GOP Senate candidate Matt Rosendale is not the person he claims to be and is not particularly well informed or interested in protecting Montanans. He is not right for Montana.
He has never been a rancher, despite using the title. In 2002 he bought a ranch, but Montana’s Revenue Department reports that neither he, his wife, nor his ranch has registered ownership of any cattle since January 2003. He also admitted, in a 2017 radio interview, that he leases out the entire ranch, and although one lessee runs cows there, that does not make him a rancher. A wise person once said, ‘You are not an angler simply because someone to whom you lease property fishes on it.’
Mr. Rosendale has claimed that Senator Tester “took a raise in the (Consolidated Appropriations Act)” recently passed by Congress. But the bill did not provide congressional raises, and the 27th Amendment prohibits congressional raises from taking effect “until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.” The 2018 midterms will be that intervening election. Talk about uninformed.
As State Auditor, Mr. Rosendale is to protect Montanans from abusive insurance companies, fraudulent securities schemes, etc.; and to contribute to sound decisions by the Land Board. He has repeatedly complained that the Affordable Care Act is the cause of rising insurance rates in Montana, but I have not seen his estimate of current rates absent the Act, so we can’t be sure his complaints are justified. We are sure, however, that he wants to end the ban on religious pyramid ‘insurance’ schemes, one of which was shut down as fraudulent in 2007 by former Auditor Morrison. That’s protection?
His commitment to the Land Board is similarly problematic. He ‘attended’ a recent meeting by phone so he could continue campaigning, and then voted to postpone a decision concerning an easement that would have benefited the public. He claimed the paperwork was too much to read in the 5 days he had had it. More disturbing, the Missoulian reports that Mr. Rosendale feels it does not matter who sits on the Board as Auditor because Republicans hold a majority. In other words, the Board’s decisions are made on a partisan basis. That’s not sound decision-making.
I want someone who loves Montana as much as I do to represent us in Washington. Mr. Rosendale is not, and never will be, that person.
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