We both know that Greg Gianforte and Steve Bullock want to create jobs in Montana.
Why aren’t they acting like it then?
What I’m getting at is their campaign spending, which we profiled last week.
Besides that we’re getting into the damage this campaign spending is doing to that job creating message.
This is a serious mistake, and one you’d expect a neophyte to make.
Is that who’s running Greg Gianforte’s campaign?
Who is running that campaign?
I was always under the impression that Aaron Flint was running it, but that’s just not the case.
After all, if Flint was running it, then why is he only making $2,700 compared to the $3,000 or so that Amy Lunde is picking up every two weeks now?
I don’t know.
I don’t have a magnifying glass to look into the Gianforte campaign with.
What I do have are the most recent campaign finance reports, however, and you can have them too.
Just go to the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices Page, look at candidates, and type in the names you want to look for.
It’s all there.
For instance, we know that Gianforte is doing the following:
So those are just stupid mistakes that, again, you’d expect a neophyte to make.
That’s what this campaign is, however, - new and inexperienced. That’s why we see these mistakes.
I mean, really? You’re going to use credit cards that go through a Louisiana company over a Montana company?
If I was Aaron Flint or whoever is running this campaign, those credit cards would be cancelled and Valley Bank would be giving me a few more to replace them with, today.
And the TV shoots and website work?
You honestly want me to believe that you can’t find a decent company in Montana for that?
I won’t believe it for one second, not when the Democratic ads start up telling me not to.
So these aren’t just mistakes, they’re serious fuck-ups.
When that ad touting Gianforte’s love of Louisiana banking over Helena banking starts up, how many votes do you think he’ll lose in the Queen City?
I’m thinking a lot, especially when that ad is run over and over and then redone to be run over and over again.
Silly mistakes.
Prevantable.
But they weren’t prevented.
Now we have to begin questioning the integrity of the campaign and the competence of those running it.
Well, that’s what the Democrats will do and that’s what the media could do.
The campaign will simply ignore that talk, perhaps going into damage control mode. I guess the $1,500 that was given to Connecticut’s Tveyes will come in handy at that point.
Why aren’t they acting like it then?
What I’m getting at is their campaign spending, which we profiled last week.
Besides that we’re getting into the damage this campaign spending is doing to that job creating message.
This is a serious mistake, and one you’d expect a neophyte to make.
Is that who’s running Greg Gianforte’s campaign?
Who is running that campaign?
I was always under the impression that Aaron Flint was running it, but that’s just not the case.
After all, if Flint was running it, then why is he only making $2,700 compared to the $3,000 or so that Amy Lunde is picking up every two weeks now?
I don’t know.
I don’t have a magnifying glass to look into the Gianforte campaign with.
What I do have are the most recent campaign finance reports, however, and you can have them too.
Just go to the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices Page, look at candidates, and type in the names you want to look for.
It’s all there.
For instance, we know that Gianforte is doing the following:
- Gianforte spent $22,000 on a Texas consulting and communications firm called Connect Strategic Communications. It was started by Ryan Cassin, who’s been doing serious online work for candidates since 2010.
- Hundreds, if not into the thousands of dollars by now, are going to a company called Anedot in Louisiana. Why? For credit card fees. Strangely, credit card fees are also going to Helena’s Valley Bank. Why they all aren’t is beyond me.
- Gianforte spent $22,000 on Red Print Strategy, a Virginia company that specializes in video and digital shoots.
- Gianforte gave $1,500 to Tveyes, Inc., which is a Connecticut media monitoring firm that gives you total market coverage via notifications on any topic you want. I think most topics revolve around the candidate hiring the services, mainly for damage control.
So those are just stupid mistakes that, again, you’d expect a neophyte to make.
That’s what this campaign is, however, - new and inexperienced. That’s why we see these mistakes.
I mean, really? You’re going to use credit cards that go through a Louisiana company over a Montana company?
If I was Aaron Flint or whoever is running this campaign, those credit cards would be cancelled and Valley Bank would be giving me a few more to replace them with, today.
And the TV shoots and website work?
You honestly want me to believe that you can’t find a decent company in Montana for that?
I won’t believe it for one second, not when the Democratic ads start up telling me not to.
So these aren’t just mistakes, they’re serious fuck-ups.
When that ad touting Gianforte’s love of Louisiana banking over Helena banking starts up, how many votes do you think he’ll lose in the Queen City?
I’m thinking a lot, especially when that ad is run over and over and then redone to be run over and over again.
Silly mistakes.
Prevantable.
But they weren’t prevented.
Now we have to begin questioning the integrity of the campaign and the competence of those running it.
Well, that’s what the Democrats will do and that’s what the media could do.
The campaign will simply ignore that talk, perhaps going into damage control mode. I guess the $1,500 that was given to Connecticut’s Tveyes will come in handy at that point.
We know that from October to January, 2015, Gianforte spent $73,918 in-state and $88,939 out-of-state.
Some of that spending was $5,400 in returns for donors that donated too much money.
One guy in Billings was so excited that he gave 4 extra checks to Gianforte, $650 each, that had to be returned.
Bullock spent $43,649 in-state and $45,845 out-of-state.
It’s that out-of-state spending for Bullock that we’ll focus on next. I mean, he spent $40,000 of that out-of-state money on computer and consulting work, or 45% of his total Q4 spending.
- The majority of that money goes to Washington, D.C.’s Rising Tide Interactive, which got about $23,000.
- NGP Van, Inc., also in Washington, D.C., got $2,700.
- Another is Three Point Media, also in Washington, D.C., which got $14,000.
- Bullock gets his computer support not from a Montana company, but from Salsa Labs in Detroit, Michigan. He didn’t spend much with them, just $1,321. Still, that could have supported some Montanans for a month, maybe more.
- Bullock is using both Virginia’s Direct Connect for credit card fees and Act Blue’s Technical Services, based out of Massachusetts.
It’s not much money, just stretching into the hundreds of dollars over a couple months, but it’s out-of-state and easily preventable.
At least Gianforte has some Helena banks doing this – Bullock has none.
Well, Valley Bank did get a $2 bank fee out of Bullock…so there’s that.
