Big money in Montana politics - it's all in the reporting

A recent Bozeman Chronicle article headline:


Out-of-state funds flow into Mont. 

Senate race Both Tester and Rehberg get majority of campaign gifts from out-of-state sources 

The article informs us: "An Associated Press analysis of available fundraising reports from 2011 shows that both raked in large amounts of outside money through individual contributions. Somewhat surprisingly, given his attacks on Tester, it’s Rehberg who collects a slightly higher percentage from out-of-state. The Republican gets 78 percent of all his money collected through individual contributions from people who live outside Montana. Tester gets 73 percent of his money from nonresidents."

The first paragraph might be as far as anyone might read of this 800 word report. One might reasonably conclude that it is the typical Republican big money machine that is winning out over Democrat Tester's weaker showing. But if we continue reading, we find that this isn't the case at all:

"The latest reports available for both looked at data reported for the first three quarters of 2011. Rehberg shows $1.3 million from individual contributors, while Tester reeled in $3.1 million. Tester has also been winning the money war in contributions collected from Montana — by a large amount. Tester reeled in $840,000 from Montana individual contributors, while Rehberg collected $286,000, according to the reports."

Shazzam! Didn't we just learn that the author, Matt Gouras, was surprised that Rehberg  "...collects a slightly higher percentage from out-of-state?" That editorial comment in a "news" story was designed to color the perception of the reader so they might conclude that Rehberg is a hypocrite for complaining about out-of-state money. Yet Rehberg has collected only 42% of the out-of-state money that Tester has!

We have to do some math to determine the whole picture. Tester's war chest is $840,000 + $3.1 million = $3.94 million. Rehberg's is $286,000 + $1.3 million = $1.586 million. Therefore, Rehberg has 40% of the money that Tester has.

Despite Mr. Gouras' characterization, clearly the big money is going to Democrat Tester.