Montana News

Montana’s commissioner of political practices basically serves as the state’s top political cop. The commissioner oversees campaign finance and ethics laws. It’s a complicated, sometimes controversial job. In this interview with MTPR's Edward O'Brien, Montana’s brand new Political Practices Commissioner Jeff Mangan says he believes most Montanans are glad the position is there:

Eric Whitney: Howdy and Welcome to "Capitol Talk," our weekly political analysis show. I'm Eric Whitney filling in for Sally Mauk. Greg Gianforte: Montana sent a strong message tonight that we want a congressman who will work with President Trump to make America and Montana great again.

Last night, the Republican candidate to fill Montana’s vacant U.S. House seat reportedly body-slammed a political reporter from international news outlet The Guardian . Greg Gianforte was later charged with misdemeanor assault . But did the “body slam” affect how people are voting today? We sent reporters out to Bozeman, Missoula and the Flathead Valley to find out.

Greg Gianforte is not responding to the Gallatin County Sheriff’s request for an interview in the investigation that led to him being charged with misdemeanor assault. According to a Ben Jacobs, a reporter for the Guardian, Gianforte "body slammed" him as Jacobs attempted to interview him Wednesday night.

The Libertarian in yesterday’s special congressional election says he’s getting accused of being a spoiler candidate. Mark Wicks posted on Facebook today that some people upset about Republican Greg Gianforte’s election to the U.S House of Representatives are taking out their frustrations on him:

Election administrators around Montana report fairly high turnout for the special election so far. Cascade and Missoula Counties had received about 70 percent of absentee ballots by 3:00 p.m. Yellowstone County reports that about half of registered voters have already voted. Several county administrators say voters have called wanting to change their votes after last night’s incident .

Montana’s special election to fill its empty U.S. House seat is mere days away, but election officials say many voters still aren’t sure how to vote. "The biggest hurdle for us has been trying to combat voter confusion," says Rebecca Connors, the election administrator for Missoula County.

Some Montanans are getting phone calls with pre-recorded messages from President Donald Trump and others urging them to vote for Republican U.S. House Candidate Greg Gianforte. So-called “robo-calls” are prohibited by state law, but whether these calls are strictly illegal is hard to sort out. The Republican National Committee is paying for robo-calls by President Donald Trump, according to a report from CNN.

The U.S. Department of Education will now reconsider the University of Montana’s grant application for a low-income college prep program. UM’s application for Upward Bound requested just under $2 million to fund the program for 75 students from this year through 2022. But it was rejected because of a technicality; one page was single-spaced, instead of double-spaced.

In the final hours leading up to tomorrow’s special election to fill Montana’s lone U.S. House seat , Democratic candidate Rob Quist is squeezing in a few final visits with voters, and making use of social media. Quist’s campaign Facebook and Twitter pages are flooded with testimonials from voters: