The NRSC’s failed attempt at smearing Governor Steve Bullock’s reputation in a recent ad is an obvious sign of desperation. The ad exposes the committee’s inability to say anything good about Senator Steve Daines’ record, so they’re putting money behind lies.
Meanwhile, a new report shows that Senator Steve Daines took thousands of dollars from Big Pharma companies that were awarded federal contracts under Operation Warp Speed, a program Daines fought to receive funding for in the CARES Act. Daines has also taken $2.9 million from corporate PACs over the course of his career and voted to benefit their bottom line in Congress.
The Montana Free Press put out a comprehensive fact check of the ad that spells out exactly why the attack is false.
Montana Free Press: GOP floats a nepotism charge. Butte company cries foul.
-
Two recent ads paid for by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the most recent released today, say Gov. Steve Bullock, who is running to unseat U.S. Sen. Steve Daines in November, “has been accused of steering state grants” to a business formerly owned by his brother.
-
It’s true that Pioneer Technical Services has been awarded millions in state contracts during Bullock’s tenure as governor, but the governor doesn’t have any say in the awarding of contracts, state officials said Friday.
-
William Bullock left the company in 2004 and sold his shares in Pioneer in 2009, according to letters the company and its attorney sent to broadcasting companies asking that the ads be taken off the air.
-
The ads include no factual information about William Bullock’s involvement with the company, and provide no evidence that Pioneer’s contracts with the state benefited the governor’s brother or were awarded because of William Bullock’s relation to the governor.
-
Instead, the ads rely on listeners and viewers to connect the dots and conclude that Pioneer received state contracts during Bullock’s tenure as a result of “corruption and nepotism,” [Brad] Archibald, CEO of Pioneer Technical Services, alleged in a July 24 response to the first ad.
-
“Importantly, our advertisement did not comment on why Steve Bullock directed state business that utilized your company,” Ryan G. Dollar, NRCS’s general counsel, wrote in a July 27 letter to William Bullock, Pioneer Technical Services and Archibald. “[W]e left it up to Montanans to draw their own implications about Steve Bullock’s direction over this state business.”
-
BUT: “In a press release announcing the launch of the second advertisement, NRSC spokesman Nathan Brand was more explicit, alleging that the contracts are proof of corruption and cronyism: ‘Bullock will put his own interests first, even when it costs hardworking taxpayers.’”
-
###