Gianforte makes final campaign stop in Flathead

Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte made a brief stop in Columbia Falls Friday, urging supporters to help drive turnout in the Flathead Valley during his final statewide campaign tour before Election Day.

Speaking at Laurie’s Deli alongside his running mate, Republican Lt. Gov. candidate Leslie Robinson, Gianforte sought to push back against Democrats’ attacks on his records on public land access and allegations that he once supported a sales tax, while he worked to pin recent charges of whistleblower retaliation to his Democratic opponent, incumbent Gov. Steve Bullock.

“We’ve seen hush money paid to whistleblowers, public records deleted when the current Governor was Attorney General,” he said. “At least when Hillary deleted emails, she apologized.”

During a campaign stop in Kalispell earlier in the week, Bullock denied the Republicans’ charges, which have appeared frequently in campaign advertisements while drawing criticism for misrepresenting newspaper reports of the incidents.

The gubernatorial race in Montana has been characterized by protracted mud-slinging from both sides, and is currently on track to set the state’s record for campaign spending, according to the Associated Press.

Since announcing his candidacy last year, Gianforte has promised to support more natural resource development on public lands. Noting Columbia Falls’ recent loss of 230 jobs at two now-shuttered Weyerhaeuser lumber mills, the Bozeman businessman blamed the Bullock administration for failing to ensure a consistent supply of logs to the lumber yards.

“Particularly in a community like this, we’re sort of like a man on a raft in the middle of a lake, dying of thirst,” Gianforte told a crowd that included several local Republican leaders and legislative candidates.

In an interview before the speeches, Robinson said she hoped to bring a rural perspective to the governor’s office in Helena, which she said has been missing from the state’s executive branch under Bullock. A Malta-area rancher, Robinson is currently a Phillips County Commissioner and also represents 15 western states on the National Association of Counties.

“If you’re not in ag or you don’t live in a rural area, you don’t understand some of the challenges we face,” Robinson said, adding that health care and economic development services can be especially spotty in the eastern edge of the state.

Both Robinson and Gianforte referred to their “Regulation Roundup” tour as a basis for cuts to state regulations if elected, but have not specified which regulations they would target, outside of the state’s business equipment tax.

“It’s really big-picture right now,” Robinson said. “As soon as the election is over, we can focus on what needs to be done.”

The GOP candidates’ stop in the Flathead Valley came between visits to Browning and Eureka during their statewide whistlestop tour, which will cover more than 40 Montana cities as the campaign season winds to a close.

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.