If there’s anyone who can empathize with the voters of Georgia’s 6th Congressional District, who have been blitzed by a flurry of political canvassers, robo-calls and attack ads for the better part of three months, it’s the people of Montana.
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Their statewide congressional race has become the subject of the same national intrigue that’s shaped the special election in the north Atlanta suburbs to replace Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price. Montana voters head to the polls Thursday to select who will succeed Ryan Zinke, who vacated his U.S. House seat this spring to serve as interior secretary.
While neither race will shift the balance of power in the House of Representatives, whoever wins is expected to create some early national momentum in the lead-up to the 2018 midterm elections.
Those stakes — combined with Democrat Jon Ossoff’s near-outright win during the first round of 6th District voting last month — have fueled a surge of outside interest in Montana’s contest.
The attention is being met here with a mix of excitement, curiosity, frustration and exhaustion, depending on who you ask.
“Who’s going to change their mind at this point?” said Alan Davis, a land trust program coordinator. “Many of us voted by mail weeks ago.”
Some locals said they were thrilled that their sparsely populated state of 1 million people is for once winning national attention.
“We tend to think only the big, high-population states” have a voice in politics, said Patricia Spencer, a marketing and social media manager. “Well, our state matters just as much — that’s the message that we’re sending nationally. Suddenly the nation’s also saying, ‘This congressional race in Montana is pretty important.’ ”
Others say they’re sick of the nonstop attack ads and politicking and that they tuned out weeks ago. Some said they’ve started screening phone calls from unknown numbers and telling off phone bankers promoting the opposing party’s candidate. One young voter said he’s watched more programming on commercial-free online streaming sites such as Netflix in part to avoid the political ads running on television.
“I’m ready for it to be over at this point,” a woman named Judy said as she walked through downtown Wednesday.
There are plenty of parochial issues, including land access and state taxes, framing the race between Republican Greg Gianforte, a billionaire former technology executive who frames himself as an outsider businessman similar to President Donald Trump, and Democrat Rob Quist, a folk musician and political novice.
But since the Montana race is being framed as a barometer of both Trump’s popularity and the strength of the left’s nascent opposition movement — just as the metro Atlanta contest is — it’s attracted a similar onslaught of attention from outside groups, including many based in Washington and other East Coast cities, seeking to sway the results.
Many of the same outside groups that have spent millions to sway Georgia voters have also been active here, bankrolling door-to-door canvassers and political attack ads to blanket television and radio in this corner of the Rockies. The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with House Speaker Paul Ryan, has invested seven figures in each race, as has the National Republican Congressional Committee. Both have cut ads seeking to link Quist and Ossoff to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a polarizing political figure in both districts.
Meanwhile, the liberal fundraising website the Daily Kos helped direct thousands of small donors from across the country to pump up Quist’s campaign coffers, much like it did with Ossoff in the opening weeks of Georgia’s 6th District race. The progressive MoveOn.org has also been active in both races, as has the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Many of those outside groups have sent a swell of staff members, volunteers and political professionals here, which has also attracted national reporters from Washington and New York. Ditto for celebrity endorsements and campaigners, which have raised the eyebrows of some here.
“We have Hollywood coming in and vacationing here, but not usually endorsing candidates. So that’s kind of curious,” said Erin Inman, an attorney who came to watch a Gianforte stump speech Wednesday at Helena’s GOP headquarters. “It doesn’t bother me. I think it’s kind of funny.”
Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., recently visited the state to campaign with Gianforte, as did Vice President Mike Pence. Quist was recently joined on the trail by Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, and he has received donations from Rosie O’Donnell and Jeff Bridges. Actress Alyssa Milano came to Montana to drive voters to the polls recently, similar to what she did in Georgia earlier this spring.
Television advertising in the Atlanta area is notoriously expensive. But airtime has always been relatively cheap in Montana, so many voters say they’re accustomed to the barrage of attack ads. Some said they’re willing to put up with the spotlight if it means getting their candidate of choice into office.
“Everybody’s tired of the election process and wants to get it over with, but on the other hand we’d like to see a good, solid replacement for Ryan Zinke,” retired businessman Jerry Skillman said. “I think we’re willing to put up with a few months of hard campaigning to have somebody to represent us well.”
Spencer said all the national voices seeking to influence the Montana race have had at least one positive, if unintended, consequence.
“If anything, I think it’s made people question more and do their own research instead of accepting the messages that are being distributed,” she said.
Some voters in Georgia’s 6th District, which includes portions of Cobb, DeKalb and Fulton counties, said they’ve similarly grown disaffected by the outside messaging.
“I’ll put it this way: These ads mean nothing to me,” said Patrick Anglin, a Dunwoody entrepreneur exhausted by the barrage. “My mind was made up before and it’s made up now. No fancy productions are going to change it — a complete waste of money.”
It hasn’t been all for naught. Anglin did admit he gets a kick out of the recent spate of GOP ads linking Ossoff to San Francisco. “That one,” he said, “was pretty funny.”
6th DISTRICT RUNOFF
Republican Karen Handel and Democrat Jon Ossoff face each other in a June 20 runoff to fill the congressional seat Tom Price vacated to become secretary of health and human services.
For more articles about the campaign — including candidate profiles, stories focusing on the issues of the race and finance reports — go to www.myAJC.com/politics.
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