When it comes to the only declared Democratic US Senate candidate in Montana, Politico says his past could be a problem for Democrats.
Here’s an excerpt from the story:
Dirk Adams is running for Senate as a cattle rancher, but that’s not how the 62-year-old made his millions.
The only Democrat currently running for an open seat in Montana is a career banking executive with a business record that could be problematic for his party if his bid gains steam. In fact, his last bank failed only 18 months ago: the Controller of the Currency closed Home Savings of America of Little Falls, Minnesota in February 2012 when Adams was chairman and CEO of the holding company.
After a 2010 examination, the Office of Thrift Supervision sent a “cease and desist” letter to Adams and his board of directors saying the bank had “engaged in unsafe or unsound practices” and needed more capital protection for the kinds of loans they had in their portfolio. Then, in 2011, the regulator ordered the organization to hire an independent outside consultant to review the bank’s management and board.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/montana-dirk-adams-senate-democrats-96348.html#ixzz2ePv1Mtnp
Meanwhile, despite the anticipated run for the US Senate by Congressman Steve Daines (R-MT), another Republican has decided to enter the race from the Virgin Islands, as Chuck Johnson reports.
Republican Larry Williams, the author and futures trader who lost races for the U.S. Senate in 1978 and 1982, is considering moving back to Montana and running for the Senate next year.
Williams, a Montana native who now lives in the U.S. Virgin Islands, said he spent the summer in the Red Lodge area.
If you’re anything like me, the last time Larry Williams ran for the US Senate was in the 1970’s before I was even born. Scratch that- I guess he ran in 1982 as well, so I likely may have been in diapers for the second one. (Democratic political consultant Bob Brigham tells me he was still in diapers for the first run)
Back in 2002, Chuck Johnson interviewed Williams after the infamous hairdresser ad was used against Mike Taylor by the Baucus camp. In that article, Williams said Sen. Baucus “has done a great job of representing Montana.”
You may recall that the hairdresser ad was considered homophobic by several on the left, who criticized Baucus and his former Chief of Staff Jim Messina. Messina later ran President Obama’s reelection campaign.
Some considered Baucus’ 1978 ad against Williams as similar in scope. Here’s more from Chuck Johnson’s piece in 2002:
Larry Williams, who lost a bid for the U.S. Senate in Montana in 1978 in part because the Montana AFL-CIO mass-mailed an unflattering photograph of him, said he knows how third-party attacks can hurt a candidate like Mike Taylor.
When Williams first ran for the Senate in 1978 against then-U.S. Rep. Baucus, D-Mont., the Montana AFL-CIO mailed out a couple of weeks before the election thousands of copies of an unflattering photograph of Williams with long hair and what appeared to be love beads. His campaign took a nosedive, and Baucus won by a 56 to 44 percent margin.