Gillan offers Daines congratulations on House win

(BILLINGS)- Billings Democrat Kim Gillan is offering her congratulations to House nominee Steve Daines, who swept to victory overnight in the race for Montana’s lone seat. 

Although the race was close in the initial tabulation of votes, Daines pulled away as the votes were counted from Montana’s larger counties, pushing him over 53%.

“I congratulate Mr. Daines and thank all Montanans for voting.  We are so lucky to live in a country where we can vote for our representatives.  I have tremendous respect for the process and everyone who voted,” Gillan said in a prepared statement. 

“This campaign was never about me.  It’s always been about the people of Montana.  To my family, my staff, and my supporters and volunteers all across Montana who gave your money, your time and your votes: Thank you!  I am so proud of the campaign we ran and I am so proud of you.

“Montanans are very lucky to have strong leaders like Max Baucus and Jon Tester in the U.S. Senate and Jon’s win is a win for all Montanans.”

Economic issues tops in Montana Congressional race

The debate was carried live on both PBS stations and streamed on the Montana PBS website(MISSOULA)- Spurring the economy, and how to cut government spending, are the dominate themes Tuesday night, as candidates for Montana’s lone seat in the House debate in Missoula.

Republican Steve Daines of Bozeman, Democrat Kim Gillan of Billings and Libertarian Dave Kaiser of Victor gathered in the Missoula studios at Montana PBS in a debate done before the cameras, but not in front of a live audience. The 90-minute debate was broadcast statewide. 

All three had ideas to create jobs in Montana, ranging from better worker re-training programs to cutting red tape.

“Let’s change our focus, and focus on the companies, the individuals in the United States who are going to use our talent and make sure they’re going to create jobs for the future," said Gillan. "I think the strategy we need to do is to work with Republicans and Democrats instead of starting from the extremes and find a way we can get the economy back on track.”

Kaiser, running for office for the first time, sounded a continued theme of cutting the size and influence of government. 

“All the waste, all the duplicate services out of the federal government. We’ll save an enormous amount of money. The also with regulations that are dated back to the 40s, 50s, 60s. We can eliminate them and let businesses do what they do best and not be impeded by the federal government.”

"we’ve got to attack the $16-trillion debt," said Daines in response to the jobs question. "It creates tremendous uncertainity. We have countries like China that we owe 1.1-trillion to. And so it’s going to take some broad, comprehensive bi-partisan support to get that done. These are big, big issues and the clock is ticking. We need to get to the people’s work back in Washington.”

Montanans get the spotlight at political conventions

Four years ago it was Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer who gave the nation a look at the Treasure State’s politics when he was a key speaker at the Democratic National Convention.

This year both parties will have Montana speakers take the stage.

Republican Steve Daines, who’s running to replace Congressman Denny Rehberg, has confirmed that he’s been invited to speak at the Republican Convention in Florida next week. Lee Newspapers are reporting Daines is scheduled to speak on Monday afternoon.

And he’s not the only one.

Montana Schools Superintendent Denise Juneau and Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice, former state lawmaker and school superintendent herself, are among 10-women who’ve been invited to speak at the Democratic National Convention in early September. 

Daines holds large lead in fund-raising for House seat

(BOZEMAN)- There's something to be said for having the right connections when it comes to financing a run for Congress.

Republican Steve Daines is showing he has a handle on that concept, having raised almost 5-times the amount of money than everyone else running for Representative Denny Rehberg's seat.

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports Daines has raised almost $1-million for his campaign, which has been underway for just over a year. Daines is the vice president of RightNow Technologies of Bozeman. 

Of the six Democratic candidates making a play for the Rehberg opening, only Whitefish businesswoman Diane Smith is showing she might be able to keep pace with Daines. The Chronicle says this week's reports shows Smith raising $100,000 during the first month, compared to $173,000 for Daines. 

Overall, State Senator Kim Gillian is running second in fund raising with just over $176,000.