Daines faces two opponents in GOP Senate primary

HELENA — U.S. Rep. Steve Daines, Montana’s only congressman, is trying to step up this year to the U.S. Senate — and the Republican primary election next month may be just a bump in the road on his path to the general election this fall.

Daines, 51, has two opponents in the June 3 Republican primary. But they are largely unknown to many Montana voters and Daines has strong backing from party leaders and regulars.

Daines also looks like an early favorite to win the U.S. Senate seat held for the last 35 years by Democrat Max Baucus. Recent polls give him a double-digit lead over incumbent Democratic Sen. John Walsh, who was appointed to succeed Baucus in February after the latter became U.S. ambassador to China.

But both Daines and Walsh face primary opposition on June 3 before they can square off against each other in the general election.

Daines’ opponents in the GOP primary are state Rep. Champ Edmunds of Missoula, who has been campaigning for the seat for more than a year, and Susan Cundiff of Missoula, a surprise candidate who filed the last day that candidates could get on the primary ballot.

Edmunds has been traveling the state, attending dozens of local Republican Party dinners and events since announcing in February 2013 that he planned to take on Baucus.

Yet once Baucus announced in April 2013 that he would not run for re-election, Edmunds’ candidacy has been largely eclipsed by Daines, who was lobbied hard by fellow Republicans to get into the contest and made it official last November.

Daines, a former business executive from Bozeman, ran unsuccessfully as lieutenant governor in 2008 and launched a bid in November 2010 to take on U.S. Sen. Jon Tester in 2012. He abandoned that race when then-U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg decided in February 2011 to challenge Tester, and instead ran for and won the House seat vacated by Rehberg.

Daines won that race with relative ease in 2012, defeating Democrat Kim Gillan by 10 percentage points.

Edmunds has been pitching himself as the “true conservative” in the race and saying Daines’ voting record is not as conservative as it should be. Edmunds wants to slash government spending and regulation, turning loose natural resource development and the free market in health care and other areas.

Cundiff, a 36-year-old department assistant at the University of Montana School of Business Administration, has had a minimal campaign, appearing at a handful of Republican Party events since she got into the race.

Both are swimming upstream in the primary against the popular, better-known and well-funded Daines, who has his own conservative credentials. He has been endorsed by the Tea Party Express and votes most of the time with the U.S. House Republican majority and against President Barack Obama’s agenda.

Daines has raised $3.6 million in campaign funds and had about $2.2 million left in his campaign account as of March 31.

Edmunds has raised about $36,000, including a $9,500 personal loan to his campaign, and had about $1,600 in his campaign fund March 31. Cundiff said she had raised between $4,000 and $5,000.

Distributed by MCT Information Services