{"id":14575,"date":"2016-10-17T09:10:21","date_gmt":"2016-10-17T15:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=14575"},"modified":"2016-10-17T09:10:21","modified_gmt":"2016-10-17T15:10:21","slug":"gops-statewide-candidates-unfazed-by-trumps-missteps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2016\/10\/gops-statewide-candidates-unfazed-by-trumps-missteps\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP’s statewide candidates unfazed by Trump’s missteps"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Signs\"<\/a>

Martin Kidston\/Missoula Current<\/p>

Attorney General Tim Fox, left, and gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte, both Republicans, wave to motorists on Friday during a rally that united the state GOP\u2019s top-tier candidates in Missoula.<\/p><\/div>\n

The candidates running at the top of the Montana Republican Party\u2019s statewide ticket gathered\u00a0Friday\u00a0evening in Missoula to rally their base heading into November\u2019s election, each promising to bring change to Helena if elected to office.<\/p>\n

The statewide tour of potential land board members included GOP gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte and Attorney General Tim Fox. Elsie Arntzen, who\u2019s running for state superintendent of public instruction, Matt Rosendale for state auditor, and Corey Stapleton for secretary of state, also joined\u00a0Friday\u2019s\u00a0rally, held just west of downtown Missoula at the GOP\u2019s local headquarters.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s a big day\u2014people are beginning to vote,\u201d Gianforte said. \u201cThe election has started. We\u2019re out to say thank you, reemphasize our message and rally the troops.\u201d<\/p>\n

The candidates\u2019 campaign posters hung pasted inside the front window of the Missoula office alongside a similar poster for Donald Trump\u2014the party\u2019s candidate for president. The sign read, \u201cThe silent majority stands with Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump remains embroiled in controversy over alleged past sexual assaults\u2014allegations he has denied\u2014and vulgar language used to describe women.<\/p>\n

Some national GOP leaders fear that Trump\u2019s recent missteps could hurt down-party office seekers, though the state\u2019s top GOP candidates said they didn’t think it would discourage Montana\u2019s Republican voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be perfectly honest. I don\u2019t know how much that\u2019s going to impact the voting here in Montana, because I think that folks are really focused on their statewide candidates and their local legislators,\u201d Rosendale said. \u201cThey\u2019ve recognized that their statewide candidates and local legislators are going to have a much greater impact on what happens here in the state than at the national level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rosendale, who was elected to serve in the state Legislature in 2010 and was appointed as the Senate majority leader in 2014, said he\u2019s bothered when candidates, including Trump, stray from the issues.<\/p>\n

None of the candidates criticized Trump for his recent comments. Rather, they cited the need to stay on message, saying it\u2019s what voters in Montana are most interested in hearing.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>\u201cI always try to keep the discussion on the issues themselves, and keep everything else out of it,\u201d Rosendale said. \u201cThat\u2019s what the people really want to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each of the Republican candidates expressed a need to bring change to Helena. For Gianforte, that means fewer regulations, lower taxes and a more business-friendly state government.<\/p>\n

Gianforte said the party\u2019s top Montana candidates have put forward a platform that looks to bolster the state\u2019s business climate and create more jobs. Trump\u2019s campaign would have little impact on the statewide vote, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis federal race has not turned out the way anybody expected it to,\u201d Gianforte said. \u201cThe No. 1 issue I hear when I travel around Montana is federal overreach. People will make decisions based on the individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vondene Kopetski, chair of the Missoula County Republican Central Committee, said Trump\u2019s struggling campaign has not hurt her party\u2019s ability to muster candidates, nor will it impact their chances of getting elected.<\/p>\n

For the first time that she can remember, she said, Missoula County Republicans have placed a candidate in 13 of the 14 local legislative races.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s an insult to my intelligence, as a woman, for the Hillary (Clinton) campaign to try to make women like me feel that\u2019s even important,\u201d Kopetski said in reference to Trump\u2019s comments on women. \u201cIt\u2019s a bunch of smoke, as far as I\u2019m concerned, and all of the women I know feel the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kopetski said Republican women in Montana are more concerned about the country\u2019s future, including jobs, affordable housing and taxes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re concerned about so many other things than the really stupid, made-up things the other side is saying and something Donald Trump said 11 years ago,\u201d Kopetski said. \u201cWe believe in the Second Amendment and our First Amendment rights, and none of that has anything to do with what Donald Trump said 11 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rosendale said Montana Republicans are motivated, and he believes they\u2019ll vote in the General Election, regardless of what happens at the top of the party\u2019s ticket in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have enthusiastic voters, and we\u2019re going to maintain that through the General Election,\u201d Rosendale said. \u201cIf we do that, there\u2019s going to be some major changes in Helena, for the good, and major changes for the sate.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Missoula Current<\/a>, an independent online newspaper, of which\u00a0Martin Kidston is the founding editor.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The candidates running at the top of the Montana Republican Party\u2019s statewide ticket gathered\u00a0Friday\u00a0evening in Missoula to rally their base heading into November\u2019s election, each promising to bring change to Helena if elected to office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":97,"featured_media":14576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14],"tags":[702,2853,4553,335,553,1782],"class_list":["post-14575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-montana","category-news","tag-corey-stapleton","tag-donald-trump","tag-elsie-arntzen","tag-greg-gianforte","tag-matt-rosendale","tag-tim-fox","prominence-category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/97"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}