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Millions already spent in highly watched Montana U.S. Senate race

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Millions already spent in highly watched Montana U.S. Senate race


HELENA — Federal candidates’ official campaign finance reports for the last three months are now posted, giving more details about the financial picture in Montana’s U.S. Senate race.

The general election for Democratic Sen. Jon Tester’s seat is just over a year away, in November 2024.

The one Republican challenger to file a report for the third quarter of the year is Gallatin County businessman and Navy veteran Tim Sheehy. His campaign reported raising almost $2.9 million during that period. That includes a $500,000 loan Sheehy made to his campaign and roughly $150,000 in other personal contributions he made – mostly for “testing the waters” expenses before he officially filed his campaign.

“Thanks to the outpouring of support from grassroots conservatives, we’re in a strong position to win and finally beat Jon Tester in 2024,” Sheehy said in a statement. “Our campaign is growing stronger every day, and it’s clear the people of Montana want a new generation of conservative leadership to represent them in Washington. Together, we’re going to finally retire Jon Tester, take back the Senate, and save our country.”

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Sheehy has already been advertising extensively, and his campaign announced another round of TV and digital ads on Thursday. His latest financial report shows that, in July, August and September, the campaign spent more than $1.7 million – including more than $820,000 on “media placement and production,” and another $85,000 on digital advertising and website hosting.

Meanwhile, as speculation continues that U.S. Rep. Matt Rosendale will seek the Republican nomination for Senate, he filed a third-quarter report for his House campaign committee. The campaign reported raising more than $247,000 during that period and spending just over $128,000. While he raised significantly less than Sheehy over those three months, he ended September with more cash on hand – $1.7 million compared to Sheehy’s $1.1 million.

Rosendale still hasn’t made a formal announcement about his plans for 2024. However, another candidate is also entering the Republican field. Former Montana Secretary of State and Public Service Commissioner Brad Johnson announced this week that he’s running for Senate. He told MTN Thursday that he believed the Biden administration had taken the country off course and it was now an “all-hands-on-deck moment.”

“I’m doing this because I think there is a very real need for Montana to be represented by a senator who knows the state, who knows the issues, who has a solid conservative record,” he told MTN Thursday. ‘I can hit the ground running when I go back there. And I am absolutely confident that I can beat Jon Tester in a general election in Montana.”

Johnson said he decided to enter the race because it was important for the Republican Party to nominate a candidate who can win. He said he had respect for Sheehy’s service, but that Montana voters have no way of knowing what kind of candidate or senator Sheehy would be. He said he considered Rosendale a friend and a good congressman, but that he thought it was a bad idea to renominate someone who lost to Tester in the 2018 Senate election.

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“I fully expect to be outspent in this primary election, but I’ve been outspent before,” he said. “If you look back, I’ve done very well in hotly contested Republican primaries, and I have every reason to believe we will be successful in this one.”

Johnson was elected Secretary of State in 2004 and narrowly lost reelection in 2008. In 2014, he was elected to the Public Service Commission, where he served from 2015 through the start of 2023.

One other Republican has decided not to stay in the race for U.S. Senate. Jeremy Mygland, who owns a construction business in the Helena Valley, filed with the Federal Election Commission in July 2022, but announced last week that he would instead run for the Montana Senate. In his statement, he praised Rosendale and encouraged him to enter the race to challenge Tester.

As the Republican race continues to take shape, Tester’s reelection campaign raised just over $5 million in the third quarter. They spent more than $2.5 million, which included more than $1 million on digital media, more than $550,000 for direct mail and more than $100,000 for text messaging. Tester’s campaign still had more than $13 million in cash on hand at the end of September.





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Montana Department of Transportation hiring snow plow drivers ahead of winter

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Montana Department of Transportation hiring snow plow drivers ahead of winter


HELENA — Whether you like it or not, we are supposed to get snow this week, and the Montana Department of Transportation is looking for snowplow drivers to help keep roads clear over Montana’s winter months.

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“When you’re having a bad day in the wintertime, looking at these trucks, they’re a savior. That’s what you want to see on the road, and they’re out there doing it,” said Doug McBroom, maintenance operations manager for the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT).



There are roughly 600 plow trucks statewide, which are turned into dump trucks or maintenance vehicles during summer months.

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Previous experience is not required, but applicants must be 18 years of age or older and have or are working to get a commercial license.

MDT plows between 3 to 4 million miles of roadways each year.

Mcbroom said, “If you think about it, it’s enough to go to and from the moon, I think, six or seven times.”

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The positions are temporary, typically November through April, so MDT says many of their hires are construction workers.



If hired, the employee must live or relocate within 45 miles of the work headquarters and have a phone or be reasonably accessible to headquarters to ensure they can quickly reach an emergency location.

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“They have a family too, and they want to make sure it’s safe for their family. They plow the roads as if their kids are driving the roads, which is incredible.”

MDT hopes to hire between 100 and 200 drivers by the end of November, and you can find where to apply here.

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The gunshot story from Montana’s Tim Sheehy gets even more ‘confusing’

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The gunshot story from Montana’s Tim Sheehy gets even more ‘confusing’


Control of the U.S. Senate might very well come down to the race in Montana, where Sen. Jon Tester is facing a tough challenge from Republican Tim Sheehy. The bad news for the Democratic incumbent is that recent polling leaves little doubt that he’s the underdog, but the good news for Tester is that the GOP has nominated a rival with an unfortunate record.

As regular readers know, Sheehy, for example, has used racist rhetoric when talking about Native Americans — which is indefensible under any circumstances, and which is especially foolish in a state with a sizable Native population. He has also accused women who support abortion rights of having been “indoctrinated.” Sheehy has also been accused of plagiarism, doctoring footage in a campaign commercial, disparaging firefighters, flubbing the basics of the impeachment process, having a controversial lobbying background, and exaggerating his successes in the private sector.

In case that weren’t quite enough, the candidate wrote in his book that he was discharged from the military for medical reasons, but NBC News reported last month that the discharge paperwork indicates that he resigned voluntarily and it does not list any medical condition that forced him out.

But most important is the question of how and when Sheehy was shot. NBC News reported over the weekend:

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Montana’s Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy struggled in a new interview to give a clear explanation about the circumstances surrounding a 2015 incident in a national park that led to his treatment for a gunshot wound and receipt of a fine. In the interview with radio host and former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, which was posted online Thursday, Sheehy left Kelly confused, and she warned him that the voters in Montana were unclear about what happened.

The conservative host told the Senate hopeful that his version of events is “so confusing,” and it was a rare instance in which I found myself in agreement with Kelly.

Let’s circle back to our recent coverage and review how we arrived at this point.

The Republican candidate, a retired Navy SEAL, has told Montana voters that he has a bullet stuck in his right forearm “from Afghanistan.” It’s the sort of claim that signals to the public that Sheehy wants to be seen as tough, while simultaneously reminding people about his military service.

And while it certainly appears that there’s a bullet lodged in Sheehy’s right forearm, there’s reason to be skeptical about how it got there.

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The Washington Post reported back in April that Sheehy visited Montana’s Glacier National Park in 2015, at which point he told a National Park Service ranger that he accidentally shot himself when his Colt .45 revolver fell and discharged while he was loading his vehicle in the park. Soon after, the Post’s article added, a ranger cited Sheehy for allegedly discharging his weapon in a national park illegally, relying on the Republican’s version of events, and the relevant reports were filed.

More recently, however, Sheehy told the Post that he lied to the National Park Service ranger and that he was actually shot while serving in Afghanistan.

The ranger who interacted with the future Senate candidate, Kim Peach, isn’t buying it. In fact, Peach told The New York Times that he remembers seeing Sheehy at the hospital in 2015 “with a bandage on his arm,” presumably because he’d just accidentally shot himself.

The article added, “Because it is illegal to discharge a firearm in a national park, Mr. Peach said, he and Mr. Sheehy went out to Mr. Sheehy’s vehicle, where Mr. Peach temporarily confiscated the gun and unloaded it, finding five live rounds and the casing of one that had been fired.”

The Times also spoke with one of Sheehy’s former SEAL colleagues, Dave Madden, who recalled swapping war stories with the Montanan about their experiences, and Sheehy never said anything about having been shot.

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“Mr. Madden said he was surprised when Mr. Sheehy began talking more recently about having been shot that spring in Afghanistan, and that he became convinced that Mr. Sheehy had invented the story,” the article added.

The question isn’t whether Sheehy lied. The question is when and to whom he lied.

To be sure, the GOP candidate remains adamant that he was shot in Afghanistan and lied about the park incident to protect his former platoonmates from facing a potential investigation.

As Sheehy has explained it, he believed that if he’d told the truth in 2015, it might’ve been reported to the Navy, prompting questions about whether the wound was the result of friendly fire or from enemy ammunition. But the Post reported that it would’ve been “highly unlikely that a civilian hospital would report a years-old bullet wound to the Navy.”

In theory, the candidate could release the relevant medical records and put the matter to rest. In practice, Sheehy now says there are no such medical records.

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No wonder Kelly found all of this “so confusing.”

As for the significance of this, Sheehy doesn’t have much of a record to fall back on, so if he lied about getting shot in Afghanistan, it does dramatic harm to one of the key pillars of his entire candidacy. Watch this space.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.



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Good Morning, Montana (Monday, November 4, 2024)

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Good Morning, Montana (Monday, November 4, 2024)


Wishing everyone a good day! Here are some things to know for today:

WEATHER: Increasing clouds. Wind will increase throughout the morning, with gusts of 40-50mph across north central Montana this afternoon and evening. Scattered rain and snow showers during the evening. High temps in the upper 40 and low to mid 50s.

Suspect shot after stabbing a police officer in Helena. Click here.

Great Falls tattoo shop faces backlash. Click here.

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New law requires Montana counties to tally votes throughout the night. Click here.

COMING UP:
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 8: A fundraiser to benefit the Miller family as they navigate the diagnosis of a brain tumor in their youngest, little Ms. Jewel Miller. Event runs from 5pm to 8pm at the Highwood Community Hall. There will be music by The Lucky Valentines, food and fun, as well as a live and silent auction. Dinner served at 5-6. Auction from 6-7 with live music to follow. For more information, call Jenna Baum at 406-733-6062.

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 8: There will be free Developmental Health Screenings for Children (birth – age 5) at the Children’s Museum of Montana (22 Railroad Square) in Great Falls. Event is from 9am to 1pm. Developmental Screeners, Hearing Checks, Dental Health Checks, Vision Checks, and more. Sponsored by Benchmark Human Services, Great Falls Public Schools, Montana School for the Deaf & Blind, Alluvion Dental, Lions Club. To reserve a spot, call 406-268-6400; walk-ins are also welcome. For more information, call Barb Walden at 406-403-0087.

Here is today’s joke of the day! Share with your friends: Why did the strawberry cry? He found himself in a jam!

Email your best joke to montanathismorning@krtv.com

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For Behind The Scenes, Follow Montana This Morning on Instagram – click here!

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