Tester Carries Montana Good Government Values, Rosendale Not so Much

Montana has a long history ­­with special interests trying to buy elections.

In the 19th century, the Copper Kings used their fortunes to influence Montana politics. They poured so much money in that local lawmakers early in the 20th century banned donations from corporations.

In that proud tradition, just a few years ago, the Montana legislature passed the Montana DISCLOSE Act. It requires secret ‘dark’ money groups to disclose their political spending and donors. The legislation had widespread, bipartisan support, including from Attorney General Tim Fox, who praised the bill as a victory for campaign spending transparency. One of the outliers who voted against the bill?

Matt Rosendale.

That’s no surprise. Matt Rosendale has no desire to change the system. Take a look at his record.

In an end run around campaign finance laws, Rosendale took tens of thousands of dollars for an old account from donors who had already given the maximum contribution. He then cut himself a check with that money, and loaned it back to his current campaign. Experts called it deceptive and likened it to a money laundering scheme.

In a separate case, he flat out took campaign donations above the legal limit, prompting and FEC complaint from End Citizens United. And when Rosendale seemingly admitted that he illegally coordinated with the NRA, yet another group filed an FEC complaint requesting an investigation.

Rosendale cozies up with his big donors and leaves Montanans to pay the price. He took thousands of dollars from insurance companies and pushed junk policies as insurance commissioner.

He dropped charges against a company whose executives had contributed to his campaign, even though it’s his job to regulate them.

Then there’s his actual voting record.

He voted against the bipartisan TRACE Act, which would have increased transparency for dark money groups spending in Montana’s elections.

He said the Citizens United decision was a “positive,” and voted against a resolution condemning it. He also committed to opposing a constitutional amendment overturning the decision.

Finally, he’s voted against bipartisan legislation like the DISCLOSE Act to combat dark money by requiring a disclaimer on campaign materials funded by anonymous sources. With so many groups operating in the shadows, his record just doesn’t make sense for Montanans.

But it does for Matt Rosendale.

Rosendale is being propped up by big money special interests — the Koch Brothers, Citizens United, mega-donor Richard Uihlein, and more. That’s where he’s getting his support. And they are trying to make Rosendale seem like a Montanan to get him elected so he’ll work for them.

Montana decided a long time ago that this is not the Montana way.

But while Rosendale doesn’t believe there’s too much money in politics, Jon Tester has been fighting since day one for more transparency.

Jon knows sunlight is the best disinfectant and continues to fight for more transparency and reforms in Washington.

He voted for the DISCLOSE Act at the federal level.

He passed a bill that President Trump just signed into law requiring candidates for Senate to file their FEC reports electronically. This not only saves the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, but it also increases transparency.

He recently introduced legislation to overturn a decision by the Treasury Department that allows certain political nonprofits to hide their donors.

And Tester is a cosponsor of a Constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United decision, standing up to say that corporations are not people, and that we shouldn’t have unlimited and essentially unregulated spending from corporations in our elections.

To be clear — Matt Rosendale is endorsed by Citizens United, the group that paved the way for more money in politics. Jon Tester is endorsed by End Citizens United, our group working to reverse the Supreme Court decision which unleashed a flood of unlimited money into our elections.

The track records are clear. There is only one person in this race who is fighting for campaign finance reform, and his name is Jon Tester.