Can Rehberg Be Beaten?

By gferren, Unfiltered 10-15-08

Can Rehberg Be Beaten?

Denny Rehberg’s visit to Mineral County earlier this year prompted me to review some Denny Rehberg history.
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/news/stories/20040611/localnews/621003.html

Since turning a third of his great-grandfather's 3,000 acre ranch into a lucrative real estate development, the 12th richest member of our United States House of Representatives, with personal wealth of somewhere between $10M and $60M, is no doubt a busy man. "Some residents feel Rehberg isn't delivering on his promises to develop an 18-hole golf course and to give residents access to large tracts of public lands near the development."
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Denny_Rehberg#Personal_finances
http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/CIDsummary.asp?CID=N00004645&year=2005

Denny Rehberg, while voting against increasing the federal minimum wage, has fought hard to end the Estate Tax for good reason…
Rehberg and the "Estate Tax"; "Rehberg is among the 60 or so wealthiest Montanans that in 2004 would have been subject to the Estate Tax, and one of the 24 that will likely be subject to it in 2009..."
http://pieceofmind.wordpress.com/2006/12/13/the-contemptable-behavior-of-denny-rehberg/

While in Mineral County, Rehberg touched slightly on the Secure Rural Schools Act of 2000, which he noted had expired "recently". In 2006 alone, $12.9 million went to 30 Montana counties through the Secure Rural Schools Act.
SRS (secure rural schools) was extended for one year in the Iraq Appropriations Act of 2007, but this extension ended in December 2007, with funding for Title II and Title III projects thru 2008.
http://www.house.gov/list/press/mt00_rehberg/011007_SRS.html
http://www.funoutdoors.com/node/view/1448
https://wwwnotes.fs.fed.us/r4/payments_to_states.nsf

“This is critical legislation for Montana’s rural schools, and I want be sure Montana’s priorities have a place at the budget table,” Rehberg said. “There is a right and a wrong way to ensure the Secure Rural Schools Act is sufficiently funded. The wrong way is to sell-off our public lands, that many Montanans use to enjoy hunting and fishing, for a one-time gain that provides only a temporary funding fix. The right way is to ensure Congress fully funds the Act through this year’s budget resolution.”
http://www.house.gov/list/press/mt00_rehberg/022806_LandSale.html
*(HR 1424, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, October 2008, aka “the bailout”, which includes federal Secure Rural Schools funding, has been approved by Congress and signed into law by President Bush.)

What Rehberg didn't mention in this statement was that in 2005, he voted for the notorious public lands sell-off measure authored by Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo and Nevada Congressman Jim Gibbons.
Pombo was given his "walking papers" for such shenanigans. "The measure, contained in a budget bill, passed the House by a narrow two-vote margin in the dead of night and without debate as part of its Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (H.R. 4241). Though the damaging bill was thwarted in the Senate, the Rehberg-supported proposal to sell-off hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands to the highest bidder flies in the face of Montana’s rich hunting and fishing tradition."
http://www.mtvoters.org/elected/u_s_representative_dennis_rehberg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pombo

Montana Challenge estimates that our natural resources, including the mountains and timber of public lands in Western Montana, bring in $1 Billion a year from recreational users and another $2 Billion from tourism. Selling off the asset that is our public lands to private interests seems more than a little shortsighted.
http://fwp.mt.gov/mtoutdoors/html/articles/2006/mtchallenge.htm

And regarding public lands the question that Rehberg should be answering for all Montanans is What has happened to (6) million acres of our public lands that quietly disappeared from the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) tally between the years 2000 – 2008?

Our lone Representative since 2000, Denny routinely outspends his opponents by wide margins and is re-elected. Long known as a Republican attack dog, aggressive debater, and always playing the classic conservative card, 2000 was the last close race for Denny, when campaign spending between him and his opponent was on a near equal basis. Looking at the numbers, one can draw their own conclusions;
(2000) $2,125,364 vs Keenan's $1,932,099, (2002) $949,631 vs Kelly's $18,757, (2004) $608,199 vs Velazquez's $127,716, (2006) $1,132,530 vs Lindeen's $501,425

2008 fund raising amounts (so far) ; Rehberg: raised $869,284 spent $491,459 cash on hand $675,890
Jim Hunt: raised $218,325 spent $149,886 cash on hand $68,439 (Rehberg Vs Jim Hunt, Robert Candee, John Driscoll…Once again Rehberg has enough money to buy the election.)
http://www.opensecrets.org/races/summary.asp?id=MT01&cycle=2000
http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.asp?cid=N00004645&cycle=2008

Did you know that in 2007, Rehberg voted against the Mandatory Troop Rest Periods between Deployments to Iraq bill?
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Denny_Rehberg
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/r000571/key-votes/

and against the Redeployment from Iraq Act.
See these links for Dennis Rehberg’s voting record on the Issues:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denny_Rehberg
http://www.ontheissues.org/House/Dennis_Rehberg.htm
http://www.vote-smart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=404
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/r000571/
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/r000571/key-votes/

Can Rehberg be beaten? The answer is Yes! And he should be. Montana’s future just can’t afford Rehberg’s type of leadership. There is no better time than November 4th 2008.
It’s past time to send Denny back to the “goat ranch” in Billings.

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