Tag Archives: Campaign 2010

Montana Politics 2010: The Campaign Ad

Republican Congressman Denny Rehberg’s campaign team faced an interesting decision on Tuesday:  Should they contest the new campaign commercial by Democrat Congressional candidate Dennis McDonald and give him a day or two of free publicity, with links to the commercial in most newspapers, not to mention several news stories about it across the state, or should they just let it go because they are probably far ahead of him in the race.

Rehberg’s legal team decided to fight the McDonald advertisement firing off a 29-page document to the six Montana television stations telling them line by line how many errors were in the campaign commercial. You see the document HERE. It is written by lawyers, so it’s wordy.

Today on the state’s largest newspaper’s website (Billings Gazette) you can find the McDonald television commercial, the internet commercial, the script to the television commercial, the script to internet commercial, and a photo of McDonald. The same things are probably published across the state (as this state is a basically a two newspaper state) – and that’s publicity money can’t buy. Continue reading →

About these ads

2010 Campaign Signs: The Winners

Since we are about two weeks from Election Day, we are seeing all types of campaign signs around the state. Since there are so many, I decided to pick out a couple of winners. You will see photos of them later in this column.

Candidates use signs to get their name out into the public. It’s one of the cheaper ways of promoting your candidacy – the old name ID thing. I’ve put up probably close to a half a million signs in my life for the candidates I supported (but none this election season). I could pound in some rebar and attach a sign with wire to the rebar in just a few minutes. A plastic sign on a wire is a piece of cake. It’s an art… Continue reading →

Montana Politics 2010: U.S. House, State Supreme Court, PSC Endorsements

Here we are about a month out from Election Day 2010. The absentee ballots are in the mail and the airwaves are full of campaign advertisements. I received my ballot yesterday.

This week The Western Word is making some key endorsements for the 2010 Election. Today, I take a look at Statewide and Public Service Commission races.

Here is the agenda:

Monday: Montana House and Senate (Click HERE to read)

Tuesday: A few local races (Click HERE to read).

Today: U.S. House, State Supreme Court, PSC District #1

In making these endorsements, I have trolled the net looking for information. I’ve visited campaign websites. I’ve checked Project Vote Smart for information. I’ve called and visited with people about candidates. I’ve also talked with some of the candidates. Some of them came to my door. Some found it was not a pleasant experience.

In some of these contests, I won’t get to cast a vote in because I live outside the voting area, but the candidate impressed me enough to give them a nod. With my readership increasing by leaps and bounds (September was an all-time high for visits to this website) I felt it was very important to let my faithful followers know which candidates I endorse.

For those candidates not listed as being endorsed, it means you probably did not impress me enough to deserve an endorsement or I just don’t care about you.

So without further delay, here are my recommendations for the 2010 Election Season for U.S. House of Representatives, Montana Supreme Court, and Public Service Commission District #1: Continue reading →