A reporter never knows when a story, or more specifically a single comment from a story, is going to start making the rounds in the political arena. For me, that has been the case with a story I wrote last month after an interview with Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg.
Rehberg told me that he wants “100 percent transparency” in campaign finances but added that he and his opponent in the U.S. Senate race, Jon Tester, are “along for the ride” because they can’t control third-party spending. The short story generated little attention and no controversy.
But recently Tester seized on those comments in a letter he wrote to Rehberg asking the congressman to agree to a ban on third-party advertisements in their heated race. The ceasefire agreement comes with a set of terms, outlined in Tester’s letter, and requires Rehberg’s signature.
The letter opens: “I appreciated your comments in the Flathead Beacon last month about third-party expenditures – that you and I are ‘along for the ride’ when it comes to the attack ads neither of us control.”
“Rather than just go ‘along for the ride,’ let’s do our part to steer this campaign toward Montana’s values of honesty, accountability and transparency in elections,” Tester writes at the end of the letter. “The people we serve deserve no less.”
The letter has led to a number of news stories, both local and national, with Rehberg’s campaign calling it an “interesting proposal” and deciding what to do next. I guess it should never be surprising to see how far a couple of short quotes can go in politics.