News
U.S. Senate race draws national attention, outside money
Published
4 years agoon
Posted By
AdminBy Erin Sargent Community News Service UM School of Journalism
Montana will not play much of a role in the battle between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, but in the fight to control the U.S. Senate, the clash between Gov. Steve Bullock and incumbent Sen. Steve Daines looms large.
Daines, a Republican, seemed likely to cruise to re-election until the Democratic governor announced on the last possible day his decision to enter the race. Nationally, Democrats hope to pick up four seats in the 2020 election to take control of the Senate for the first time since 2015.
Recent polling suggests the race is a statistical dead-heat, with Daines often having a narrow lead, but less than the margin of error. The reputable Cook Political Report has labeled the race a “toss up.”
The race’s national importance has opened the floodgate to money from outside the state and the race seems likely to shatter all previous records.
“A lot of the people who care about the senate race and are spending a lot of money don’t care about Montana necessarily,” Jeremy Johnson, a political scientist from Carroll College, said. “There is a lot riding, in terms of national power, on this.”
The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and confirmation fight over conservative Judge Amy Coney Barrett to replace her has only intensified the attention on competitive Senate races around the country. Outside groups like the Sheldon Adelson-backed, Republican-leaning Senate Leadership Fund and the Democratic-tilted Senate Majority PAC are pouring millions into attack ads aimed at deciding this pivotal contest.
And while the campaign is awash in money, the two candidates have fought to accentuate their differences and make their case not about the politics of Washington, but about issues in Montana. One of the most significant has been how the state and the government has handled the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bullock has been a constant presence as he guided the state response to the crisis, including issuing statewide mandates about wearing masks and how schools were to re-open. He also has also handled distributing some $1.25 billion allocated to Montana from Congress’s Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
Daines criticized the governor in a recent interview, saying that Bullock hasn’t been distributing the money across the state quickly enough.
“That’s a huge amount of money, and it’s important that it got sent out to the states,” Daines said. “And the intent of those important resources were not to be sitting in Helena with him, but to get them deployed as quickly as possible to every corner of Montana.”
Bullock countered he’s taken a “fiscally conservative response” to ensure the state has funds as the pandemic drags on and needs change.
“We still have four months left in this year to make sure that our businesses can not only stay alive, but thrive,” Bullock responded in an interview.
As the November election draws closer, both Daines and Bullock have been ramping up efforts to both highlight the differences between them and where they stand on the issues they would potentially vote on in the Senate.
Daines has warned that Bullock is actually a liberal Democrat who would work with national party figures on issues like gun control, abortion and taxes. He has also stressed his support for local Montana businesses and traditional industries like mining. That support for coal mining helped him secure the endorsement of Crow Tribal Chairman A.J. Not Afraid in late July.
The Republican grew up in Bozeman and went to Montana State before entering corporate sales, working for Proctor and Gamble and Greg Gianforte’s RightNow Technologies. The Bullock campaign has criticized Daines for working with companies that helped outsource jobs to other countries, but Daines has stressed his business experience helps him understand the pressures on businesses and what could grow the state economy. Daines was elected to the Senate in 2014, after serving one term as Montana’s U.S. Representative.
Bullock grew up in Helena but left the state to attend college and later graduated from Columbia Law School. He returned to Montana to work for his now-lieutenant governor Mike Cooney in the Secretary of State’s office. He entered private practice after losing his first campaign for attorney general in 2000. He ran again eight years later and was elected attorney general, serving from 2009 to 2013. He won back-to-back campaigns for governor and briefly made a run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2019.
During his time on the presidential campaign trail, Bullock routinely referenced his work as governor working across the aisle with Montana Republicans, and his presidential campaign to “make Washington work more like Montana” could help him garner approval from both Democrat and Republican voters for the Senate seat.
Bullock centered his failed presidential run on the undue role of money in politics, a position that could put him at the forefront of the Senate on a critical issue.
“I would imagine Bullock would model what Tester did,” Johnson said, citing the senior senator’s support for veterans as his signature issue. “I think Bullock would cut a more moderate profile (in the Senate.)”
Upcoming Events
april, 2024
Event Type :
All
All
Arts
Education
Music
Other
Sports
Event Details
Children turning 5 on or before 9/10/2024:
more
Event Details
Children turning 5 on or before
9/10/2024: Kindergarten
enrollment for the 2024-2025 school year can be completed by following the
registration process now.
Children
born on or after September 11, 2019: 4K enrollment is now open for
families that have a 4-year-old they would like to enroll in our program for
the 2023-2024 school year. Please complete the 4K Interest Form to
express your interest. Completing this form does not guarantee enrollment into
the 4K program. Enrollment is capped at twenty 4-year-olds currently
residing within Big Sky School District boundary full time and will be
determined by birth date in calendar order of those born on or after September
11, 2018. Interest form closes on May 30th.
Enrollment now is critical for fall preparations. Thank you!
Time
February 26 (Monday) - April 21 (Sunday)
Event Details
Saturday, March 23rd 6:00-8:00pm We will combine the heart-opening powers of cacao with the transcendental powers of breathwork and sound. Together, these practices will give us the opportunity for a deep
more
Event Details
Saturday, March 23rd 6:00-8:00pm
Time
March 23 (Saturday) 6:00 pm - April 23 (Tuesday) 8:00 pm
Location
Santosha Wellness Center
169 Snowy Mountain Circle
Event Details
We all are familiar with using a limited palette, but do you use one? Do you know how to use a
more
Event Details
We all are familiar with using a limited palette, but do you use one? Do you know how to use a limited palette to create different color combinations? Are you tired of carrying around 15-20 different tubes when you paint plein air? Have you ever wanted to create a certain “mood” in a painting but failed? Do you create a lot of mud? Do you struggle to achieve color harmony? All these problems are addressed in John’s workbook in clear and concise language!
Based on the bestselling “Limited Palatte, Unlimited Color” workbook written by John Pototschnik, the workshop is run by Maggie Shane and Annie McCoy, accomplished landscape (acrylic) and plein air (oil) artists,exhibitors at the Big Sky Artists’ Studio & Gallery and members of the Big Sky Artists Collective.
Each student will receive a copy of “Limited Palette, Unlimited Color” to keep and take home to continue your limited palette journey. We will show you how to use the color wheel and mix your own clean mixtures to successfully create a mood for your paintings.
Each day, we will create a different limited palette color chart and paint a version of a simple landscape using John’s directives. You will then be able to go home and paint more schemes using the book for guidance.
Workshop is open to painters (oil or acrylic) of any level although students must have some basic knowledge of the medium he or she uses. Students will be provided the book ($92 value), color wheel, value scale and canvas papers to complete the daily exercises.
Sundays, April 14, 21 and 28, 2024
Noon until 6PM.
$170.
Time
14 (Sunday) 12:00 pm - 28 (Sunday) 6:00 pm
Event Details
Everyone is invited to join us in celebrating 2 years of arts education in the BASE Art Studio with us! Take a tour
Event Details
Everyone is invited to join us in celebrating 2 years of arts education in the BASE Art Studio with us! Take a tour of the studio, meet our instructors, and meet other artists of all levels in our community. We’ll be getting creative and you’ll have the chance to make your very own artful button pin.
Stick around for our Volunteer Appreciation and Social beginning at 6:30 p.m.!
Time
(Thursday) 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm
Location
BASE
285 Simkins Dr