(Quin Hillyer, Liberty Headlines) The media call him the “cowboy crooner” and report that he sang several times (while he himself was clothed) at a nudist resort – so, for Montanans who pride themselves on defying the “establishment,” special-election congressional candidate Rob Quist may appear just the right flavor of “exotic” to be a populist messenger against Washington D.C.’s stuffed shirts.
But on national issues, Montana is a conservative state indeed, voting for the Republican presidential nominee in 12 of the previous 13 elections, so when its voters see Quist’s highly liberal positions, maybe they’ll pull back from giving him an upset victory in May 25’s election.
Toward that end, a political action committee called the Conservative Campaign Committee is turning the moniker “cowboy crooner” into the “singing socialist.” In trying to rally “all hands on deck,” the CCC joins conservative luminaries such as Vice President Mike Pence and presidential son Donald Trump Jr. to support Republican nominee Greg Gianforte for the seat that had previously been held by Republican Ryan Zinke. (Zinke is now U.S. Secretary of the Interior.) Politico reports that the national GOP is harping on familiar, anti-liberal themes in attacking Quist:
Quist “wants to join liberal Nancy Pelosi in Washington to spend even more and stick us with the bill,” one National Republican Congressional Committee ad says. The GOP has also attacked Quist’s financial troubles, spotlighting debts that are “piling up” in “property taxes liens, over $400,000 in foreclosure notices, collections.”
At the rally Friday, Republicans also hammered Quist’s position on guns and his “F” rating from the National Rifle Association, which has endorsed Gianforte….
[later in the article] … Then there’s the nudist camp in Idaho. It’s either a mark of Quist’s weirdness and hippie-ish tendencies or else it’s a sorta cool, out-of-the-box indication of both is open-mindedness and his talent as a singer – depending on whom you ask….