Montana
A GOP Senate Candidate Tried To Do Damage Control — And It Backfired
Montana GOP Senate hopeful Tim Sheehy has spent the last several months defending himself against accusations that he poses a threat to America’s federal public lands — a mess that the multimillionaire businessman and former Navy SEAL created when, shortly after launching his campaign, he explicitly called for federal lands to be “turned over to state agencies, or even counties.”
Around 640 million acres, or 28% of all land in the nation, are managed by the federal government — and owned collectively by all U.S. citizens. Republicans across Western states, where the vast majority of federal lands are located, have long sought to wrest control of them from the federal government — a move that conservationists and public land experts warn would ultimately lead to them being sold and privatized.
“If that happens, that really means we’re going to lose those federal lands,” said Chris Marchion, a Montana public lands advocate and inductee in the Montana Outdoor Hall of Fame. “The state of Montana does not have the resources to manage those lands, and the first thing they’re going to do is sell it.”
Democratic and conservation-focused political action committees have aired numerous public land-focused attack ads against Sheehy, most of which cite HuffPost’s reporting that first revealed Sheehy’s comments in support of transferring land and his failure to disclose his position on the board of a nonprofit with a history of advocating for privatizing America’s federal lands.
Sheehy meanwhile has accused his opponent, incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, of politicizing public lands and lying about Sheehy’s agenda for America’s natural heritage. Sometime last month, Sheehy even added a section to his campaign website titled “Public Lands,” in which he declared his belief that “public lands belong in public hands” and vowed to “oppose any federal transfer or sale of our public lands.” The new section sits at the very top of his issues page.
In Sheehy’s first public lands TV ad, released in early August, Stryker Anderson, an avid Montana hunter and hunting guide, says he’s “sick and tired of Jon Tester lying about Tim Sheehy.”
“Here’s the truth: Tim Sheehy knows public lands are important to our way of life,” Anderson tells viewers. “That’s why Sheehy opposes the sale or transfer of our public lands.”
But when reached via email this week, Anderson — one of two key people Sheehy turned to in hopes of restoring his image as a champion of public lands — effectively poured gasoline on the fire that Sheehy and his team have been trying to put out. Anderson plainly stated that he wants to see federal lands transferred to states, a view he understood Sheehy to share. He condemned the federal government as a poor steward of the federal estate and said Sheehy’s past comment in favor of states taking control of federal lands shows his “understanding of proper management.”
“The goal would be to turn them over to the states,” Anderson told HuffPost. “The state of Montana understands our public lands better than the federal government. Just like we don’t understand California, Wyoming, Washington, Arizona, etc. Let the people in their own state decide what is best for them. Our public lands suck almost everywhere because they have no management. Turning over ownership to the states will allow for much better management.”
Aaron Weiss, deputy director at the Colorado-based conservation group Center for Western Priorities, called Anderson’s comments “old Sagebrush Rebellion nonsense,” referring to the movement of the 1970s and ’80s that sought to wrest control of shared public lands from the federal government.
“States can’t afford to fight wildfires or clean up abandoned mines,” Weiss said. “The inevitable result is privatization.”
Asked how “turning over ownership to the states” is any different than a full-fledged public land transfer, Anderson said the TV advertisement’s anti-sale and transfer message was specific to the “sale or transfer to private ownership,” not state ownership.
“You are correct that turning it over would be a transfer,” he said. “But who it is transferred to is what is important.”
Again, Sheehy’s updated website states that he opposes “any federal transfer or sale of our public lands.”
Anderson’s unfiltered endorsement of pawning off federal lands to states — a position he clearly expected Sheehy to advance in Congress — threatens to effectively upend nearly a year of damage control within Sheehy’s camp.
When reached on Thursday, Sheehy’s campaign dissociated itself from its own public lands surrogate. Campaign spokesperson Katie Martin said Sheehy does not share Anderson’s support for transferring federal lands to states, but did not respond when asked why Sheehy chose to feature someone he does not see eye-to-eye with — particularly on the very subject of the advertisement.
“Your answer shopping won’t change Tim’s position on this issue, which is crystal clear and has been stated to you repeatedly,” Martin said in an email. “Tim opposes any federal transfer or sale or ‘turning over’ of our public lands.”
Michael Ciaglo via Getty Images
While that may be Sheehy’s purported position now, he sang a very different tune shortly after launching his campaign. As HuffPost first reported in October, Sheehy told the “Working Ranch Radio Show” that “local control has to be returned, whether that means, you know, some of these public lands get turned over to state agencies, or even counties, or whether those decisions are made by a local landlord instead of by, you know, federal fiat a few thousand miles away.” Contacted about his comments at the time, Sheehy’s campaign tried to walk a splintering tightrope, telling HuffPost that “calling for better management and more local control is not the same as ‘transferring them.’”
Pressed about the conflicting and misleading messaging, Anderson said “it is hard to explain someone’s stance on a 30-second ad or even on someone’s website,” adding that public lands are a “complex issue that takes time to discuss the entire scope.” As for the language Sheehy recently added to his website, Anderson said “he might be saying that because he knows reporters will twist it and make it sound like he is transferring or selling off public lands to private entities.”
“If only we had honest journalism where the reporters cared about truth and the betterment of our lands, wildlife, environment and people,” he said.
The truth is that Sheehy said what he said early in his campaign, flipped his script and spent months working to repair his image, only to then dispatch someone who supports a state takeover of federal lands in hopes of convincing voters that federal lands would be safe in Sheehy’s hands if they elect him to the Senate.
A second surrogate
HuffPost also first reported that Sheehy failed to include his post on the board of the nonprofit Property and Environment Research Center, or PERC, in his Senate financial disclosure — a violation of Senate rules that further complicated his already muddled messaging on public lands. Sheehy’s campaign called it an “oversight” and later amended his financial disclosure.
For his second public lands ad, released last week, Sheehy tapped K.C. Walsh, with whom he served on PERC’s board for about a year before launching his campaign for Senate. Walsh is the longtime former president and executive chairman of Simms Fishing Products, the Bozeman, Montana-based manufacturer of high-end fishing gear.
In the ad, Walsh introduces himself as a longtime “advocate for conservation and public lands in Montana.”
“I voted for Jon Tester twice, but this time I’m supporting Tim Sheehy,” Walsh says. “As an aerial firefighter, Tim Sheehy’s been on the front lines, fighting wildfires to protect our forests in rural communities. Tim knows public lands belong in public hands, and I trust Tim Sheehy to protect and preserve access to Montana’s public lands.”
Founded in 1980 and based in Bozeman, PERC advocates for “free market environmentalism” — the idea that private property rights and market incentives achieve better environmental and conservation outcomes than government regulation. Over its history, PERC has called for privatizing federal lands, including national parks, and increasing fees for visiting parks and other federal lands. It has also been a staunch opponent of Montana’s unique stream access laws, which provide anglers and recreationists virtually unlimited access to the state’s rivers and streams, including those that flow through private property.
“Montana has led the way in the erosions of private property rights” via such laws, PERC’s Reed Watson wrote in 2009.
Bradley Jones, a Helena, Montana-based conservation advocate, told HuffPost “it is disingenuous of both Mr. Sheehy and Mr. Walsh to crow about Sheehy’s support for public lands when both of them come from PERC.”
“This is an organization that has made attacking public ownership of federal lands and support for the giveaway of public waters to the wealthy and landowners blessed enough to own prime real estate a cornerstone of their gospel; though they try to disguise it as academic musings on the economy,” he said. “By association with this group, Sheehy seems to be endorsing PERC’s ideology. Selling Montanans’ publicly owned lands and stream access, which are the only ‘riches’ most Montanans will inherit, is an extremely unpopular idea here.”
Along with serving on PERC’s board since 2020, Walsh is on the board of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and is a past board member of Trout Unlimited. In 2021, Montana GOP Gov. Greg Gianforte, who supports transferring control of federal lands to states and famously sued the state of Montana in 2009 to block river access on his property near Bozeman, appointed Walsh to serve on Montana’s Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission — a state regulatory advisory committee that Gianforte stacked with rich industry executives.
Walsh did not respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment.
PERC has distanced itself from some of its own history, previously telling HuffPost that its past support for privatizing federal lands “is not representative of PERC’s current thinking” and that it “firmly believes that public lands should stay in public hands.”
Still, Sheehy’s time at the think tank has become fodder for his political opponents. In a TV ad earlier this month, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee argued that pay-to-play hunting and fishing access is “Montana’s future if Sheehy has his way.”
“He was on the board of an outfit that wanted to privatize public lands, even our national parks, sold off to the highest bidder,” the ad states. “Sheehy’s loaded, he’ll take that deal. What about you?”
A familiar quagmire
As in previous Montana elections, public lands have emerged as a key issue in this year’s contested Senate race — in no small part because Sheehy stepped on the same third rail as Republicans before him.
Take outgoing Montana congressman and unsuccessful Senate candidate Matt Rosendale. While running for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2014, Rosendale called for a state takeover of all Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands within Montana’s borders. By the time Rosendale took aim at Tester’s seat in 2018, Montana voters had forced him to turn tail. During a candidate debate that year, Rosendale acknowledged that “there was a time when I thought they could be better managed by the state,” but said he “talked to people all over the state, and they’ve made it exceedingly clear that they do not want those lands transferred. And I not only understand that, I agree with that.”
Nevertheless, Sheehy waded into the same political quagmire. And in recent months, Montana voters have been bombarded with ads that paint Sheehy as a rich outsider who threatens Montana’s prized federal lands and the Montana way of life. A native of Minnesota, Sheehy moved to Montana in 2014 after retiring from the Navy and founded Bridger Aerospace, a Bozeman-based aerial firefighting company.
As Sheehy works to walk back, or camouflage, his anti-federal land views, the Montana Republican Party — a party he’s seeking a leadership role in — is unabashedly clear.
The Montana GOP party platform, adopted in June, calls for the “granting of federally managed public lands to the state, and development of a transition plan for the timely and orderly transfer.”
It’s a position that poll after poll after poll shows a majority of residents in Montana and other states in the Mountain West oppose, as Sheehy is now learning the hard way.
As he campaigns for a fourth term in the Senate, Tester has touted his record of working to safeguard and expand protections for federal lands while casting Sheehy as part of the wealthy class that is buying up big ranches and locking the public out of surrounding public lands.
“Despite his best efforts to hide his position, transplant Tim Sheehy can’t run away from the fact that he publicly called to transfer Montana’s public lands, which would make it much easier for that land to be sold to out-of-state multimillionaires like him,” said Hannah Rehm, senior communications adviser for the Montana Democratic Party.
Sheehy’s troubles in the public lands arena don’t end with his ties to PERC and his pro-transfer comments. His cattle ranch, the Little Belt Cattle Company, has offered the sort of pay-to-play hunting that Tester says is turning Montana into a “playground” for the rich.
As NBC News reported, Sheehy’s ranch contracted with a private outfitter — which one is unclear — to sell paid hunting excursions and touted itself as a “premier destination for hunters” with “private access to over 500,000 acres of National Forest.” In 2022, the ranch offered a five-day, five-person archery hunt costing $12,500, which the Montana Free Press at the time identified as “the most spendy package currently available in Montana.”
Anderson, the outfitter featured in Sheehy’s ad, did not respond to HuffPost’s question about whether he’s ever guided hunts on Sheehy’s property but told HuffPost that Sheehy “allows hunters to come on his place where the previous owners did not.”
Sheehy’s view of the federal estate aligns with many Republicans in red Western states where the federal government controls large swaths of land: simply, that federal agencies are crappy landlords and local residents know best.
“When you get asked by your fellow hunters and fly fishermen, ‘Oh, I hear Tim’s gonna sell public lands?’, you tell them, ‘Hey, that’s bullshit. He’s not selling any public lands, but what he is saying is us, as the Montanans who live here, when I share a fence line with a [Bureau of Land Management] lease, I should have more say over what happens on the other side of that fence than some guy in New York City who comes and visits to fly fish for a week,’” Sheehy said at a meet-and-greet with voters in Twin Bridges, Montana, last month. “When I have a Forest Service road that goes through my property, and I use that, and I have a lease on that Forest Service, I should have more say of what happens there than some, you know, environmental student in Seattle.”
It’s a way of thinking that casts aside the fact that federal public lands are held in trust for all Americans, not just those most adjacent to them or who have enough money to buy thousands of acres next door. Every American, whether they live 1,000 feet or 1,000 miles from a swath of federal land, has an equal stake.
At the end of the day, Marchion says, Republicans like Sheehy “don’t want to tell you exactly what they want to do” when it comes to public lands. What Sheehy is telling voters now, that he will protect and preserve federal public lands, is “devious” and “deceptive,” he said.
“He’s learned that when he’s attacked for a vulnerability, then he just changes,” Marchion said. “He makes a statement, like, ‘I’m for public lands!’ Bullshit he is.”
“To say ‘I’m for public lands,’ it’s easy to say that,” he added. “How do you prove it?”
MISSOULA — Four out of five members of Montana’s Public Service Commission were in a federal courtroom in Missoula Thursday morning, as the PSC’s former president challenges the disciplinary action taken against him earlier this year. Now, newly released documents are shedding more light on to what led up to this point.
(Watch the video for a closer look at the case.)
New documents shed light Montana PSC dispute
Commissioner Brad Molnar has sued President Jeff Welborn, Vice President Jennifer Fielder and Commissioner Annie Bukacek – the three PSC members who voted in May to require him to work remotely, after an investigation into complaints about his workplace conduct. Molnar has claimed he is being unfairly punished for constitutionally protected speech, and he asked Senior U.S District Judge Donald Molloy to allow him to return to the PSC offices.
Matthew Monforton, Molnar’s attorney, told the judge that barring Molnar from the building was limiting his ability to do his job.
“He has not been officially kicked out of office, but his voice has clearly been diminished,” said Monforton.
But Natasha Jones, an attorney representing the other three commissioners, said the findings were about behavior, not just speech, and that the PSC’s action was a reasonable response.
“These are serious concerns about a pattern of conduct that has made employees quit,” she said.
Jonathon Ambarian
On Tuesday, Molloy ordered the release of redacted versions of two full investigative reports into Molnar’s conduct – more than 100 pages of documents. Monforton had moved for the full reports to be made public, and Molloy ruled attorneys for the other PSC members hadn’t shown a compelling reason to keep the documents under seal as long as the names of people involved in the investigation were obscured.
While the names remained redacted in the investigation reports, the attorneys for Welborn, Fielder and Bukacek also filed additional documents – including a public declaration from Bukacek and from former PSC executive director Alana Lake, providing information about their allegations against Molnar.
The two reports, from an outside investigator, cover Molnar’s alleged actions over two periods: the first from February to August 2025, and the second from August to October 2025. The investigation began after the first formal complaint, filed by Bukacek in May 2025 – though the reports say employees had been bringing up concerns about Molnar’s behavior informally for several months prior.
Bukacek’s complaint claimed Molnar had repeatedly made what she called “sexualized and demeaning comments.” The examples she cited included saying the PSC should replace “Taco Tuesdays” with “Topless Tuesdays,” reminiscing about watching girls in bikinis as a teenager, and commenting about the beauty of women in areas of China who didn’t get “old and wrinkly.”
In her declaration, Bukacek also claimed Molnar had “maliciously disseminated false information” about her and “engaged in behavior that was dismissive, derisive and otherwise abusive.”
“My primary concern now is not for my safety nor my feelings, but for the rest of the staff who may not have the temperament to speak up or may feel too intimidated to speak up given concerns over job security,” Bukacek said in her declaration.
MTN News
The investigators determined Molnar had violated the PSC’s code of conduct by making comments of a sexual nature, and that it appeared his behavior had continued for some time after he was warned about it. They also found he had behaved unprofessionally and in a belittling manner toward Bukacek, though they said Bukacek herself had at times used “language that could be considered inappropriate” in emails to staff or other commissioners. Bukacek told MTN she “readily self corrected” any behaviors that were brought to her attention.
The investigation also found a violation in connection with a complaint from a PSC staff member, who said he “felt bullied” by Molnar when the commissioner sent an email complaining about his team not being “people with competence.”
However, much of the first report and the entire second report was focused on conduct after the initial complaints, when Molnar was accused of retaliating against people who participated in the investigation. Lake said in her declaration that she saw “an immediate and significant change in his behavior toward staff involved in the process.” She claimed he said he would use an attorney and private investigator to go after people who filed complaints, and she accused him of publicly criticizing her in interviews and removing her job responsibilities because of her handling of the investigation.
Lake said Molnar’s actions led to “declining morale within the agency,” undermined staff members’ ability to do their jobs and damaged her reputation. She said that led her to resign as executive director.
“I believe no employee should be forced to choose between reporting misconduct and protecting their career, reputation, or personal well-being,” she said in her declaration.
Lake has since become Helena city manager.
Jonathon Ambarian
The report said there was evidence to show Molnar had retaliated, including by “making disparaging statements about investigation participants” including Lake, by sending an email warning he could file complaints of his own against people involved, and by taking other actions investigators said could dissuade employees from reporting behavior in the future.
Monforton said during Thursday’s hearing that the initial comments Bukacek complained about were jokes Molnar had admitted were inappropriate, that he regretted saying them, and that he hasn’t made any similar comments in about a year. But he argued the vast majority of the findings against Molnar were about retaliation – and that those were primarily based on speech that the other commissioners don’t have the right to interfere with.
Monforton said it’s unreasonable to punish Molnar for what he said in the July news conference where he announced he was under investigation, in interviews with the media or in commission meetings. He said Molnar’s conduct doesn’t rise to the level of actual retaliation.
“This is an elected official, engaging in speech in his forum,” Monforton said.
He said Molnar may have made harsh comments toward staff, but that he had the right to raise objections about the way the agency does business.
Jonathon Ambarian
Monforton also argued the retaliation claims no longer justify keeping Molnar out of the office, since Welborn, Fielder and Bukacek voted to remove him as president in October and he no longer has the authority he’s accused of misusing. He said there haven’t been further complaints about his behavior since that time.
“We’re not asking for the moon and stars, we’re asking for the status quo as it existed for the last seven months,” he said.
Jones said there is enough evidence to show Molnar would have been punished regardless of whether any protected speech was excluded.
“This is not about a couple of jokes,” she said.
Jones said Molnar made maliciously false statements about people like Lake, and that type of statement isn’t covered by free speech protections.
She also said Molnar’s exclusion from the PSC offices is temporary, and that the PSC will reconsider whether to let him return if he apologizes for his actions, accepts the agency’s code of conduct and undergoes training.
Molloy indicated he saw indications that there was “acrimony” on both sides of the situation, and said he was skeptical it would be resolved easily.
“It would be nice if instead of juvenile behavior, there was professional behavior,” he said.
However, the judge said there was an avenue for Molnar to pursue if he wanted to reach a resolution.
Molloy took no immediate action Thursday. He told the parties he would rule as quickly as he could.
Carrie Gilbertson has been executive director of Cancer Support Community Montana for just under two months, stepping into the role in April with more than 15 years of nonprofit experience and a lifetime of Montana roots.
The organization provides psychosocial and mental health support to anyone affected by cancer — not just those with a diagnosis, but also family members and others walking alongside them.
WATCH: Meet the new leader of Cancer Support Community Montana 🎗️
Cancer Support Community Montana names new executive director
“This mission of providing psycho-social supports and mental health supports for anyone impacted by cancer, not just that person who has the diagnosis, but also family members, anyone who is walking alongside someone as they experience that often scary diagnosis, that’s just something that’s important to me,” Gilbertson said.
Gilbertson’s role extends beyond the Bozeman office. Cancer Support Community Montana’s Missoula location is already up and running, and a Helena location is expected to be operating soon. Each presents its own set of challenges.
“Each hospital is different. They might have different resources. Their social workers might be connecting to things in a different way. So understanding what those hospitals need, what different participants need in each community, is going to be different just because the communities are different, resources are different,” Gilbertson said.
The Bozeman office has been operating for more than 20 years, providing a foundation that supports the organization’s broader statewide efforts.
“I think this is a crew that looks at what does this community need what do our participants need what are some of the changing landscapes in cancer care what things are the gaps that we see that we can maybe just jump right in and you know let’s see if we can provide that for people so that’s something I really love about this crew that I work with and just this mission that there is some flexibility in being able to adjust and adapt as we learn more,” Gilbertson said.
Those adaptations show up in unexpected ways. The organization converts its parking lot into a pickleball court every Friday morning.
“I didn’t know there was a pickleball court. I pulled in actually with my daughter pulled in and she was is that pickleball court and I was like oh, it kind of looks like it is so yeah that’s fun, every Friday morning we clear out the parking lot and put up the net and I haven’t played yet I’ve been watching just to kind of see how that game works but they take it pretty seriously,” Gilbertson said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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