HELENA — In your mailbox, online, on your phone and on TV – it’s been hard for Montanans to avoid political ads this year.
“I’m going to wreck my mute button on my TV, because they keep showing the same stupid ads over and over and over again,” said Jane Anthony, a Helena resident.
“It's definitely a drag,” said Jim Cottingham, also of Helena. “You know, you just want to listen to a song or something, and then it's like ‘Shady Sheehy’ or ‘Two-Term Tester’ or whatever.”
With a week to go before Election Day, MTN spoke to a lot of Montana voters who all felt the same way.
“Totally overwhelmed by it all,” said Helena resident Thelma Sagan.
This year, Montana’s been at the center of one of the most expensive races in the U.S.: the campaign for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Democratic Sen. Jon Tester. The race between Tester and Republican challenger Tim Sheehy could determine which party controls the Senate next year, and that’s put Montana in the national political spotlight.
As of the latest pre-election campaign finance deadline last week, the total spending in the race has exceeded $255 million – shattering the previous mark of more than $160 million spent by this point in the 2020 U.S. Senate race between Republican Sen. Steve Daines and Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock.
Between them, the two major-party campaigns have spent more than $100 million since the start of 2023 – almost $79.2 million by Tester’s campaign and $21.9 million by Sheehy’s. The nonpartisan organization OpenSecrets tracks spending by outside groups, and they’ve identified another $155 million in independent expenditures – split almost evenly between pro-Sheehy and pro-Tester.
OpenSecrets lists Montana’s Senate race as the third most expensive congressional election in the country this year (https://www.opensecrets.org/elections-overview/most-expensive-races?cycle=2024&display=allcandsout), behind only the Senate campaigns in Ohio and Pennsylvania. However, when you look at how much is spent per voter, Montana is clearly at the top of the list. All together, the campaigns and outside groups have put in about $226 for every person in the state. In Ohio, that number is closer to $34, and in Pennsylvania it’s around $22.
These numbers don’t even count what’s been spent on other races in Montana:
- In the western congressional district (https://www.opensecrets.org/races/summary?cycle=2024&id=MT01), incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke has spent almost $7.6 million and Democrat Monica Tranel has spent almost $4.9 million, with another $4 million in outside spending.
- In the eastern congressional district, Republican State Auditor Troy Downing has spent $2.5 million through the primary and general election and received more than $750,000 in support from outside groups (https://www.opensecrets.org/races/summary?cycle=2024&id=MT02). Democrat John Driscoll chose not to spend more than the $5,000 federal reporting minimum, while write-in candidate Reilly Neill reported spending just under $9,500.
- In the race for Montana governor, incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte and Democratic challenger Ryan Busse have each spent about $2.5 million since the start of the election cycle.
- The main committee supporting CI-128, a measure to incorporate abortion rights into the Montana Constitution, has spent more than $11 million, while the sponsors of CI-126 and CI-127, a pair of ballot measures to overhaul Montana’s election system, have spent more than $6 million.
Voters MTN talked to weren’t only tired of the volume of political ads, they also felt put off by the tone of them.
“It's not WWF from the 1980s,” said Cottingham. “It's supposed to be an intellectual discussion – like, ‘Here's the issue, what are we going to do about it?’”
“There's no substance to them at all,” Anthony said.
The number of potential voters who could be swayed by political ads is dropping all the time. More than 284,000 Montanans had already returned their absentee ballots as of Oct. 28 – more than a third of all registered voters in the state.
With only a week left for campaigns to make their pitches, there’s light at the end of the tunnel for fed-up Montanans.
“I'm looking forward to having the results in, and then we can get back to doing our regular routines,” said Sagan.
