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Thank you for your support and help in spreading our message that there is an Independent in the race for Montana’s 2^nd Congressional District who can help end the partisan bickering in Congress and give Montana a fresh start!
Please read and share this Billings Gazette ([link removed]) article.
TV ads are rare in Eastern Montana House race
"Buchanan has been running a scrappy campaign and there’s energy for Buchanan"
Probably for the first time since people stopped leaving the couch to change the channel, Montana has a U.S. House race in which neither major party candidate is advertising on television.
In the state’s newly created eastern district — made up of counties where voters historically support Republican congressional candidates by a 20-percentage-point margin — television advertising has been nearly nonexistent. Federal Communications Commission records for TV stations in Great Falls and Helena, show no ads from Republican or Democrat House candidates. In Billings, the House ads have been mostly bought by candidates from Wyoming.
The only candidate in the eastern district race on television is independent Gary Buchanan of Billings. Usually, it's the third party who isn't running TV ads, which cost a few thousand dollars.
Quarterly campaign finance reports filed in mid-October show that Democrats and Republicans have not only pulled the plug on TV ads, but have had modest purchases on radio and Facebook, and that is only if incumbent Matt Rosendale’s taxpayer-funded franked ads on Facebook are rolled into the count.
“The abuse of the franking privilege is incredible,” Buchanan said. “I’m an independent. I get all sorts of mail. So, I get Rosendale’s flyers and they all say they’re paid for by the taxpayer, but I had no idea you could do that on social media, too.”
The franking privilege is a law as old as Congress. The law allows representatives mailing privileges and use of their taxpayer-funded member representational allowance to communicate with constituents. Although franking privileges have traditionally applied to mailed literature — Gov. Greg Gianforte frequently issued constituent newsletters during his House tenure — the House has extended the policy to social media for things like ads on Facebook and YouTube clips, as well as robo-call scripts prepared for tele-townhalls.
What franked material doesn’t do is tell constituents how to vote and it doesn't solicit donations. That’s off limits. Rosendale’s franked material, including $61,408 in Facebook ads since taking office, does not cross the line into campaigning. If the material is franked, the literature should indicate that taxpayers paid the bill.
Records from the House franking commission show that Rosendale’s franking requests for July and August were the highest of his two-year term, accounting for a third of his activity. The commission imposes a quiet period on franking before a general election.
Rosendale, whose campaign didn’t respond to questions for this article, is the best funded candidate in the eastern district House race. The incumbent’s campaign receipts are a little more than $2 million this election cycle, compared to Buchanan’s $461,780 and Democrat Penny Ronning’s $134,774. Libertarian Sam Rankin reports $26,206 in receipts, including a self-contribution of $21,506.
Social media is a cheap place to get a message out. Facebook ad records for Ronning show that a $100 ad placement can be seen by 3,000 to 4,000 people, with the advertiser having the ability to target an audience by age, gender and location. Ronning, also of Billings, has put her money on Facebook and YouTube. Being frugal is a necessity for a race Democrats haven’t put a lot of money into.
“There are studies that show that the majority of people are not watching network television as much and the costs for network television advertising are ridiculous,” Ronning said. “People are streaming. They’re on YouTube. They’re on digital and that’s where we chose to put out ads. The other day we put up one ad and within 18 minutes we had almost 30,000 views.”
No one ever walks away from their phone during a commercial break, Ronning said, which makes the chances of reaching a voter better.
Campaign miles
What can’t be purchased with campaign funds is paid for with miles and time. Ronning said she has participated in 268 in-person campaign engagements this year, that doesn’t include her visits to small businesses. Ronning said she has put 20,000 miles on her car.
Both Ronning and Buchanan debate whenever possible. Rosendale has participated in two debates.
Rosendale appears to be relying on the district’s strong Republican base, said political scientist Jeremy Johnson, of Carroll College. There would be more of an outreach if the incumbent was trying to win persuadable voters.
“Rosendale has been running just toward his base, essentially, and not running very hard,” Johnson said. “And, he’s not the only Republican member of Congress to do that. But these are safe-to-relatively-safe districts."
The incumbent's campaign has the political scaffolding for a major run, including joint fundraising and victory committees to split big donations between multiple candidates. There are two law firms on the disbursement sheet, plus a campaign manager receiving $17,000 in September, and 31 PACs, or political action committees making donations. No other candidate in the race has that level of complexity to their finances.
Having an incumbent who is sitting out TV advertising should help Buchanan, though Republican strength in the district could be too much.
"Buchanan has been running a scrappy campaign and there’s energy for Buchanan," Johnson said. "At least theoretically that gives an opening for him.”
Television is a sensible investment, given many voters won’t recognize Buchanan's name on the ballot, let alone the capital letter beside it.
The historical voting habits of the Eastern House District suggest Rosendale can win reelection with minimal outreach beyond the Republican base. In office, Rosendale has focused his media appearances on talk radio and right-wing cable outlets like One America Network and NewsMax. Radio advertising records for Montana show ads promoting Rosendale appearing specifically on the network carrying "Montana Talks," a statewide conservative talk show based in Billings and hosted by Aaron Flint.
Radio, particularly AM, has been good to Republican candidates in Montana. It vaulted Conrad Burns, a radio personality and station owner, into the U.S. Senate in 1988 when he unseated Democrat John Melcher.
In 2020 when Rosendale was the Republican candidate for the state’s at-large district , He won 61% of the combined vote in counties currently comprising the eastern district. Only Republican Denny Rehberg did better when he won 62% of the vote in those same counties in 2010, an election year without a presidential race on the ballot.
Less than two months after that the 2010 victory, Rehberg announced his campaign for U.S. Senate. There’s speculation Rosendale will do the same this December.
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