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April 11, 2024
The crowded Republican primary contest to replace retiring Congressman Matt Rosendale in Montana’s Eastern District U.S. House race is continuing to take shape.
Last Friday, former state lawmaker Ed Walker announced the suspension of his campaign, bringing the number of Republicans running in the primary down to eight.
“After careful consideration, reflective prayer, and discussions with my family, I have made the difficult decision to suspend my campaign for Congress,” Walker said in a written statement. “I entered this race back in October, intent on ensuring that Montana’s 2nd congressional seat remained in conservative Republican hands, and that will continue to be my objective. Between Rep. Rosendale’s indecision about his own candidacy and the overly crowded primary field, it has been difficult for a grassroots conservative candidate to gain any traction in this race.”
Rosendale spent much of last year gearing up for a U.S. Senate run only to abort the effort just six days after announcing his campaign. He then said he would run for re-election to the House, where he is a prominent member of the hardline Freedom Caucus. A few days after that announcement, he withdrew from the House race, citing threats against his family and “false and defamatory rumors” about his personal life.
Walker closed out 2023 with about $74,000 in his campaign treasury. Fundraising data for the first quarter of 2024 is not yet available from the Federal Election Commission.
Walker served in the state Senate in 2011 and 2013. He’s currently the state chairman of an organization that advocates for federal term limits.
In his announcement, Walker encouraged other candidates to follow his lead, drop out of the race and “consolidate support around a single conservative champion, thus ensuring Montana’s eastern district is not represented by a Bush-era retread or a California phony in perpetuity.”
Walker’s announcement didn’t name his choice of conservative champion in the race.
The former dig appears to target candidate Denny Rehberg, who represented Montana’s single at-large district from 2001 to 2013, while the latter is apparently aimed at Troy Downing, Montana’s current state auditor, who is originally from California.
Elsewhere in the race, former state lawmaker Joel Krautter — one of the few candidates in the field not actively courting favor with the GOP’s Trump wing — announced this weekend an endorsement by the Montana Federation of Public Employees, the state’s largest union.
“MFPE members know what efficient, effective government looks like,” MFPE President Amanda Curtis said during an event with Krautter, according to an April 6 press release. “We look at Congress and we see historic dysfunction. MFPE members need stability in Washington, D.C. so we can do our jobs keeping Montana communities safe, our students in school, our businesses supported, and our families healthy.”
The union could theoretically endorse a different candidate, or a different party, in the general election, but the eastern district leans deeply Republican, making it difficult for Democrats to win, and likely that the victor of the GOP primary will go on to claim the seat.
In 2022, MFPE — a union typically regarded as supportive of Democrats — endorsed wealth manager Gary Buchanan, an independent, in the second district, though that endorsement came after the primary.
“I’m honored to have the support of thousands of public employees across Eastern Montana. MFPE members are the law enforcement officers protecting us, the educators and professors teaching our kids, and other dedicated individuals keeping our communities going,” Krautter said in a statement. “With their support in the June 4th Republican Primary that will determine eastern and central Montana’s next U.S. Representative, I’ll go to Congress and work to crush the chaos negatively impacting our nation and our state.”
—Arren Kimbel-Sannit
By the Numbers
Net loss reported by Bridger Aerospace, the publicly traded aerial firefighting company helmed by Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Tim Sheehy, in 2023, according to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company reported revenue record growth in 2023, but the losses led management to express substantial doubt in the filing about whether the company can continue as a “going concern” — in other words, a business that can meet its financial obligations — in the coming year.
That’s in part because the company is at risk of violating a covenant it agreed to as part of a $160 million bond from Gallatin County that requires the company to maintain a certain debt-service coverage ratio. The company said it is currently failing to meet that requirement and likely won’t be able to change that in the coming year.
Sheehy’s campaign — which is also dealing with the fallout of a weekend Washington Post story that revealed the former Navy SEAL lied to a Glacier National Park ranger about the genesis of a bullet wound in his arm — referred questions about Bridger to a company representative, who in turn said that any comment the company would provide is already in the filing.
—Arren Kimbel-Sannit
Wins and Losses for Randy Pinocci
It’s been an eventful week in court for Randy Pinocci, the Public Service Commission member and Republican candidate for lieutenant governor (with ticket-mate Tanner Smith).
On April 8, a federal court judge temporarily enjoined enforcement of an administrative rule that restricts how long supporters of a political candidate can display campaign signs after an election. Pinocci challenged the law — more specifically, the Montana Department of Transportation’s application of the law to several of his supporters — more than a year ago, arguing that it imposed an unconstitutional, content-based restriction on protected political speech.
“I get a phone call that my supporter says they got a letter where the state government’s going to cross on their property without permission, seize property and then turn around and bill the property owner and myself,” Pinocci told Montana Free Press at the time. “I’ve never seen that kind of state government overreach, and keep in mind I’ve been pretty involved in politics for 30 years.”
Pinocci’s lawsuit claimed the department’s rules about campaign signs don’t meet the standard that courts use to evaluate content-based restrictions on speech: that the law must be the “least restrictive means” of advancing “a compelling government interest.”
Pinocci and his supporters ultimately moved for a preliminary injunction blocking the rule. The court heard arguments on that motion last week, and sided with Pinocci.
That’s despite the fact that the transportation department is currently revising the rule to eliminate the expiration date on displays of political signage. U.S. District Court Judge Dana Christensen wrote that even if MDT’s new rule is adopted, the question doesn’t become moot.
“Though a preliminary injunction may be of little functionality as long as
[the department] is holding up [its] end of the promise, Plaintiffs have still presented a prohibition on protected First Amendment political speech that constitutes irreparable harm,” Christensen wrote.
And given the importance of political speech to the First Amendment, it’s unlikely that MDT’s content-based restriction would pass a strict scrutiny test, she wrote.
Meanwhile, in Cascade County district court, Pinocci has been facing prosecution for alleged disorderly conduct and witness tampering related to his dispute with a tenant in Great Falls. On Tuesday, Pinocci entered into a deferred prosecution agreement, in which he conceded that there was probably cause to charge him with witness tampering, in exchange for the state dismissing the charges.
Pinocci pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct — a charge that carries a $100 fine — and the state dropped its prosecution of two felony counts of witness tampering, according to court records.
Pinocci, a hardline Republican who previously served in the state Legislature, is unable to run for re-election to the Public Service Commission because of term limits. He’s now the running mate of GOP gubernatorial candidate Smith, who is challenging incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte from the right.
— Arren Kimbel-Sannit
On Background
U.S. Senate hopeful’s company reported losses of more than $77 million in 2023: Here’s how one accounting professor explained Bridger Aerospace’s financial position in an interview with Montana Free Press: “Management concluded that they may not be around in a year.”
Montana GOP Senate candidate says he lied to ranger about gunshot wound in 2015: The Washington Post landed an investigative coup in a story that calls into question much of how Tim Sheehy has described his combat wounds.
PSC Commissioner Randy Pinocci sues Dept. of Transportation over removal of campaign signs: Public Service Commission member Randy Pinocci has had mixed fortunes in court, but his legal challenge against the Montana Department of Transportation is now vindicated.