Montana
Recapping Montana's Western Congressional Candidate Forum
The general election is a little more than three weeks away, including the race for Montana’s Western Congressional seat. Incumbent Republican Ryan Zinke and Democrat Monica Tranel are once again on the ballot and faced off in a forum in Helena on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024.
The 30-minute forum, moderated by MTN Senior Political Reporter Jonathon Ambarian, gave each candidate one minute to respond to a series of questions and 30 seconds to respond to the answers. Right off the top, housing costs took center stage, which has been a campaign issue for Monica Tranel.
Tranel: “He is profiting off of our pain. He is operating two Airbnb’s in Whitefish, charging us $26,000 a month. Anyone can go online and rent those Airbnb’s now, today. This is exploiting an issue that we need to have fixed for personal enrichment and we need a change; we need different.”
Zinke: “She entered our property and filmed and jumped on our bed—by the way, who does that? Now she films in our backyard, on our street and you know what? My family no longer feels safe—my wife, my daughter, we don’t feel safe in our home because Monica Tranel finds it necessary to violate our property.”
WATCH THE FULL TRANEL/ZINKE CANDIDATE FORUM:
Montana’s Western Congressional Candidate Forum
The most heated exchange came on rebuttal to a question to Rep. Zinke about abortion in Montana.
Tranel: “You voted to make mifepristone illegal to people in the National Guard, so Montanans who are in the National Guard can’t get that drug that is legal here in Montana. Let’s be totally clear—you have voted for the most extreme restrictions every chance you get.”
Zinke: “It’s my response, Monica, but I think we both would agree we should focus on birth control. We should focus on education, we should focus on—I do believe in birth control, why? To get ahead of the problem. But look, Montana is not, is too harsh to restrict it up front, meaning that we should have exceptions, absolutely. But the ‘support abortion moments before birth’ on health or privacy is simply not Montana.”
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Other questions ranged from tax cuts to the timber business. In closing, both hit hard on their campaign themes.
Zinke: “There’s also the border; we see fentanyl, sex trafficking, child trafficking in every city across Montana. That’s because Harris, Biden, and believe me she’s support the same thing, is we don’t have a border, we need a border.”
Tranel: “It’s the most acute issue. Driving out of Bozeman you see people living in campers lining the streets, our sheriff deputies in Flathead County are living in campers. I have developed a plan that I formed with your input, talking wth you private and public partnerships.”
Libertarian candidate Dennis Hayes was not part of this forum, but visit here to see his full profile by Jonathon Ambarian.
HELENA, Mont. — Montana counties have accepted enough signatures for Seth Bodnar, running for U.S. Senate and Michael Eisenhauer, running in Montana’s 2nd Congressional District, to be on the November ballot, although counts are still unofficial.
County election officials are continuing to verify signatures submitted by Tuesday’s deadline as part of the candidate petition process.
The Montana Secretary of State’s Office has not yet verified, certified or accepted the petitions, according to the Secretary of State’s office.
Counties must submit candidate petitions to the Secretary of State’s office by June 1.
The Secretary of State’s office will then conduct its “statutory review to ensure the petitions meet the necessary legal requirements under law.”
The deadline for the November general election ballot to be certified is Thursday, Aug. 20. By then, all qualifying candidates and any potential ballot issues that qualify for the general election will be officially certified.
The following was out by the Montana Secretary of State’s Office:
The attached report is unofficial. It includes totals that the county election officials have processed and entered in the system. These totals do not represent what the Secretary of State’s Office has received, reviewed, tabulated, or certified. The certified totals may differ from what is reflected.
Seth Bodnar, U.S. Senate
- 13,327 required
- 18,772 accepted
- 7,812 rejected
Kimberly Persico, MT-01
- 6,742 required
- 563 accepted
- 156 rejected
Michael Eisenhauer, MT-02
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- 7,274 required
- 7,754 accepted
- 4,720 rejected
Severe storms moved through parts of Montana on Thursday, prompting a total of 5 Severe Thunderstorm Warnings. Reports included strong wind gusts and hail in several communities, including Augusta, Choteau, Sunburst, Bigfork, Kalispell and Evergreen.
The strongest reported wind gust was 60 mph near Augusta, while hail up to 1 inch was reported near Evergreen and Kalispell.
STORM REPORTS:
12 SE Grant — 56 mph thunderstorm wind gust
7 NNE Augusta — 60 mph thunderstorm wind gust
5 ENE Choteau — 59 mph thunderstorm wind gust
Sunburst — 54 mph thunderstorm wind gust
Ennis — 59 mph thunderstorm wind gust
3 SSW Ennis — 52 mph thunderstorm wind gust
2 E Helena — 54 mph thunderstorm wind gust
19 E Swan Lake — 56 mph thunderstorm wind gust
2 NNW Yaak — thunderstorm wind damage – Multiple downed trees reported along Highway 2 between MM 3 and 8
3 WSW Blacktail — 53 mph thunderstorm wind gust
1 NNW Troy — 49 mph thunderstorm wind gust
5 ENE Choteau — 56 mph thunderstorm wind gust
Turah — 0.88″ hail
1 NNW Bigfork — 0.75″ hail
3 SW La Salle — 0.50″ hail
2 N Evergreen — 1.00″ hail
1 W Kalispell — 1.00″ hail
3 WNW Kalispell — 0.75″ hail
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LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — A man from Las Vegas has been sentenced after stealing coins and precious metals from a Helena shop in Montana.
This comes after Bishop Lott, 47, pleaded guilty in January to one count of interstate transportation of stolen property.
A judge sentenced Lott on Thursday to 27 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $276,153.08 in restitution to the Helena business as well as five other theft victims.
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The government alleged in court documents that Lott, along with Ricky Rynell Rose, broke into Wayne Miller Coins in Helena and stole nearly $59,000 in coins and precious metals from a Helena business.
Rose pleaded guilty last year and was sentenced to 39 months in prison.
The Helena Police Department received a call on March 3, 2024, reporting that Wayne Miller Coins had been burglarized earlier that day.
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As part of their investigation, Helena police officers reviewed surveillance footage from multiple businesses. They analyzed email account data, which led them to Lott and Rose, who had taken the stolen material to Nevada.
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