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Sheriff Tells Democrat to Stop Filming Rehberg

By Beacon Staff

HELENA – Democrats said Monday the Garfield County sheriff wrongly ousted from his café a cameraman the party pays to track Republican U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg.

The episode took place at a Rehberg listening session in Jordan that was advertised as open to the public.

Rehberg is challenging Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester in a heated race where both sides watch each other closely. Both Tester and Rehberg are accustomed to the opposition filming their public events.

Still, Sheriff Frank Edwards said the Democrat should have asked permission to set up a camera at the café. Edwards said no one told him whether the congressman’s event was to be public.

The sheriff, who was wearing his uniform at the time, said he told the Democrat to pack up his camera gear in his capacity as operator of the Edwards Hilltop Café.

“He wasn’t kicked out. I just didn’t want the cameras set up there,” Edwards said in a telephone interview.

Montana Democratic Party spokesman Chris Saeger said the tracker believed he was being asked to leave.

Rehberg spokesman Erik Iverson said the congressman was unaware of the conflict and would not have asked the Democrat to leave.

“If Denny had been asked about it, Denny would have recommended to the owner that the political operative be allowed to stay,” said Rehberg spokesman Erik Iverson.

Iverson pointed out that Democrats have been filming Rehberg over most of his nearly 100 listening sessions during the past several years, and at no time have camera operators been asked to leave.

Later in the day, a Rehberg listening session in Circle was filmed without incident.

In an audio recording provided by the Montana Democratic Party, the sheriff first asks the cameraman if he was with Rehberg then tells the person to pack up his equipment.

“If these meetings are supposed to be public, then Montanans expect public accountability and transparency,” Seager said.

Saeger said the party believes Rehberg was aware the cameraman was asked to leave because the event was taking place in a small room and a Rehberg staffer shut a partition on the cameraman as he left.