#MTGov Daily Rundown: Throwback Thursday: Bullock Receives Rough Reception in Colstrip

Greg Gianforte is in Colstrip yet again today. Since announcing he was considering a run for governor last fall, Gianforte has been to Colstrip several times to meet with community members and discuss the importance of saving the Colstrip Power Plant and mine. Meanwhile, when Governor Bullock finally decided to do a quick fly in, and fly out check the box meeting, he received an earful from residents.

"'Part of our problem is that we have lost sight of the value and we haven’t done what we should do to communicate the value of what we are to the rest of the state,' [Colstrip Mayor John] Williams said. 'Colstrip is out of sight out of mind, setting out here.'

The mayor called on Bullock to carry the message of the importance of Colstrip to the rest of the state. Williams' comments drew applause from a crowd of roughly 40 spectators." -Billings Gazette, 5/31/2016

"Terry Taylor, who owns a hardware store in Colstrip, said Bullock’s team, particularly the Department of Environmental Quality, had done more harm than good. He faulted the state for accepting $86 million from now-bankrupt Arch Coal for a lease on nearby Otter Creek coal, but then not granting the company a permit before a sour coal economy devastated it.

'We feel like you’re a very handsome, smooth, intelligent man, but we don’t feel like you’re getting excited about what’s going on,' Taylor said. 'We feel like the Department of Environmental Quality is letting everything happen to us and not fighting for us. The state of Montana took $80 million from Arch Coal. Can you imagine that Arch Coal would be broke if they had that money? This kind of stuff goes on time and time and time again and we’re really frustrated.'” -Billings Gazette, 5/31/2016

The article notes that "Taylor's comments drew the largest applause of the meeting."

Steve Bullock has already been criticized for raising nearly $5 million in dark money from anti-coal and anti-Keystone Pipeline activists. Now, another anti-coal special interest group- Montana Conservation Voters- is spending big bucks to back Bullock. The MCV is reportedly planning to spend $500,000 campaigning against the pro-coal and pro-Colstrip candidate Greg Gianforte.

As evidence of their anti-coal views, the MCV is even opposing a Northern Cheyenne tribal member, labor union leader, and Colstrip worker named Jason Small simply because he is opposed to Obama's Clean Power Plan.

In fact, 5 of the Board Members on the MEIC – the group responsible for shutting down Colstrip Units 1 & 2 – wrote checks to the Bullock campaign.

"But Republicans accused Bullock of being a coal phony, pointing out the five members of the MEIC board of directors are contributors to the governor’s re-election campaign. "–Billings Gazette, 07/14/2016

Meanwhile, the community of Colstrip is not giving up the fight yet, and neither is Greg Gianforte.

“We’re hearing career politicians like the current governor throwing in the towel on Colstrip as if it were already gone. Let me speak clearly to the working families all across this state: the fight isn’t over yet. And with change in November- we will fight to save Colstrip.” -Greg Gianforte