Get an insider’s look into what’s happening in and around the halls of power with expert reporting, analysis and insight from the editors and reporters of Montana Free Press. Sign up to get the free Capitolized newsletter delivered to your inbox every Thursday.September 12, 2024As he perused 49 ads about Montana’s consequential U.S. Senate race, veteran political consultant Jim Messina was the struck by the absence of local issues. The ads, most of which were produced by political action committees acting independently of either incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester or Republican challenger Tim Sheehy, emphasized national subjects. It was the opposite of the way Messina said he’d campaigned decades earlier for former Montana Sen. Max Baucus.“I went and had my team pull the 10 organizations that are currently advertising on television and social media in Montana. Per voter, there’s more money being spent in Montana than any place in the country. None of the ads today, 49 ads — none of the ads were on a local issue,” Messina said. The current CEO of the Messina Group was speaking on the second evening of MTFP’s Free Press Fest at the University of Montana in Missoula. He was joined (via Zoom, after a flight delay) by political consultant Matt Rhoades, co-CEO of CGCN Group, who managed Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in 2012, the same year Messina managed President Barack Obama’s successful reelection bid. Maritsa Georgiou, who anchors the Scripps News America Tonight national broadcast from Missoula, moderated.“Not one of the ads were on a local issue. To Maritsa’s point, they were all abortion, immigration, Social Security, national issues,” Messina said. “When I grew up in Max Baucus’ organization, he taught me all politics is local. What people care about are local issues that bind them together. We did these things called Baucus burger bonanzas, and we go and serve free burgers and free beer in every town in Montana. And the only thing is, we wouldn’t talk politics, and people could come and just see each other. That is just gone in Montana and gone around the country.”By the end of Montana’s U.S. Senate election, which could decide which party has majority control of the Senate, PACs and candidates combined will likely have spent $250 million trying to influence voters, said Messina, who is currently working on campaigns in several countries where he says voters are highly engaged and spending is measured in the tens of millions, not quarter-billions. And the politics aren’t so divisive, he said. Candidates socialize with each other and accept election outcomes.Rhoades said it isn’t the money or the nationalization of politics that’s dividing the public in the U.S. Rather, he said, Americans are just divided. Campaigns reflect rather than cause that division. “I think it has more to do with the current political climate and just the angst and polarization that exists, than just the TV ads or the digital maps. I certainly think people are upset and fired up, and a lot of it gets blamed on the politicians for stoking the fires and lighting their hair on fire when they go out on a debate stage, or they cut a TV ad,” Rhoades said. “A lot of it comes back to the people themselves. A lot of times, the politicians get held more responsible for the entire political dialog in our country.”Social media has leveled the playing field for people who otherwise wouldn’t have an audience to address, Rhoades said, combining freedom of speech with freedom of reach. Nothing has countered the high-dollar game of political messaging like social media has, Rhoades said.Messina agreed that politics reflect the country, not the other way around.The day before the “Nationalization of Local Politics” keynote at the University of Montana, polling data revealed that national issues were dominating voter priorities in Montana. Immigration was the top election issue for Montana voters of every age group. Specifically for Democrats age 50-plus, the top issue was threats to democracy. The poll was conducted for AARP.When issues were grouped, personal economic issues (inflation, economy/jobs, Social Security) became the top concern for 53% of the 1,064 poll respondents voters polled. (The margin of error for 600 likely voters polled was 4%. For the 800 polled voters age 50 and older, the error margin was 3.5%.) The poll was conducted in a bipartisan partnership between Fabrizio Ward, which polls for Republicans, and David Binder Research, which polls for Democrats. —Tom LuteyTo Be ClearOur report on last week’s meeting of the Senate Select Committee on Judicial Oversight and Reform in the Sept. 5 edition of Capitolized deserves some clarification.We described the Senate Select Committee on Judicial Oversight and Reform as “all-Republican.” The Select Committee is functionally all Republican, with 13 Republican legislators and five Republican-appointed Democrats who formally declined to participate on the committee before its first meeting. Specifically, those five Democrats informed Senate President Jason Ellsworth on April 12 that they “cannot and will not waste valuable time and taxpayer resources to continue your party’s campaign undermining the independence of our courts.” Nonetheless, the five Democrats are mailed meeting materials. Their names are called during roll call, at which point they are entered into the record as “unexcused.” Kyle Schmauch, the communications and policy manager for the Republican Senate majority, responded to our Sept. 5 report to note: “Pointing out that to date they’ve chosen not to participate and/or weren’t there would be accurate, calling it an ‘all-Republican’ committee is not accurate.” The committee voted in August to start subpoenaing witnesses and requesting testimony under oath. We referred to that subpoena power as “newly acquired.” The committee believes it has subpoena power derived from the state Constitution, according to Schmauch.The chief justice of the Montana Supreme Court has informed members of the judicial branch that the select committee does not have subpoena power. In a memorandum issued Sept. 4, Chief Justice Mike McGrath told court employees that the Select Committee on Judicial Oversight and reform “does not carry the full Legislative authority to issue subpoenas” pursuant to the provisions of Montana subpoena law.Specifically, the law says that “a subpoena requiring the attendance of any witness before either house of the legislature, a committee of either house, a committee established under legislative rules, or a statutory committee or an interim committee may be issued by the president of the Senate, the speaker of the house, or the presiding officer of any committee before whom the attendance of the witness is desired.” The law can be found in Section 5-5-1-107 of the Montana Code Annotated.The Select Committee on Judicial Oversight and Reform does not appear to be a statutory committee or an interim committee, McGrath’s memo said. The committee membership includes people who aren’t members of the Legislature, but still have committee authority to question witnesses, fully participate in discussion and offer suggestions for group resolutions. The non-legislative citizen members of the committee don’t vote. “The participating membership consists of only state Senators from one political party. While some state Representatives are listed as members, they are designated as non-voting members,” McGrath said. —Tom LuteyCheck, Please!Napoleon Bonaparte is often quoted as saying that armies march on their stomachs. The same is true for political committees. Where politicians and lobbyists choose to wine and dine occasionally generates headlines.Capitolized was curious about the Montana food and beverage expenses of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, a political party committee chaired by U.S. Sen. Steve Daines.The NRSC has reported $29,000 in expenses classified as “food and beverage” in Montana since the start of the year. Nothing unusual there, unless you consider $5,279 worth of Bequet Confections treats unusual. Bequet is a Bozeman company known for its soft caramels. The single most expensive dinner expense in the report was $1,553 at the Land of Magic steakhouse in Logan.There’s also $6,008.91 in payments to Hi-County Snack Foods. Daines has a penchant for beef jerky that is legend in certain circles. He handed out bags of Hi-Country jerky to troops in Afghanistan in 2018 and paid off bets lost on Montana State University Bobcat football games, specifically MSU’s loss to North Dakota State University in the 2022 FCS championship, with bags of the meaty delicacy.“The NRSC runs on Montana jerky! It is a gift for donors — we purchase both Hi-Country snacks and jerky from other Montana-based businesses,” NRSC spokesperson Mike Berg told Capitolized. “By giving supporters Montana beef jerky, Sen. Daines is helping spread the word about the best beef jerky in the world. NRSC also had an event at Land of Magic during a Montana swing for fundraising and Tim Sheehy’s primary. NRSC is proud to patronize Montana businesses,” Berg said. —Tom LuteyThe Last Best LawsuitIn the second half of 2023, a secretive political action committee began running television ads against Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy. There were no details about who was funding Last Best Place PAC, how much money it had to spend, or who was working for the committee. The secrecy continued into the first quarter of this year when the Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission about Last Best Place PAC’s lack of disclosure.On Monday, CLC sued the PAC over disclosures that don’t conform with federal election law.From September 2023 through February, Last Best Place PAC treated its independent expenditures related to media buys targeting Sheehy as operating expenses. Operating expenses get reported quarterly, meaning they can stay off campaign reports for months. Independent expenditures must be reported within 48 hours.CLC alleges that Last Best Place PAC spent $2 million on ads targeting Sheehy from September 2023 through the end of the year without disclosing those expenditures properly. The origins of the group’s finances remain murky. Last Best Place PAC has raised $12.5 million since September 2023 and spent $12.8 million opposing Sheehy through July.As mentioned in the Montana Free Press report on PAC spending in Montana’s Senate race, the only person identified on Last Best Place PAC’s statement of organization is its treasurer, Dave Lewis, of Helena. It isn’t uncommon for treasurers to be the only person named in statements of organization. Montanans may recognize Lewis as the state budget director of former Republican Gov. Marc Racicot and a former Republican state senator. Lewis’ giving has not been constrained to party lines. The PAC’s only contributor is Majority Forward, a dark money nonprofit that doesn’t disclose its donors.However, tax filings for Majority Forward show that the nonprofit’s president in 2019, the most recent filing available, was J.B. Poersch, and its board was populated by former staffers for Harry Reid, the Nevada senator who led a Democratic Senate majority for eight years ending in 2015. Tax records show Majority Forward has also supported other players in Montana elections, including VoteVets, which also has a Sheehy opposition campaign, and Montana Native Vote, an Indigenous voter participation group. Poersch is also president of Senate Majority PAC, an independently operated political action committee founded “to win Senate races.” There is no “Senate Majority PAC” registered with the Federal Election Commission. Officially, the PAC is registered as SMP, but its treasurer, Rebecca Lambe, signs off its SMP communications with the FEC as “Senate Majority PAC.” Lambe is also Majority Forward’s treasurer and a former Reid staffer. Majority Forward has donated millions exclusively to Senate Majority PAC and Last Best Place PAC this election cycle. Poersch is a confidante of Democratic Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, of New York, according to The Hill. In 2010, Poersch directed the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.—Tom LuteyOn BackgroundLast Best Place PAC got a closer look in our report on independent expenditures by political action committees in Montana’s U.S. Senate race. Campaign Legal Center, the nonprofit election watchdog suing Last Best Place PAC, has litigated against dark money groups in Montana campaigns before, including American Prosperity Group in 2020.  The Senate Select Committee on Judicial Oversight and Reform isn’t the first legislative committee created in the heat of inter-branch conflict with the courts, as this 2022 report explainsThe post How nationalized campaigns are overwhelming local issues appeared first on Montana Free Press.