Posted: July 18, 2012 at 8:06 pm

The Montana GOP Hypocrite of the Week Award Goes to…

Daines Hypocrite Award….Steve Daines, the Republican millionaire who makes his money shipping American jobs overseas.

Mr. Daines first revealed his hypocrisy to Montana voters when he said that we need more transparency in Congress. If Daines really wants more transparency in Congress, he should probably remove himself from the Montana house race.

Here’s what happened.  Responding to Kim Gillan’s call for Montana’s next Member of Congress to pledge that they will place their assets in Blind Trust to avoid ethical conflicts of interest in Congress, a Daines spokesperson said in the Billings Gazette that Congress need to focus on “the real issues of increasing transparency.”

But even the briefest glance at Daines’ background reveals that Steve Daines is not really a big transparency fan.Take the two $10,000 donations Daines collected for his political action committee (PAC) called the “Daines Montana Victory Committee.”

The law says that Daines must report the occupation and employer of his PAC’s donors.  However, months have passed since Daines received the cash and he still hasn’t made that information public. That’s what makes him an award winning hypocrite.

The checks came from a Sid Greehy and a Sam Tallis, who both claimed 214 Main Street in Scobey, Montana, as their address. This same address is listed as belonging to the Shale Exploration Oil Company, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas.  An internet search shows that Greehy is the CEO of the Shale Exploration and Tallis is the Texas company’s president.  Neither Greehey or Tallis were found in a search of Montana voting registration records.

Of course this isn’t the first time Daines has hidden his financial backers from Montanans.  Back in 2007, Daines started a shadow 501(c)4 organization that attacked the Governor Schweitzer for being fiscally conservative.  When asked in the Billings Gazette to disclose who was funding his front group, Daines declined:

“Daines has declined to reveal who’s funding the group or how much it has spent, and he said GiveItBack.com will disclose whatever is required under the law.”

 

11 comments

  1. Paul S.

    Daines is a complete joke. He’ll be another Rehberg, only more fundi religious conservative. What’s interesting is that over the past 10 years, Baucus and Rehberg have been partners quite a bit–Rehberg is the only Repub who is dumb enough to work with Baucus–either that or he is trading favors. Will the same happen with Daines? Why isn’t Baucus campaigning against him.

  2. goMoma

    if the address listed is the business, does that mean these are corporate contributions? was the money written on a company check? if so, does that make Daines the first federal candidate in Montana to openly take corporate money after citizen’s united?

  5. Dan T.

    Of course it’s corporate money! These two don’t even live in montana. Daines is Montana’s first corporate candidate since the copper Barron senator that the US Senate booted from office.

  7. john

    Wow,and all this time I thought obomber was the the only
    dirt bag okaying the out sourcing of u.s jobs overseas.
    GOOOOLLLLLY !