one of the DEMs favorite tricks

https://www.redstate.com/strei...montana-senate-race/

Over the past few weeks, Republican Matt Rosendale, who is trying to retire Democrat Jon Tester next Tuesday, has been the target of an illegal mail campaign seeking to drive GOP voters to the Libertarian in the race. The mailers, which don’t bear any of the required FEC markings, and accuse Rosendale of things that Tester would fully support doing

Similar tactics used in

- Indiana

- same firm used the trick to previously defeat REP Sen Kelly Ayotte in NH.

- Missouri against Hawley

The push to get Republicans to vote Libertarian is a real threat in Montana. There is a relatively strong Libertarian strain in Montana GOP politics and the Libertarian candidate is polling around 4% of the vote, which, if you credit the RCP average, is what Tester’s poll lead is.

Just a short while ago, the Libertarian candidate, Rick Breckinridge, packed it in. And in leaving the race he endorsed Matt Rosendale .


The Libertarian candidate in Montana’s U.S. Senate race has thrown his support behind Republican Matt Rosendale in response to an election mailer from an unknown group that appears aimed at undermining Rosendale’s support among conservatives.

Rick Breckenridge said Wednesday that he doesn’t know the source of the mailer promoting him as a “true conservative” and claiming Rosendale supports using drones to spy on private citizens.

Breckenridge says it’s an attempt by so-called dark money groups to influence Montana’s election and he’s decided that Rosendale is the best candidate to stop such efforts.

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good for Breckenridge

Don't waste your vote.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: sdy,

Tester is a slimy fucking snake and I hope to God he gets fired next week.

My guess is, though, he'll get re-elected. Breckenridge backing out and supporting the GOP is a good sign, but I'm not holding my breath.

Rosendale is not a great candidate and certainly wasn't my primary choice.

Interesting.

What I've noticed this last year or so is a consistent stream of shit talking about libertarians BY democrats. One of the most common sentiments from the Left is some version of casting libertarians as "dumb republicans who like weed but hate poor people", and the characterization is never positive, downright vitriolic even.

Frankly, the overwhelming majority of negativity about libertarians and libertarianisms I've seen have been from the Left. Whereas one might think it would be the other way around, with Republicans worrying the libertarians will split their vote and "waste a vote" as is the case around here everytime an election happens and the topic comes up.

But no, somehow, the Left seems to hate libertarians even more than the Right.

Which is odd, to me.

Man but I PRAY Tester is toast come next week. Slimy bastard.

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:
But no, somehow, the Left seems to hate libertarians even more than the Right.

Which is odd, to me.

Because Libertarians more completely reject the God Government.

The Libertarian candidate has withdrawn and endorsed Rosendale. The party itself, however, is not endorsing Rosendale. That may help pick up a point or two.

Link

Yeah, it'll be tight, but I'm afraid Tester will win again. Too many votes on the reservations and in Missoula, Butte, and Billings.

He's no different than Baucus who spent thirty-plus years bullshitting the people of Montana just so he could keep a job in the Senate. Lying bastards the both of them. They campaign like good old boys with Montana values and go to DC and vote liberal every time.

I'm sorry... What happened in MO?

The only thing I'm aware of is that a guy who ran on the L ticket last time, ran in the R primary this time.

And he was leaps and bounds the better choice, as opposed to the snake Josh Hawley.

But the powers that be here anointed Josh Hawley and despite all the above, he is leaps and bounds above Claire McCaskill... So it is a no brainer.

Let Josh get Claire out of office now, Then work to primary him in 6 years with an actual honest conservative.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
Yeah, it'll be tight, but I'm afraid Tester will win again. Too many votes on the reservations and in Missoula, Butte, and Billings.

He's no different than Baucus who spent thirty-plus years bullshitting the people of Montana just so he could keep a job in the Senate. Lying bastards the both of them. They campaign like good old boys with Montana values and go to DC and vote liberal every time.

I'm afraid you're right. I wasn't a big fan of Rosendale, and I have a few strong Republican friends who've been pushed around by Matt in the past. There's not much to get behind with Rosendale; many Republican locally recognized the better (but much less well-financed ) was my orthopod, Al Olszewski. Too bad; Al isn't on the ballot and he seems to have quit his surgical practice as a result of his defeat in the primary. We're going to fly our plane over to Billings today to hear Trump talk, and then go see Pence and Trump Jr Monday in Kalispell. The Tester ads on TV are incessant and really irritating; can't wait for Tuesday for this shit to stop. Fuck Tester.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: aileron,

Gina Raimondo's supporters are reportedly doing the same in RI- donating cash and ads to the dark horse Libertarian to try to draw votes away from Fung.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
Yeah, it'll be tight, but I'm afraid Tester will win again. Too many votes on the reservations and in Missoula, Butte, and Billings.

He's no different than Baucus who spent thirty-plus years bullshitting the people of Montana just so he could keep a job in the Senate. Lying bastards the both of them. They campaign like good old boys with Montana values and go to DC and vote liberal every time.

Truer words, seldom spoken. You hit it on the head and squarely. They bullshit the people here, then vote with the party in DC. And the idiotic voters here will reelect them.

I surely hope things turn out differently on Tuesday.

I got a spam text message on this BS.

quote:

Originally posted by aileron:
There's not much to get behind with Rosendale; many Republican locally recognized the better (but much less well-financed ) was my orthopod, Al Olszewski.

I used to work with Al when he first came to Kalispell. He's a good man and a good solid conservative. He got my vote, but it wasn't enough.

quote:

Originally posted by KevinCW:
I'm sorry... What happened in MO?

I got one of those pieces in the mail today...

quote:

The mailers, which don’t bear any of the required FEC markings,...

Yep, sure enough... no "Paid for By..."

Trying to get me to vote for Craig O'Dear rather than Josh Hawley.

quote:

Originally posted by FN in MT:

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
Yeah, it'll be tight, but I'm afraid Tester will win again. Too many votes on the reservations and in Missoula, Butte, and Billings.

He's no different than Baucus who spent thirty-plus years bullshitting the people of Montana just so he could keep a job in the Senate. Lying bastards the both of them. They campaign like good old boys with Montana values and go to DC and vote liberal every time.

Truer words, seldom spoken. You hit it on the head and squarely. They bullshit the people here, then vote with the party in DC. And the idiotic voters here will reelect them...

That is not limited to Montana. Joe Manchin (WV) and Clair McCaskill (MO) quickly come to mind. All of a sudden Claire is now claiming she's FOR border security! Who knew...

I cannot understand how so many voters are so easily fooled. A vote for Dem is a vote for Chuck Shumer!!!

Just bring us Wednesday already...

https://www.washingtontimes.co...rty-tricks-missouri/

Josh Hawley, the Republican candidate for Senate in Missouri, on Saturday, demanded an FBI probe of a dirty-tricks campaign mailer that wrongly accuses him of opposing gun rights.

The mailers urge voters to back a Libertarian or Independent voter over Mr. Hawley and do not include required disclaimers identifying who paid for them.

“Voters telling me about fake & illegal mailers pro-Dem group is putting out. There should be an FBI investigation,” Mr. Hawley, the state attorney general, wrote on Twitter.

He called for Democrat incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill to cooperate in a probe.

“As the beneficiary of this Kavanaugh-style illegal smear campaign, I hope @clairecmc will cooperate with the investigation fully #MoSen,” tweeted Mr. Hawley.

Mrs. McCaskill’s campaign denied involvement in the mailers.

Mrs. McCaskill and Mr. Hawley are locked in a neck-and-neck race that could determine which party controls the Senate after Tuesday’s vote.

Other state Republican leaders have called for a federal investigation of the mailer.

Treasurer Eric Schmitt said the mailers appear designed to help Mrs. McCaskill, who is fighting for a third term in an increasingly red state that backed President Trump by nearly 19 points in 2016.

The ads, which began appearing in mailboxes this week, encourage voters to support the Libertarian or Independent candidates by criticizing Mr. Hawley’s position on gun rights and other issues, according to the Associated Press.

Mr. Hawley has been endorsed by the National Rifle Association.

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I've posted before that this trick of using a third party candidate was how Mark Warner won VA in 2014.

In another article it was mentioned that the company involved went after then Sen Kelly Ayotte (R) in 2016. In the NH 2016 election, Ayotte lost by 1,017 votes.

The independent candidate and the Libertarian candidate got 17,742 votes and 12,597 votes respectively.

Democrats Fund Libertarian Spoilers

Investing dark money in ”independent” campaigns.

The outcomes of manyclose congressional contests will be decided by the number of ballots cast for Libertarian candidates who couldn’t win with the aid of divine intervention. And Democrats running in “red state” races are clearly counting on these unelectable candidates to divert enough votes from Republicans to allow them to eke out slim victories. To this end, they and their supporters are running covert campaign ads and sending dark money mailers on behalf of their Libertarian “opponents.” Among the Democratic beneficiaries of this strategy are Indiana Senator Joe Donnelly, Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill, and Montana Senator Jon Tester.

This is not a new tactic for the Democrats. In 2012, ProPublica reported that Jon Tester’s supporters “bought ads for a libertarian candidate who likely siphoned crucial votes away from the Republican challenger.” This election cycle, as TASnoted here last week, the strategy blew up in Tester’s face. Libertarian candidate Rick Breckenridge was so angered by a misleading “dark money” mailer sent by an unknown group that he denounced the practice in general, and encouraged his supporters to vote for Tester’s Republican challenger, Matt Rosendale. A similar mailer scam has been deployed in Missouri. The Washington Free Beacon reports:

Two dark money mailers sent to thousands of voters without any disclosure of who paid for it — a likely illegal act — were sent by the same St. Louis printing company which has been used by many Democratic campaigns in the state this cycle. The two mailers — the first one targeting Republican representative Ann Wagner and the second targeting Republican Senate candidate Josh Hawley — lack the standard disclosure statement identifying who paid for them.

In addition to encouraging voters to cast ballots for some third-party, like Libertarian Senate candidate Japeth Campbell, the mailers make demonstrably false claims about the positions of both Republicans. Wagner and Hawley are in very close contests with Democrats Cort VanOstranand Senator Claire McCaskill. In the latter’s case, this may well backfire. She used the prevalence of dark money in politics, which she blames on the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC, as a pretext to vote against now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Inevitably, she has been accused of gross hypocrisy. American Commitment’s Phil Kerpen phrased it succinctly:

What a total fraud McCaskill is, using “dark money” as an excuse to vote with the smear campaign against Judge Kavanaugh and then having allies try to save her with the darkest of dark money — illegal, no-disclaimer mailers designed to depress Republican turnout.

And this kind of chicanery isn’t limited to Montana and Missouri. Saturday, President Trump tweeted, “Rumor has it that Senator Joe Donnelly of Indiana is paying for Facebook ads for his so-called opponent on the libertarian ticket.” This is no rumor, however. It has been reported by several news outlets that Donnelly, who hasn’t been able to gain a decisive lead over GOP challenger Mike Braun in the Indiana Senate Race, collaborated with the Indiana Democratic Party in the covert funding of Facebook ads on pages with titles like, “Hoosier Conservatives.” They link to the campaign website of Libertarian candidate Lucy Brenton. Surprisingly, the Daily Beast reported it:

Indiana Democrats are funding a last-minute attempt to split the Republican vote in the state’s crucial Senate contest by boosting the race’s long-shot Libertarian candidate.… The state Democratic Party began purchasing Facebook ads on Thursday questioning the conservative bona fides of Republican challenger Mike Braun by, among other things, suggesting he backed Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Most of the “news” media have ignored the Democratic dirty tricks on the mailers and Facebook ads, despite their constant yammering about the evils of dark money. They also have been silent on the potential impact Libertarian campaigns can have on close races. For example, how many people reading this know that the West Virginia Senate race includes a Libertarian named Rusty Hollen who received 11 percent in a recent poll? The survey, commissioned by Charleston’s MetroNews, reportsthat 45 percent of likely voters favor Manchin, 40 percent favor Morrisey, and 11 percent favor Hollen. If this poll is accurate, it means Manchin is headed back to the Beltway.

Some libertarians will inevitably ask: How can we know all of this 11 percent is coming out of Morrisey’s support rather than Manchin’s? The obvious answer is that libertarians, by definition, prefer less government intrusion in our day-to-day lives, fewer regulatory constraints on the economy, and lower taxes. The Democrats are for bigger government, more economic micromanagement, and have promised to raise taxes. Being a Democrat, Manchin’s support includes almost no libertarians. Consequently, in the absence of candidate Hollen, most libertarians would probably vote for Patrick Morrisey rather than a swamp creature like Manchin.

The Democrats understand this, even if some voters don’t, which is why they and their financiers are paying for illegal mailers and ads. They know the investment will reduce the Republican tally by luring voters to Libertarian candidates who can’t win. And this affects a lot of races not covered above. In Nevada, for example, GOP Senator Dean Heller is hemorrhaging votes to Libertarian Tim Hagan. And, in New Jersey, Libertarian Murray Sabrin will probably save Senator Bob Menendez. This last example should drive the point home — a vote for a Libertarian is a vote for a Democrat who is more than likely also a crook. That really isn’t the goal of libertarianism… is it?

https://spectator.org/democrat...ibertarian-spoilers/

https://www.breitbart.com/poli...democrat-jon-tester/

State auditor and Republican Senate nominee Matt Rosendale has taken an 11th-hour lead in Montana over Democrat Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), surging ahead of the Democrat in the wake of President Donald Trump’s latest rally there on Saturday.

A Change Research poll released late Sunday evening shows Rosendale, at 49 percent, leading Tester’s 46 percent

Matt Rosendale (R) 49
Jon Tester (D) 46
Rick Breckenridge (L) 3

Change Research is a Democrat polling firm, so for its final poll of Montana to have Rosendale defeating Tester is a major deal

Rosendale’s lead in Montana comes in large part thanks to multiple campaign appearances by President Trump for him in the state, the latest and final of which was on Saturday as part of the president’s national tour in the final days leading up to the midterm elections.

Trump made the case against Tester by noting what he did to tank the nomination of Ronny Jackson, his nominee to head the Veterans Affairs department, with phony allegations–a strategy employed more widely by Senate Democrats later, and unsuccessfully, against now Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh

I did absentee voting last week. Picking up the seat in MO would make my month/year.