Politics

GOP-funded ad praises Montana Senate candidate for opposing Paul Ryan’s budget

Alex Pappas Political Reporter
Font Size:

It almost sounds like something you’d hear from the Democrats, but it isn’t.

The Montana Republican Party paid for an ad praising the state’s GOP U.S. Senate candidate, Denny Rehberg, for voting against House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan’s budget in 2011.

“Rehberg refused to support a Republican budget plan that could harm the Medicare program so many of Montana’s seniors rely on,” the ad’s narrator says.

Rehberg, a sitting congressman, was one of only four Republicans in the U.S. House to vote against Ryan’s budget plan in March 2011.

He is now challenging Democratic Sen. John Tester in what’s expected to be a close race. In the ad released this week, the party argues that Rehberg is not a Republican Party loyalist.

“Denny Rehberg is different,” the ad continues. “An independent thinker. Rehberg refuses to toe the party line.”

The ad brags that Rehberg “opposed his party” by voting against the Central American Free Trade Agreement and “President Bush’s Wall Street bailout.”

“In a very partisan town, Denny Rehberg stands out,” the narrator adds.

Asked to comment on the party paying for an ad that criticizes Ryan’s budget, Montana GOP spokesman Chris Shipp told TheDC: “Denny Rehberg has been an independent leader who has always put Montana values first.”

Watch:

Follow Alex on Twitter