According to an audio recording [1] obtained by the Daily Beast [2] , Republican Montana State Auditor and U.S. Senate candidate Matt Rosendale[3] may have illegally coordinated with a top NRA official prior to the conservative gun rights group spending nearly $400,000 on ads attacking Rosendale’s opponent, Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester[4].
Rosendale’s campaign denies the charges and says the candidate was referring to the pro-gun group’s endorsement in the hotly contested 2018 Senate race.
The Daily Beast reported this morning that Rosendale’s admitted on tape that he talked to Chris Cox[5], the NRA’s top political strategist for its Institute of Legislative Action. That same group later spent $404,496.35 [6] on political ads opposing Tester, according to Federal Elections Commission records.
“I fully expect the NRA is going to come in … in August sometime,” Rosendale said in the audio recording, which the Daily Beast said was recorded in July 2018. “The Supreme Court confirmations are big. That’s what sent the NRA over the line. Because in ’12, with [Republican Senate nominee Denny Rehberg] they stayed out, they stayed out of Montana. But Chris Cox told me, he’s like, ‘We’re going to be in this race.’”
Rosendale’s prediction that the NRA would jump into Montana’s U.S Senate race in August was off by just a few days. On Sept. 6, the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (NRL-ILA) announced the six-figure ad buy and released a 30-second TV and internet ad on the very issue Rosendale mentioned in the July tape: the U.S. Supreme Court.
NRA-ILA is a 501(c)(4) dark money group
