Republican legislative candidates in two closely fought Flathead districts lambasted the Montana Democratic Party Wednesday for funding attack advertisements and mailers they say are misleading and deceptive.
Derek Skees, the Republican candidate for Whitefish’s House District 4, and Steve Lavin, the Republican candidate in the three-way race for Kalispell’s House District 8, pointed to recently disclosed campaign finance reports showing the Montana Democratic Party paid $49,384 to a political action committee (PAC) called the Democratic Legislators Alumni Association, the treasurer of which is David Gallik.
The Democratic Legislators Alumni Association in turn gave $9,000 to Whitefish-based North Valley PAC Sept. 13, and $15,000 to Bozeman-based Values Energy & Growth (VEG) PAC. A mailer recently circulated in Kalispell, paid for by VEG-PAC, in support of Bill Jones, the Independent candidate, calling him the “real conservative” in the race.
Lavin called the mailing an attempt by Democrats to split the Republican vote with the goal of helping the Democratic candidate, Bryan Schutt.
“What they’re trying to do is shameful and disrespects the voters,” Lavin said. “It seems really dishonest to the citizens to me and I think it’s wrong.”
Lavin added that he is more fiscally conservative than Jones and just as opposed to abortion.
Skees pointed to the campaign filings as evidence Democrats, through the North Valley PAC, paid for a controversial ad that ran in the Beacon Sept. 29 implying he was racist and tying him to anti-Semites.
“This is a brutal ad, and if it was paid for by the Democrats it just needs to be said,” Skees explained, adding that he planned to file a complaint with the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices. Lavin said he did not anticipate filing a complaint.
Jones, meanwhile, is considering filing his own complaint with the Political Practices office over a flier distributed to homes in Kalispell Oct. 25 signed by Craig Witte, the former Republican representative for H.D. 8, which attempts to counter the VEG-PAC mailer by emphasizing Lavin’s conservative credentials and calling Jones liberal on spending issues.
Jones also took out an ad in the Oct. 27 Daily Inter Lake distancing himself from Witte’s mailer, which he said he had nothing to do with.
“We should ignore all last-minute PAC activities,” Jones said, “except things that come directly from the candidate in the candidate’s own words.”
Schutt said he was not aware of where the PAC money was coming from, and that he has kept his campaign positive.
“Personally, it’s not the way I want to campaign, but I have no control over it,” Schutt said. “This is unfortunately the system we’ve got.”
Will Hammerquist, Skees’ Democratic opponent in H.D. 4, said PACs are “a problem” and noted he has raised campaign funds without taking any from PACs. Hammerquist said he returned a $100-donation from the Democratic Legislators Alumni Association.
“I think PACs should stand by their name and not move money between themselves,” Hammerquist said. “We do need to fix the laws and tighten things up.”
He added, however, “I think it goes both ways.”
Hammerquist has been the target of so-called “push poll” calls to voters’ homes and negative advertising paid for by PACs tied to local business groups.
The races for H.D. 4 and H.D. 8 are among the toughest in the state, with majority control of the House potentially hanging in the balance. Over the weekend, the Billings Gazette reported on VEG-PAC’s spending on attack ads in the rough contest for Senate District 25, and the Democratic Party’s funding to VEG-PAC, through the Democratic Legislators Alumni Association.
Reached in Helena, Martin Kidston, spokesman for the state Democratic Party, said, “We’re not doing anything that the Republican Party hasn’t done as well.”
“Yes, we did give money to Dave Gallik’s PAC in hopes he would use that money to elect Democrats; how he spent that money is up to him,” Kidston added. “It’s a shell game this time of year, but it’s the nature of politics, I guess.”