Shady, Out-Of-State Interest Group With Hidden Donors Launches Another Deceitful Attack Ad

Billings—Today, the shady, out-of-state, dark money group Senate Reform Fund launched a new deceitful attack ad attempting to make Big Sandy farmer Jon Tester into something he’s not.

Senate Reform Fund is the latest dark money group that is flooding Montana with hundreds of thousands of dollars from hidden donors to try and prop up East Coast developer Matt Rosendale’s campaign.

The group formed just two days before FEC filing reports were due—and when forms were filed, they reported no contributions. Days later, they were up on air with a significant ad buy, literally making up quotes attributed to Jon, restoring his missing fingers, distorting the facts, and misrepresenting the record.

The suspect timing means the next time Senate Reform Fund will be required to disclose their donors won’t be until October, less than a month before Montanans need to make a decision at the ballot box about who will represent them in the Senate.

Montanans deserve to know who the dark money, outside donors trying to buy their elections are before they head to the polls this November. But because of the shady tactics employed by groups like the Senate Reform Fund, Montanans won’t know which out-of-state millionaires are trying to buy their election until it’s nearly too late.

“Matt Rosendale and his out-of-state backers know that they can’t beat the real Jon Tester—so they’re flooding Montana with millions of dollars to try to paint Jon as something he’s not,” said Christie Roberts, campaign manager of Montanans For Tester. “Jon Tester is a third generation Montanan who has relentlessly fought to hold government accountable and crack down on waste, fraud, and abuse in Washington. Montanans know the real Jon, and no amount of dark money can change that.”

Senate Reform Fund joins a deep bench of shady outside interest groups that are spending millions of dollars to try and elect their dark money candidate, Matt Rosendale. The bench includes Koch Brothers-backed group Americans For Prosperity, Mitch McConnell’s super PAC Senate Leadership Fund, Club for Growth and Illinois billionaire Richard Uihlein’s super PACs.

Shady campaign finance tactics are par for the course for East Coast developer Rosendale, who has accepted contributions from donors for amounts that are higher than is legally permitted with a tactic that “looks a lot like a money laundering scheme.”

A link to more of the facts can be found HERE.

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