MT Libertarian Breckenridge Explains ‘Endorsement’ of Republican Matt Rosendale
When it comes to October surprises in the Montana U.S. Senate Race, easily the biggest surprise happened on Halloween, when Libertarian Senate candidate Rick Breckenridge publicly stated that he was standing in unity and solidarity with Republican candidate Matt Rosendale to combat dark money in Montana politics. He went on to say “I’m here today to endorse Matt and his candidacy.” After much push-back, Breckenridge still says he hopes libertarians will still vote for him, and explains the endorsement this way.
"The word I wanted to use... you know.. , 'support' wasn't strong enough and 'endorsement' was over-the-top, but it got everybody's attention and the bottom line is the Libertarian Party in Montana got $25 million of publicity," Breckenridge said.
Breckenridge says he felt he needed to speak-out after flyers purporting to be from his campaign were targeting Rosendale with blatant lies.
"There was one that was 4th amendment hit-piece on Matt Rosendale that talked about him wanting to collect personal information by drones," Breckenridge said. "I supported Matt on a bill that he had that he got signed into law, where it was just the opposite. He got a law signed where any drone collection of personal information if it wasn't done without a warrant from a court of competent jurisdiction that it couldn't' be used in court... and that's on the books today, so that was an out-and-out lie."
Breckenridge says the flyer was too personal for him not to confront head-on.
"The dark money this time, crossed the line," Breckenridge said. "They actually put my phone number on there, so I started getting calls just left and right and text messages, you know, just 'lies, lies, lies' one woman called up just said 'I've never heard of you, but how do you come up with these lies?' You know, you could almost feel the anger, also, you could almost feel the frustration. So, I could sit and do nothing better, which, Libertarians seem to like that course of action, or I could be proactive and actually preempt this thing because it's going to affect my business and my clientele in the Flathead and in Lake County where I live and work."
Despite all the hubbub, Breckenridge says he was never told what to say by the Rosendale campaign and that he remains a Libertarian in good standing with the Montana Libertarian Party.
You can hear Breckenridge's comments yourself during the first ten minutes or so of the interview here;