Out-Of-State Group Dumps Cash into Montana to Prop Up Lobbyist Ally and Dark Money-Backed Candidate Matt Rosendale

Billings—Last week, Matt Rosendale called in his out-of-state, Koch Brothers-backed rescue team, Club For Growth, to flood Montana’s airwaves with yet another new misleading advertisement. And it’s no wonder Rosendale wants to cover up his record of voting in lockstep with the outside groups propping up his campaign—his record shows that he’s out for himself.

Rosendale has regularly given lobbyists his ear as an elected official. As state auditor, he hired an insurance industry lobbyist to help run his office—and rubbed elbows with insurance lobbyists on junkets around the country paid for by an out-of-state group. And as a state legislator, he voted to bring back “special accounts” that would have allowed him to fundraise from lobbyists for his travel expenses.

It also appears that cutting a campaign check to Matt Rosendale can go a long way. After short-term health insurance executives gave Rosendale $16,000, he pushed for the expansion of short-term health insurance plans in Montana. And in his capacity as state auditor, Rosendale dropped fines and dismissed charges against a company whose representatives had donated nearly $13,000 to his campaigns.

But while Rosendale has been cozying up to lobbyists, Jon Tester has been a champion for cracking down on influence in Washington.

One of the first bills Tester ever helped pass was legislation to ban members of Congress from accepting travel, gifts, and meals from lobbyists. Tester has also fought for five-year lobbying bans on members of Congress after they leave office, and voted for legislation to require lawmakers to disclose the names of lobbyists who bundled more than $15,000.

For Matt Rosendale, government isn’t about transparency and ethics—it’s about opportunism and serving his own interests. Rosendale is a multimillionaire developer who moved to Montana from the East Coast to run for office, and has run for five different political offices in eight years.

Jon Tester fights every day for the Montana that three generations of his family have called home. He continues to be the Senate’s only working farmer, and rather than use his office to enrich himself, he’s regularly voted to end perks for members of Congress such as automatic pay raises.

“Matt Rosendale wants nothing more than to rewrite his self-serving record of cozying up to the special interests propping up his campaign,” said Montanans for Tester spokesperson Luke Jackson. “Rather than fight on behalf of Montanans, Rosendale fights for whoever can write him the biggest check. Montanans deserve better. Jon Tester is a third-generation Montanan, a dirt farmer, and will always fight to hold government accountable to Montanans.”

For more information on Club For Growth’s advertisement, click HERE.

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