (@gpstberg) March 28, 2016
I’m putting the stats for that tweet up so you can see how many people are looking at it and, I imagine, saying WTF?!?
Yeah, Montana Democrats sure know how to make themselves look stupid.
I went ahead and asked Keenan – via the machine, of course – why she won’t give me access to that database.
I then asked what she’d do when stories like this one about Bullock finally break in the mainstream media, or when the PACs report on them in their ads.
I told her that I’m happy to keep reporting these stories, and really, there’s nothing she can do about that.
I said it didn’t have to be that way, but since this platform is the only leverage I have, it will be.
She could of course call me back and we could discuss this, but we all know she’s too much of a coward to actually talk to someone over the phone.
So to me, the best thing is to get rid of Bullock so we can get rid of most of the leeches like Keenan that continue to make this state a terrible place for honest folks like me.
Oh, but Gianforte will be so much worse?
I’m sorry, but Gianforte isn’t ignoring me. I met the guy twice.
His staff returns my emails, for God's sake!
Democrats not only ignore me, they attack me with fake accounts and call me anti-semitic. So getting rid of those clowns is very important to me.
I know that the rumors of Bullock’s affair will do that.
Again, the PACs will get ahold of that and they’ll run ads. Maybe they’ll just be on Facebook – I dunno. Either way, Bullock is done, has been done since December.
Montana just doesn’t know it yet.
If it’s not the alleged affair it’ll be one of the incidents in a long line of incidents that show Bullock’s incompetence.
Personally, I think hiring your adviser’s girlfriend to work in your communications department is a big one.
I suspect that’ll be reported when the affair rumors come out, likely in connection to the cover-up.
Yeah, how many people know about what happened between Bullock and his staff in the office?
I’ve been told by numerous sources that Angela McLean walked in on Bullock while Bullock was “in the act.”
I wonder what it’ll look like when the PACs get hold of that info and run with it.
Besides that, there are plenty of smaller things that Bullock allows to happen. These get egg in his face. Sadly, he’s perfectly fine with leaving it there.
Take the most recent incident with the plane.
What we’re getting at is the letter that 40 Republican legislators wrote to Bullock yesterday asking him to “show the math behind his $2,672 reimbursement to the state for 21 plane trips.”
The thing is, you can fly around if it’s for state business to make my life better. You can’t fly around to raise funds to make your life better.
That’s what Bullock was doing and now he refuses to pay up.
What’s especially sad is the bewildering way that Bullock’s out-of-state campaign manager tried to spin this:
“They're talking about improper use of a plane for campaign reasons, and we're talking about using a plane for campaign purposes,” Pitt said.
What Pitt was trying to do was justify the private plane use because of some nonprofit status with something.
That’s just not the case, so says the Gianforte campaign.
Mainly, this is another example of Bullock having egg on his face and leaving it there for days, sometimes weeks.
He could just do some math, pay the money back out of his campaign funds, and move on.
Instead he drags his feet and points fingers.
Is that the leadership that Montana needs?
Oh, it’ll be fun when the out-of-state PACs roll in and bombard us with their advertising/propaganda.
Bullock has absolutely no chance of winning this race, mainly because Gianforte will not allow himself to lose.
You see, Gianforte has money and Bullock does not. If you don’t think that matters, again, the propaganda.
Here are the major stories that will be played up if Gianforte is dipping in the polls. Remember, there will be no coordination between his campaign and the PACs.
There doesn’t need to be – Bullock’s incompetence is well-documented.
- Sex in Montana Politics: The first mention on a website about Bullock’s alleged affair.
- More Worries About Bullock’s Leadership Style: In light of Angela McLean’s firing and the affair rumors we went ahead and looked at Bullock’s leadership inexperience.
- A Timeline of the Bullock/McLean Dispute: This has everything that your PAC will need to build a detailed timeline of the slimy goings-on in the Capitol.
- More Staff Changes in Bullock’s Office: It was on January 6 that we learned Bullock put his girlfriend’s advisor onto his staff.
- Digging Further Into the Angela McLean Departure: I called up a bunch of people in Helena 3 months after the affair rumors surfaced. No one talked.
- You Can See Gianforte for Free (Bullock Charges $50): This is another example of how out-of-touch the Bullock camp actually is.
- Are the Bullock’s Corrupt?: This post delves into the very shady Medicare grant that Lisa Bullock’s firm received while her husband, then-Montana Attorney General, was set to rule on.
Why haven’t I been sued?
Why am I allowed to spread this information?
I think it’s for a few reasons.
- First, the information is true;
- Next, suing me would bring even more attention to this information;
- Finally, why?
What will suing me do? Will it get rid of these stories? Will I be put in jail so I can’t write, perhaps have my internet privileges suspended?
Either way, one of the national Republican PACs is going to come in and take up all the information I’ve built up.
They’ll repackage it in 30-second clips with good sound bites.
The cat is already out of the bag.
There’s nothing you can do about it.
Do you think the D.C. firm Steptoe & Johnson will take Bullock back in January or will he have to head back to Bullock Law Firm? #mtpol
— Greg Strandberg (@gpstberg) March 30, 2016