PACs flood Montana Senate race with more than $44 million in ad spending

The spending amounts in this piece are current as of Aug. 30, 2024. PAC spending may change on a daily basis. This story will be updated. 

More than $44 million has been spent on political advertising in Montana’s U.S. Senate race through August by political action committees acting independently of the candidates and without spending limits.

Republican challenger Tim Sheehy is the primary focus of PAC spending, both for and against, with $29.2 million focused on the first-time candidate. Groups supporting the Belgrade businessman and Navy veteran have spent $11.4 million promoting his campaign, while groups opposing him have spent $17.8 million.

Everything from digital ads, mailers and print media to TV, radio and internet advertising is represented in the totals reported to the Federal Election Commission.

There has been less spent on messaging focused on incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, but that messaging has been mostly negative, with $13.9 million spent on ads opposing the three-term senator and farmer from Big Sandy. Outside ad spending supporting Tester amounted to just over $1 million.

A closer look at the major donors for each PAC shows relationships centered on banking and finance for several conservative donors. For progressive donors, the relationships center on unions, conservation groups and nonprofit so-called dark money groups that don’t disclose donors. 

Montana Free Press has summarized the identity and agenda of every PAC that is spending in the race, beginning with newest entrants.

CLUB FOR GROWTH PAC

Club For Growth PAC: It’s been a quiet Montana Senate race for Club for Growth. The group that bills itself as a “network of over 500,000 pro-growth, limited government Americans” has two primary political arms. Club For Growth PAC is the lesser-funded group, with about $1 million in receipts, that mostly routes member donations to candidate campaigns, while making some independent expenditures. Club For Growth Action is the other arm that reports $53 million in donations, with top donors including Richard Uihlein, the shipping magnate owner of Uline, and Jeff Yass, cofounder of the Wall Street trading firm Susquehanna International. 

Club for Growth was a primary promoter of Republican Matt Rosendale when Rosendale was Tester’s GOP challenger in 2018, spending more than $3 million opposing Tester. Its independent spending so far is limited to $3,625 supporting Sheehy through Club For Growth PAC. On its website, the group lists Sheehy as one of three candidates in a priority Senate race in which it hasn’t made an endorsement. 

CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS

Conservative Caucus dba Americans for Constitutional Liberty has been flagged by the FEC for submitting incomplete information about its political spending, as well as its donors. The PAC filings in question do indicate the group is supporting Republicans and opposing Democrats in this year’s most competitive Senate elections and in the race for president. The group estimates it’s spent $4,068 on mailed literature opposing Tester. The estimation instead of hard numbers is part of the FEC’s issue with the group’s report.

THE DEMOCRATIC SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee: The DSCC is the campaign spending tool of Senate Democrats and is focused only on getting Democrats elected to the Senate. The committee identifies Tester’s reelection as a priority. At the end of July, the DSCC had $59 million cash on hand and had raised $154 million for the cycle. The DSCC didn’t show up in Montana’s Senate race until August, when it spent $561,308 on a media buy opposing Sheehy. 

EDF ACTION VOTES

EDF Action Votes: The Environmental Defense Fund Action committee became active in the Montana Senate race in August. The group had about $6.3 million to spend at the end of the second quarter. Its first buy in Montana was a $165,400 media buy opposing Sheehy.

The associated nonprofit of the same name has been involved in scientific- and economic-based conservation policy for 57 years. EDF Action Votes’ largest individual contributor is Susan Z. Mandel at $4 million. Mandel, who directs the philanthropic Zoom Foundation, is half of the power couple that’s contributed millions to liberal causes and campaigns over the years. Mandel’s husband, Stephen, is a hedge fund manager and founder of Lone Pine Capital.

EDF Action Votes’ second-largest donor is Michael Bills at $400,000. Bills, an investor by trade, is the founder of the conservation group Clean Virginia. 

JEFFERSON RISING PAC

Jefferson Rising PAC popped up Aug. 9, the day Donald Trump held a rally at Montana State University in Bozeman. It spent just under $19,000 on a media buy opposing Jon Tester. The group’s $2 million in receipts are sourced to Timothy Dunn, CEO of Texas-based CrownQuest Operating, an oil and gas company. 

LET AMERICA VOTE PAC

Let America Vote PAC is the fundraising arm for a nonprofit federal political committee of the same name formed under Section 527 of the U.S. tax code, which allows the group to spend its money influencing elections. Much of its funding comes through the liberal small donation aggregator ActBlue. Let America Vote reports 34,477 donors through June, with the largest contribution being $5,000.

Federal 527 tax forms compiled by ProPublica show Let America Vote having been created in 2017 by Jason Kander, a former Democratic candidate for Senate in Missouri. More recently, though, the group has come under the control of End Citizens United, which has already spent more than $560,000 in the Montana Senate race. End Citizens United has spent most of its money opposing Sheehy, while Let America Vote PAC has spent $92,000 supporting Tester.

MONTANANS FOR PUBLIC LANDS PAC

Montanans for Public Lands PAC is solely funded by Wild Montana Action Fund. The group focuses on public access, confronting climate change and protecting wilderness. 

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF HOMEBUILDERS PAC

National Association of Homebuilders PAC had spent no money in the 2024 election cycle until Aug. 1, when it made a $350,000 ad buy with North-Caroline-based public relations firm Sinclair Public Affairs supporting Sheehy and a $350,000 ad buy to another media company supporting Republican Larry Hogan in Maryland. There are no records of the National Association of Homebuilders account used for that ad buy having spent money or disclosed donors for several election cycles, per federal election records.

Several elections back, the NAH created a new PAC with a new account, the Build Political Action Committee of the National Association of Homebuilders, or BUILD PAC, which has reported no independent expenditures in the Montana Senate race, but had donated to the campaigns of every Republican federal candidate in Montana. BUILD PAC is funded by small homebuilders, with individual donations topping out at $5,000. The group reports $2.6 million in donations, meaning the unexpected ad buys supporting Sheehy and Hogan on the old NAH account equal more than a quarter of its member contributions for the year. 

RED SENATE

Red Senate is a modest PAC supporting Republican candidates. At the end of the second quarter, the group reported less than $400,000 in donations, but independent expenditure data updated daily shows Red Senate spending $600,000 thus far. In the Montana Senate race, the group has supported Sheehy and opposed Tester in equal amounts of about $1,900. The group’s largest contributor is Floridian Len Leader, an estate lawyer who has contributed $20,000. 

TRUTH IN JUSTICE FUND COMPANY

Truth in Justice Fund Company, at the time of its July quarterly report, was funded by 21 lawyers from across the country and another PAC, the American Association For Justice PAC. The group has spent $672,093.98 opposing Tim Sheehy. Truth in Justice has spent $358,913.33 supporting Tester. The Montana spending is more than double the donations reported by the PAC because donations, reported quarterly, lag behind independent expenditures, which are reported within 48 hours.  

The top individual donor is Michael Thornton of Thornton Law Firm, known for its work associated with mesothelioma, a deadly health condition caused by asbestos. There’s a history between Tester and Thornton. In 2016, a Boston Globe Spotlight Team investigation revealed that attorneys practicing for the Massachusetts firm were receiving “bonuses” prior to making donations of the same amount to federal candidates, Tester included. Such “straw man” donations, in which an actual donor passes money through another individual to skirt donation limits, are illegal. Thornton’s donation to Truth in Justice is $25,000. There’s no indication Truth in Justice is currently using a straw man donor scheme. 

MORE JOBS, LESS GOVERNMENT

More Jobs, Less Government is a PAC that’s spent solely in Montana’s Senate race, and has spent in roughly equal measure supporting Sheehy and opposing Jon Tester. It reports $13.5 million in resources. 

The PAC’s major donors include Henry True, of Wyoming-based True Companies, which deal in oil and gas. Henry True’s campaign disclosure lists Bridger Pipeline as his employer. Bridger is probably best known for its ownership of a pipeline that burst under the bed of the Yellowstone River upstream from Glendive in 2015. Campaign records show the Trues have individually donated to statewide Republican campaigns in Montana for years.

Marlene Ricketts of Nebraska is a $100,000 donor to More Jobs, Less Government PAC. The Ricketts family, which owns the Chicago Cubs, became a target of Donald Trump for opposing his 2016 candidacy. Ricketts was featured in a 2016 USA Today article titled “Meet the woman funding the effort to stop Trump.”  

More Jobs, Less Government’s biggest contributors are Kenneth C. Griffin and Stephen Allen Schwarzman, each with $5 million donations to the PAC. 

Griffin is the billionaire founder of Citadel, a Miami-based multinational hedge fund. Griffin made news in January for spending $5 million on a Super PAC backing Nikki Haley against Donald Trump.

Schwarzman is the billionaire CEO of Blackstone Group, a private equity firm that, like Citadel, is affected by the actions of the Senate Banking Committee, on which Tester is the No. 2 Democrat. 

Another megadonor, Paul Elliott Singer, gave More Jobs, Less Government $1 million. Singer is a hedge fund executive who was profiled in ProPublica’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into a group of powerful billionaires who bankrolled lavish vacations and gifts for conservative Supreme Court justices. Justice Samuel Alito accepted an Alaskan fishing lodge trip paid for by Singer that ProPublica found would have cost the judge $100,000 if purchased out of pocket.

Later, when Singer’s hedge fund brought cases before the Supreme Court, Alito didn’t recuse himself. The judge also didn’t report the fishing trip to the Judicial Conference of the United States. 

LAST BEST PLACE PAC

Last Best Place PAC launched its Sheehy opposition campaign in September 2023, months ahead of its first finance disclosure deadline. Prior to that, the source of its money had been undisclosed.

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. 

In February, the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan election watchdog, filed a Federal Election Commission complaint against Last Best Place PAC for running ads attacking Sheehy without filing a legally required independent expenditure report. 

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. He donated $1,400 to Independent Gary Buchanan’s failed eastern district U.S. House campaign in 2022. 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.

AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY ACTION INC.

Americans for Prosperity Action Inc. is the political action committee of Americans for Prosperity, affiliated with billionaire Charles Koch. In one form or another, the group has been involved in Tester election runs since 2012, when, as a tax-exempt nonprofit with no obligation to disclose its donors, AFP launched the “Tester Truth Tour.” 

The tour featured a school bus that Americans for Prosperity turned into a rolling campaign call center. The bus stopped at parking lot rallies where conservatives were presented with Tester’s voting record and then invited to hop aboard to inform other voters. 

But the tour’s message was confusing because AFP, as a tax-exempt “social welfare group” under IRS rules, could only share facts about Tester’s record, not tell anyone to vote against him, or for his challenger at the time, Denny Rehberg, then Montana’s at-large Republican U.S. representative.

The tour’s merchandise table featured placards promoting Americans for Prosperity with no mention of Tester or Rehberg. Doing so would have cost the group’s donors their anonymity and required the group to pay taxes.

Americans for Prosperity Action Inc., as a PAC, can make its candidate preferences known, and has $126 million in donations to do so. Its spending against Tester is $1.8 million so far, the second-most of any outside group. Its spending supporting Sheehy is $3.2 million. 

Top donors include Koch Industries at $25 million, and three members of  Walton family, heirs to the Walmart family fortune, who collectively contributed $15 million. Members of Wyoming’s True family, some of whom also contributed to More Jobs, Less Government, chipped in $605,000 here.

Interest income totaling $2.5 million earned on AFP Action Inc. funds at Truist Bank ranks as the group’s ninth-largest revenue source. AFP Action Inc. reports $125.6 million in receipts.

VOTEVETS

VoteVets’ mission is “to elect veterans to public office: hold public officials accountable for their words and actions that impact America’s 21st century service members, veterans and their families.” The group endorses veterans for public office at all levels, among them Helena Mayor Wilmot Collins and state Senate candidate Kathleen Gilluly.

VoteVets, however, is opposing veteran Tim Sheehy for U.S. Senate, having spent more than $625,000 against Sheehy’s campaign, while supporting the congressional campaigns of three other veterans across the U.S., all of whom are running as Democrats.

Tax-exempt union groups, which don’t have to disclose donors, and union-affiliated political action committees, which do disclose donors, account for 10% of VoteVets’ $12.7 million. The United Association of Union Plumbers & Pipefitters is the top donor at $500,000.

The group hasn’t spent money supporting Tester, but the group’s United States Senate Lobbying Disclosure shows that the affiliated VoteVets Action Fund lobbied for several bills sponsored by the senator, including the Great American Outdoors Act and previous versions of the Major Richard Star Act, a combat veterans benefits bill that Tester now sponsors. 

END CITIZENS UNITED

End Citizens United is a liberal political action committee that gets its name from the lawsuit that opened the floodgates to political spending by corporations and outside groups. Citizens United v. U.S. Federal Election Commission stemmed from the FEC, in 2008, prohibiting conservative nonprofit Citizens United from airing an opposition video to Hillary Clinton before the primary election season. The FEC said it was too close to the election for the video to air.

The Supreme Court ruled the FEC violated Citizens United’s right to free speech, that money is free speech, and that third-party campaign spending can’t be limited so long as the groups doing the spending aren’t coordinating with campaigns, candidates or political parties, which are subject to contribution limits. 

So far, End Citizens United, which has about $13 million, has spent $500,000 on content opposing Sheehy — the most the group has spent on any of the nine candidates it’s focusing on this election. The group has spent more than $63,700 supporting Tester.

The PAC’s largest donors are the estate of Janet Griesinger, located in Ohio, which contributed $158,590, and the affiliated PAC End Citizens United/Let America Vote, which has contributed $100,000.

Most of the PAC’s donations are less than $500. Total donors number 98,773, according to quarterly reports filed July 15.

SENTINEL ACTION FUND

Sentinel Action Fund is a conservative PAC with $15.6 million that’s focused on three candidates this election: Sheehy, Tester, and Bernie Moreno, a Republican candidate for Senate in Ohio running against incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown. 

Sentinel has spent $1.2 million supporting Sheehy and $111,600 opposing Tester.

Sens. Brown and Tester are the two highest-ranked Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee. Sentinel’s biggest donor, at $4 million, is Timothy Mellon, a billionaire former owner of the Pan Am Systems rail company and heir to the Mellon banking fortune. The second-largest donor at $1.5 million is Jimmy John’s fast food restaurant founder James John Liautaud. And Sentinel Action has three million-dollar donors: Interactive Brokers founder Thomas Peterffy, investor Thomas D. Klingenstein (who is also chairman of the Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank), and Kenneth C. Griffin, the billionaire founder of Citadel, who is also the largest donor to More Jobs, Less Government.

MONTANA RURAL VOTERS (WORC)

Montana Rural Voters (WORC) is a Billings-based PAC that has spent $319,802 on media supporting Tester. The PAC’s donors are exclusively dark money nonprofit groups that do not disclose donors. 

The biggest of those dark money donors is Sixteen Thirty Fund, which reported $191.5 million in revenue in 2022 and has donated to multiple organizations and causes, including A Better Big Sky, Big Sky Voters PAC, Big Sky 55+, Clean Water Action, Forward Montana, Montana Budget and Policy Center and the Montana AFL-CIO.

A Better Big Sky, based in Missoula, is also the second-largest donor to Montana Rural Voters at $75,000. Tax filings for the group show donations to Montana Conservation Voters, the Western Organization of Resource Councils (WORC), and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Montana.

SAVE OUR COUNTRY

Save Our Country is a PAC whose biggest donor is the right-leaning small donations firm Targeted Victory, which accounts for all of Save Our Country’s $950,000 pot.

The PAC’s content supports three Republican candidates, including Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and two military veterans running for Senate: Sam Brown of Nevada and Montana candidate Sheehy, whom the PAC has spent $250,000 promoting.

1889 PAC

1889 PAC: Similar to Last Best Place PAC, 1889 (named for the year Montana became a state) began spending money right out of the gate without disclosing who its donors are, and likely won’t disclose donors until mid-October, when the next quarterly reports are due.

However, 1889 PAC has disclosed its $295,286 in media buys supporting Tim Sheehy, and an identical amount it’s spent opposing Tester.

The statement of organization for 1889 PAC identifies Les Williamson, of Houston, Texas, as treasurer. Williamson turns up on multiple campaign expense reports filed by Republican campaign committees. 

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Publish date : 2024-09-02 06:01:00

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