Serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis. © James Conner.
Two days ago, Democratic candidate for the U.S. House John Lewis’ campaign released a statement beginning:
(BILLINGS, Mont.) - U.S. House candidate John Lewis has raised more than $200,000 over the past three months — the most ever raised by a Democratic U.S. House candidate in the fourth quarter before an election year.
I didn’t use it. That kind of boast, aimed mostly at Lewis’ supporters and potential donors instead of the general public, should be made within the campaign to boost morale, not released to the news media to pound one’s chest in public. But if it is released to the whole wide world, it had better be right on the facts.
Lewis, it appears, may not have gotten the facts right. Montana Pundit, a new astroturf, anonymous blog from the right, probably operated by interests sympathetic to Matt Rosendale, found that Nancy Keenan may have raised more money in the fourth quarter of 1999 than Lewis did in the fourth quarter of 2013. (Keenan lost to Denny Rehberg in 2000.)
Notice something about the contributions? Keenan raised $324,534 during the last half of 1999. Do the math (and we did): take away every contribution made to her campaign in the third quarter (July 1, 1999 to September 30, 1999) from the full amount, and you’ll find that her fourth quarter (October 1, 1999 to December 30, 1999) fundraising was about $250K.
So wait a second, didn’t John Lewis say that his $204K (vs. Keenan’s $250K) represented “the most ever raised by a Montana Democratic candidate for a House race in the fourth quarter of a year before an election year [?]” Clearly not.
John Lewis and his Washington insider-focused campaign have some explaining to do. Here’s a candidate who’s deliberately trying to deceive voters, creating the facade that he’s setting records when in actuality he’s not.
Gotcha!
This kind of petty gamesmanship drives voters crazy. Lewis wasn’t lying. He was victimized by substandard staff work. And Montana Pundit’s gotcha, while professionally done, amounts to making a molehill from a pothole.
Enough already.