It’s the final six days of campaign 2014 in Montana!

We’ve got a Freedom Rally, a Get Out The Vote tour, a new campaign ad, an apology, and info about the Great Seal!

Can you handle all that?

Montana Freedom Rally:

Current Congressman and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Daines held his Montana Freedom Rally in Billings last night. One report said there was a large crowd in attendance.

The keynote speaker for the event was Dr. Ben Carson. Carson is making the political rounds this election season; he will be speaking at a Tea Party rally in Louisiana Saturday for Rep. Bill Cassidy.

That Montana Freedom Rally event may be the biggest campaign event for 2014, and that says a lot about Montana’s races.

New Curtis Ad:

On Monday afternoon Democratic Senate candidate Amanda Curtis released her second campaign ad. This one is called “We Have To Fight.” It is a 30-second ad.

In the ad, Curtis talks about protecting our public lands, preserving Social Security, and expanding access to quality, affordable healthcare. Curtis is shown talking to voters in a variety of locations and she is also speaking to the camera. The RV makes another appearance this time with Curtis driving it.

This ad was a little more issue-oriented. I give the Curtis ad “We Have To Fight” a seven out of ten (7/10). You can watch it HERE.

2014 GOTV Tour:

The Montana Democrats have scheduled a four-day statewide “Get Out The Vote” (GOTV) campaign tour that starts October 30. Senator Jon Tester and Governor Steve Bullock will join candidates Amanda Curtis and John Lewis (and local candidates) on the tour.

You can see the schedule HERE. Please note that this schedule is not to be confused with the small Montana distillery tour that Sen. John Walsh recently completed.

We’re Sorry:

The Associated Press is reporting that the presidents of Stanford University and Dartmouth College have apologized for the mailers sent by their political science departments about the Montana Supreme Court races. They used a Great Seal of the State of Montana and said the mailer was a Voters Guide. You can see a PDF of the mailer HERE (Courtesy of the Flathead Memo).

To “make it up” they are sending 100,000 letters to Montanans who received the mailers telling them to “ignore the mailer.”

Yes, you read that correctly – they want those folks to “ignore the mailer.”

The mailers basically told recipients which way the four Supreme Court candidates leaned politically. It showed candidate Mike Wheat not being as liberal as Barack Obama and his opponent, Lawrence Van Dyke being more conservative than Mitt Romney. In the other Supreme Court race the mailers showed Jim Rice not as conservative as Mitt Romney and his opponent W. David Herbert being more conservative than Romney.

I don’t want to brag or anything, but I already knew that…

The Great Seal:

Montana Secretary of State Linda McCulloch was not happy that the Stanford University and Dartmouth College political science departments used Montana’s Great Seal on the mailers.

Great Falls television station KRTV had this:

The Secretary of State is charged with oversight of the Great Seal of Montana and approval of any official use of it. McCulloch says that she was not asked — nor would she have approved — the use of the Great Seal on this mailer or for any political use in general.

I would suggest McCulloch do some checking and research into who is currently using the “Great Seal.” McCulloch’s job is “to serve as keeper of the Great Seal of the State of Montana” so do it and quit being so partisan about it.

For those of you still confused about the “Great Seal” thing, have no fear – the state animal is still the Grizzly Bear…

 

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