Happy Tuesday! It’s a potpourri of political news!

Today I write about John Lewis and the Montana GOP, my prediction that Amanda Curtis won’t run out of money for gas, Harry Reid’s glass being half-full about Montana, and a new Gallup poll finds we dislike their representative.

John Lewis:

The Montana GOP claims that Democratic House candidate John Lewis billed taxpayers for a campaign trip to Washington, D.C., in July 2013. The GOP claims that when Lewis was a staffer for U.S. Senator Max Baucus, he took a trip to D.C. and also met with officials at Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The trip was paid for with taxpayer funds.

The Montana GOP says, “John Lewis is in clear violation of election law by using taxpayer dollars to fund a campaign trip to Washington, D.C.”

Like it or not, the lines are pretty blurred these days on campaigning and official business in the Senate and House. One method is for politicians to schedule some official business in a town so it’s paid for by taxpayer funds. Then, in the same town, the politician will hold a fundraiser or campaign event later that day.

Unless John Lewis, out of the kindness of his heart, decides to reimburse the senate (taxpayers) for the trip, nothing much will happen.

Amanda Curtis:

I had to laugh a little when I read the headline “Amanda Curtis getting only $2,000 from leftover campaign money” in a story in Lee Newspapers that was written by Mike Dennison. A similar story was written by the Associated Press.

Just about anyone who follows campaigns and elections already knew the Walsh campaign could only give so much to the Curtis campaign.

This is just a hunch, but I doubt we’ll see the Curtis campaign vehicle parked along the road because she has no money for gas. Curtis will get plenty of financial help, especially if a poll shows she is competitive.

Harry Reid:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid believes the Senate Democrats will keep their majority in the November elections, which is pretty typical for the leader of the senate to say at this point in the campaign season.

What was more surprising in the Associated Press story was Reid saying, “We are doing really well in Montana.”

Harry must be a glass is half-full kind of person.

Gallup Re-Elect Numbers:

According to a new Gallup poll “Nineteen percent of U.S. registered voters say most members of Congress deserve re-election, roughly the same as in two measures earlier this year. This is on pace to be the lowest such ‘re-elect’ sentiment in a midterm election year over Gallup’s history of asking this question since 1992.”

However, when it comes to their own representative, Gallup polling shows that 50% of voters say yes, he or she does deserve reelection.

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