Dear Mr. Rehberg, Mr. Downing and Ms. Arntzen,
Politics and the way we choose our elected leaders in Montana matters.
As the 2024 primary election for Montana’s eastern and central Montana congressional district is culminating, Montana voters are experiencing the worst, most disrespectful and wrong deluge of millions of dollars of self-funded negative advertising on television and the Internet in our 135-year history.
As a candidate in this race, I have personally experienced and observed an emerging new paradigm in Montana politics that is deeply troubling to me. This negative Toxic Sludge Advertising dynamic is this:
1. Millionaire candidates stop or reduce their attendance at grassroots events and reaching out to voters and community leaders.
2. Millionaire candidates write a check for as much as a million dollars to their campaign.
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3. Millionaire candidates hire advertising companies from Washington, D.C., New York City or Chicago, and drop a hailstorm of self-funded negative ads on the people of eastern and central Montana using the most noxious content that their expensive polls tell them will trigger Montana voters.
4. Millionaire candidates stop showing up to televised debates where voters arrive or tune-in expecting to learn about the candidates, and are left meeting only the non-millionaire, non-self-funding candidates.
5. Millionaire candidates refuse to speak with reporters and fail to fill out questionnaires from credible news organizations.
I’m referring to the three of you.
This toxic new dynamic in Montana politics is both vexing and troubling. I’ve invested a good portion of my life this past year visiting people throughout eastern and central Montana, attending events from Baker to Choteau and Havre to Red Lodge. I’ve held 15 “Crush Chaos in the U.S. Congress with Joel Krautter” brewery stops and attended over a dozen Republican central committee sponsored events, nearly every one that has been held in the district. I’ve dropped in on local newspaper editors, radio stations and television reporters, allowing myself to be interviewed on any subject of their choosing. In short, I’ve invested my time, energy and passion for public service and for Montana into earning the votes necessary to win this race.
Every vote I earn is a vote that I will value and cherish. I feel the weight of the trust being placed in me when, in a time of historic dysfunction and uncertainty in the life of our nation, people tell me, “You’ve got my vote.” The people who vote for me understand my values are shared with them and they can trust that I’m committed to giving them everything I’ve got to give to work for them in Washington, not corporate lobbyists, party bosses or D.C. insiders.
Advertising is part of my campaign too. In stark contrast, my ads are made in Montana, include me speaking directly to voters and are truthful and paid for by many small-dollar donors who believe in me, the majority of whom live in Montana.
During this campaign it has been rare to run into you at events or in the communities of this district, in comparison to other non-millionaire candidates in this race who have been showing up. I get it. You think you can get away with this behavior because you are millionaire self-funding candidates who embrace the negative Toxic Sludge Advertising strategy and can avoid showing up to answer hard questions off-the-cuff.
Today, I’m calling on you to voluntarily pull your millions of dollars of self-funded, negative Toxic Sludge ads off Montana’s airwaves and off the Internet within the next 24 hours. You three can do this with one phone call to your East Coast advertising agencies. Please issue a public statement or be interviewed by a news outlet confirming that you have made this commitment to Montana voters. As a show of good faith, I’ll also take down any ad of my own you feel is a negative ad, if you take yours down, although I have not run any ad during this campaign calling another candidate out by name.
Sure, you’ll probably ignore this letter, or respond by calling it a political stunt, attack me with a negative Toxic Sludge ad or say, “this is just how politics is done in 2024.” And you have the freedom to run your own campaign how you think is best. But if you continue with the negative Toxic Sludge Advertising, that will confirm for every voter in the district that you’re just another business-as-usual politician in how you campaign, and that if elected, there’s no reason to think you won’t also continue the business-as-usual era of failed leadership in Washington that has put us into the current political mess.
Between the three of you, you’ve all held full-time elected offices in Montana for 30 combined years before seeking this office. Isn’t there something positive and meritorious you can highlight from all of those years of public service that you can use in your ads showing why you think you’re the best choice to serve in Congress, instead of tearing other candidates down?
It’s time for all the million-dollar self-funded negative Toxic Sludge Advertising to come to an end. Give Montana voters and communities a break until Election Day. Bringing the needed change in leadership to Washington, starts by showing political courage in running a different kind of campaign, instead of business as usual.
The people of eastern and central Montana deserve a better kind of politics and that’s what I’m committed to delivering for them in Washington.
Joel Krautter is a Republican candidate for Congress in Montana’s 2nd congressional district, covering eastern and central Montana, and is an attorney and small business owner in Billings and Sidney and a former state Legislator.
