Welcome to The Western Word!  If this is your first time dropping by, “Monday Morning Politics” is where I put together several of the political stories from the past weekend all in one place for your reading pleasure.  I also offer some commentary about these stories sometimes laced with just a little snarkiness…

Today I talk about disclosure problems, just two debates, still fighting, cancer, unemployment, constitutional initiatives, a reporter’s notebook, Obama’s job approval, Romney and veterans, and much more!Disclosure Problems:

The top story from this past weekend was probably the continuing problems the Denny Rehberg for Senate Campaign is having with the disclosure of their donors’ occupations.

The Rehberg Campaign seems to be struggling with this simple task.  After being embarrassed in the media for having around $20,000 “from three dozen lobbyists who did not disclose their occupations when they made the contributions” the Associated Press reported this weekend that after reviewing the latest campaign information, “the Rehberg campaign left blank the occupation for about one of every seven of its roughly 750 individual donors.  By comparison, only about 1 percent of Tester’s 1,310 donors left the occupation blank.”

As someone who has reviewed probably millions of campaign donor documents, getting the occupation of the donor is not that difficult.  It’s more laziness and lack of attention to detail than anything.  Some people may call it a cover-up so that the candidate is not linked to certain groups as much.

Only Two Debates?

The Jon Tester for Senate Campaign is saying that “Congressman Dennis Rehberg has agreed to debate Montana farmer Jon Tester only twice between now and Election Day.”  They also report the debates will be held in Billings and Bozeman.

If this is correct, then it is too bad.  In the past, I thought highly of Rehberg for debating his opponents several times during his campaigns for U.S. House.  Let’s hope they agree to debate more.   Maybe the Rehberg Campaign will e-mail me with their side of the story…

More Cancer Ads:

The Rehberg for Senate campaign is out with another cancer ad called, “Worse” which tells viewers, “Jon Tester was caught using a deadly disease to make dishonest political attacks.  False attacks are wrong…But playing politics with cancer is even worse.”

The video was posted July 20.  You can see it HERE.

It would be great if the campaigns donated the amount of money they are spending to run these ads to cancer research…

Still Fighting:

Lee Newspapers reported on Saturday that former governor candidate Ken Miller “has asked a state District Court to reverse the state political practices commissioner’s findings that it violated campaign finance laws.”

I think there were some holes in the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices findings on the Miller case, plus just about all the decisions handed down from that office reek of partisanship.  That office is broken beyond repair.

Unemployment:

The Associated Press reported, “Montana’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate held steady at 6.3 percent in June.”

In these tough times, 6.3% is not too bad, but many folks are no longer counted because they have run out of benefits…

Constitutional Initiatives:

The Associated Press is reporting, “Backers of pro-marijuana and anti-abortion measures in Montana have failed to get enough signatures to get the proposed constitutional initiatives on the November ballot, organizers said.”

That’s all I have to say about that…

Reporter’s Notebook:

On Sunday, Mike Dennison of Lee Newspapers took a look at how being the chair of an appropriations subcommittee has put “a bull’s-eye” on Congressman Denny Rehberg during the campaign season.

It’s very simple.  Republicans and Democrats have different opinions about what should be the spending priorities of the United States.  It’s all fair game and we the voters get to decide whom we like best…

Trending Upward:

It’s good news for Team Obama.  According to a new poll from Gallup, Obama’s job approval “has improved at least slightly in each of the last three quarters.”

If that trend continues, then Obama has a good shot of beating Romney in November…

Veterans for Romney?

“New Rasmussen Reports polling finds that 59% of Likely U.S. Voters who have served in the military favor the Republican challenger, while 35% support the president.”

The sample was only 574 people, but it is still pretty amazing…

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