As early voting kicks off in Montana this week, national Democrats are holding back from heavy investments in the state’s May 25 special House election, believing Democratic candidate Rob Quist still has a steep hill to climb to win a state that voted heavily for President Donald Trump just months ago.
[...] Republican outside groups hoping to avoid surprises are spending $2 million on TV ads savaging Quist, while Donald Trump Jr. recently stumped with Gianforte.
Along with his heady online fundraising, Quist will get a campaign assist from Bernie Sanders sometime in the next month. And the DCCC sent just under $200,000 to the state Democratic Party to help out. A DCCC aide said that the committee is “working with the Quist campaign and watching it closely. We’re excited about the energy and it’s possible we’ll invest more.”
But the House Democratic committee, which recently went on the air in Georgia, is not airing TV ads pushing back against the barrage of spots from the NRCC and Congressional Leadership Fund. Overall, GOP groups have already spent over $2.2 million attacking Quist, according to campaign finance disclosures.
“They’re doing what they can to get him in a position to where he can win, but until they see data that assures them that he can win and that the investment is worthwhile, you don’t spend that much money until you’re sure it pays off,” said Jesse Ferguson, who directed the DCCC’s independent expenditure unit in 2014.
Despite past Democratic successes in Montana by the likes of Gov. Steve Bullock and Sen. Jon Tester, some Democrats are concerned that Quist will simply hit a ceiling.
Telling Berniecrats to go it alone in Montana, and good luck, is telling Berniecrats they're not wanted, that perhaps the beltway entrenched inner party base feels a few alienated Berniecrats in affluent suburban Georgia seeing abandonment in Montana and put off is okay, and taht Ossoff will be without any measure of fallout harm? Big tent for big money? It got Trump elected, the Dem inner party dumping on Bernie's mass appeal yet expecting sheep-like adherence to what the money told them to do last November; the tepid-to-hostile feelings that engendered re the artificial Clinton-Kaine Podesta/Bubba managed ticket.
That "data that he can win" business; polling is all idiots know, and Clinton's polls said she'd win. End of that story. The fact is the inner party money loving DC base hung Thompson out to dry in Kansas, and appear so inclined in Montana. This is worrisome after the Kieth Ellison ambush, and such. Joe Biden will have problems besides age, in 2020.
_____________UPDATE_____________
New York mega-wealthy Trump Jr. in Montana to beat Gianforte's drum; reporting from Billings:
By MIKE KORDENBROCK mkordenbrock@billingsgazette.com Apr 21, 2017
By the time 7:30 rolled around on a rainy, overcast evening in Billings, about 50 protesters had split up along either side of Mullowney Lane in front of the Red Lion Hotel and Convention Center for a protest timed with the arrival of Donald Trump Jr. in Billings to campaign for Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives Greg Gianforte.
[...] For Billings resident Kirk Blee, the presence of the younger Trump, who helps manage the Trump Organization business with his brother Eric Trump, represented what he sees as abuse of the United States government by the Trump family in order to advance themselves financially.
"His daughter's making money off of this, he's making money off of this, his kids are making money off of this," Blee said. "He's just robbing the country blind. I don't really have much against Gianforte but he's aligning himself with a monster. It's disgusting. I can't believe this is happening in America."
Blee, a local property manager, said he views himself politically as an independent. Wearing a yellow rain jacket and holding a sign reading "Gianforte and Trump Make America Great Again=Billions In Tax Cuts For Them And Slogans And Ads for You," Blee said he had "not really" protested anything before.
Millionaires sticking together is not news. Ordinary people seeing nothing worthwhile to it, that is good news. Perhaps even watershed news; if it holds through 2018 and into the end of 2020.
___________FURTHER UPDATE____________
Hopefully, the women reported in protest, here, will remember not only to vote by May 25, but the each tell ten friends. Noted then:
Signs at the rally included [...] "Grab them by the ballot"
At a guess, Trump Jr. leaving Trump Tower in Manhattan to dink around in Montana has added inspiration to women nationwide to contribute to the Quist campaign, by check or by ActBlue. At least that's the hope. Blowback to Gianforte should happen, for hitching to Trump instead of running on his own merit, whatever that may be.
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This Quist contributions page.
Checks can be mailed:
Rob Quist Congressional Campaign
PO Box 1917 Kalispell, MT 59903
Every dollar helps.
Remember: You don't need credit for helping. What you need is a better Congress.
______________FURTHER UPDATE________________
Early April HuffPo reporting, here, followed up by no helpful talk, no action, from DCCC. Money management by DCCC is a worry; a ton of donor cash has been put into the Ossoff effort in Georgia; leading to a special election set to happen after Rob Quist's fate in Montana has been measured; May 25. HuffPo sure reported something you'd expect, from reading the account, to be fully ripe for national party money to help; but DC is MIA. Go figure. Is it a Bernie freeze-out inclination? Is there any better explanation? Is the Party face going to look attractive with the nose cut off, in spite?