Raw Story also asks how to figure the donor-call/voter assurances gulf, in terms of whether casting a doubt on all other earlier things the candidate said or promised, the item stating in part:
Health insurance coverage could be a deciding issue for a large number of voters. A recent analysis by the Montana Budget and Policy Center predicts 142,000 Montanans could lose health insurance upon repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
Quist, Gianforte’s opponent in the special election, has received a flood of donations by seizing upon health care repeal and contrasting it with his own strong support for single payer health care reform.
[...] “Rob Quist is the only person in this race who understands that we need a government in Washington that works for all Montanans and all Americans and not just the special interests and the billionaire class,” Sen. Sanders said in a statement announcing he would be campaigning for Quist. Our Revolution, the organization Sanders founded following his presidential bid, is raising money online for Quist.
It appears that "works for all Montanans and all Americans" recognition is why money is being contributed nationwide by Americans all over who know what's in their interest and what's harmful to their families' and their neighbors' future. Contributions reported by Quist as averaging $40, per. Compare that forty-buck average with Gianforte's conference call to the big plungers where NY Times reported, "Asking the lobbyists to give $5,000 each by Friday to 'scare off some other Democrat money,' Mr. Gianforte acknowledged that Mr. Quist had far wider support." And if elected, the man will stand up to those donors if Montanan interests conflict? Biting the hands that feed five-grand a pop?
Get real. Montanans ride in the back seat. Gianforte does not even drive the car. The five-granders do.
Raw Story in its reporting continued:
The Montana Democratic Party said it was a question of trustworthiness, “New Jersey multimillionaire and failed gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte is struggling to explain why he purposefully misled Montanans about his support for the disastrous health care bill.”
[...] “After refusing to say how he would have voted on the disastrous D.C. health care bill, it turns out Greg Gianforte was saying something different to the special-interest lobbyists bankrolling his campaign,” stated Rob Quist. “We need an independent voice in Congress who will stand up to the special interests, not a dishonest politician who says one thing to Montanans and another to the millionaires behind closed doors.”
[...] “The very same day he told Montana voters that he just wasn’t sure how he would have voted on ACA repeal, he told a well-heeled group of D.C. lobbyists that we should celebrate its repeal,” wrote Don Pogreba, a Helena educator who analyzes Montana politics. “That’s the kind of D.C. positioning that will kill a candidate in Montana.”
During the call, Montana Senator Steve Daines announced that Vice President Mike Pence would travel out west to help defend the Republican seat, campaigning with Gianforte at MetraPark Pavilion in Billings this Friday night.
[links and bolding are from the original]
Well, folks in Billings should be prepared to ask Mike Pence if ever in his own political campaigning for any office, has he told voters one thing and then talked out the other side of his mouth to donors, and what does he think of any politician who'd do that? Ask him, did he get to be Vice President by being duplicitous, or was it always what you see is what you get, be you a donor or a voter the Pence rule is bedrock consistency, or has it been less?
Indeed, those would be questions the Montana press should show up and ask. How Mike Pence might respond would be something for the press then to report. Is a donor-voter mendacious straddle, in Pence's experience, what the Republican Party is all about?
_____________UPDATE______________
For Conference Call Greg:
