Tailored suits, chauffeured cars
Fine hotels and big cigars
Up for grabs, up for a price
-AC/DC – Money Talks

It’s enjoyable to watch the Republicans and Democrats go after each other’s candidates for being out of touch with Montana – all because of where they are getting their political donations.

It all started with Lee Newspapers running stories about Montana’s U.S. Senate race and where U.S. Representative and U.S. Senate candidate Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and U.S. Senator John Walsh (D-Mont.) are getting their campaign donations.

Lee Newspapers reported that Daines is getting money from out of state and raised about 42% from Montanans. They reported that:

Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Daines has many Montana donors to his 2014 campaign for Montana’s U.S. Senate, but he also got a big boost late last year from a new group organized by a New York hedge fund manager.

Lee Newspapers did a separate story on Walsh, reporting:

As much as 60 percent of Sen. John Walsh’s initial campaign funds have come from two sources largely outside Montana, an analysis of his first finance report shows: Out-of-state individuals and funds set up by fellow Democratic U.S. senators.

Then the spin started!

From the left, the blog “Montana Street Fighter” jumped on the report writing, “It seems like Montana Republicans are all too happy to be bought off by out of state interests with big pocketbooks and extreme agendas…”

The Montana Democratic Party sent a press release telling folks that Daines “Takes Money from Washington Special Interests, New York Billionaires.”

From the right, the “Fair and Balanced” Fox News picked up the story about donations to the Walsh campaign with right-wing radio host Aaron Flint linking to the story on his blog.

The Montana Republican Party chimed in saying “Appointed Senator Walsh is starting his third week in the Senate and he’s already cozying up with Washington special interests to fill his campaign coffers and fight for their priorities— not Montana’s.”

I’ve combed through thousands of campaign finance reports over the years and it’s always fun to try and find something that can bring down a candidate – like finding someone on a report who donated to your opponent who did time for a felony – or maybe just got arrested – or someone with extreme views – or someone who received a special favor…

It’s important to scrutinize your own candidate’s donors, too.

The bottom line is if you can’t find a murderer, child molester, or other type of felon on the donor records, it probably won’t matter much. The money from Manhattan, New York, spends just the same as the money from Manhattan, Montana (although there may be more of it from New York).

Now, since you may have the song “Money Talks” stuck in your head, here’s the music video:

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