Bodnar outraises Alme in pre-primary filings, submits signatures for ballot

In pre-primary filings submitted to the Federal Election Commission, independent U.S. Senate candidate Seth Bodnar outraised all candidates, including reporting three times as much in fundraising as Republican Kurt Alme.

Bodnar, the former University of Montana president, reported raising $754,000 since the end of March, with a total of $2.1 million in contributions to his campaign.

Alme, who entered the race at the last minute when Sen. Steve Daines decided to retire, reported raising $259,000 since March, with $1.1 million in total contributions.

Both candidates reported having just under $1 million in cash on hand.

This is the second filing period where Bodnar has outraised his Republican rival.

As an independent candidate, Bodnar has to collect signatures in order to qualify for the general election ballot in November, and on Tuesday his campaign announced it was submitting more than twice the number of signatures required.

In a press release, Bodnar’s campaign said it had nearly 30,000 signatures, far exceeding the 13,327-threshold required for a third-party candidate in a U.S. Senate race. The campaign said volunteers collected signatures in 52 of the state’s 56 counties, and they will be submitted to respective county election offices Tuesday.

“Tens of thousands of Montanans from every corner of our state have spoken: they are sick of the broken politics of Washington and are ready for an Independent on the ballot in November,” Bodnar said in a press release. “While DC insiders tried to rig this election in March by installing a handpicked candidate who will do their bidding, our campaign has spent months building a political movement of Montanans who want the chance to send leaders to Washington who will always put Montana First. I will never pay allegiance to party bosses or political elites, and I will work every day until Election Day to earn the vote of every Montanan.”

The move by Daines to wait until the final minute before the candidate filing deadline to opt out of the race, allowing only Alme enough time to enter, has drawn criticism from Republicans as well as Democrats and Bodnar’s team. The switch, combined with a late exit from the race by Montana’s western U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, has led to some Montana lawmakers considering legislation to prevent similar moves in the future.

With Republican Alme’s endorsements from the state’s Congressional delegation and President Donald Trump, and Bodnar’s substantial financial backing, the two candidates appear to be frontrunners for the state’s U.S. Senate seat that is open following the retirement of Sen. Steve Daines.

Meanwhile, a crowd of Democrats are in the final days of a heated primary to determine which candidate will move on to the general election.

Democrats have no clear leader, but Reilly Neill has raised the most since the end of March, $294,000, with nearly $90,000 coming from the candidate. Behind her, Michael Blackwolf and Alani Bankhead have reported less than $30,000 each.

However, hundreds of thousands of dollars has been poured into the primary race by outside political action committees seeking to influence voters.

Through just Google-owned companies such as YouTube, nearly $700,000 has been spent in Montana in the last 30 days, mostly in the U.S. Senate race, according to the Google Ads Transparency Center, which tracks political ad spending across its platforms.

Three of the top 10 ad buys target Senate candidates, including $169,000 promoting Bankhead; $95,000 supporting Bodnar and opposing Alme; and $62,000 supporting Alme and opposing Neill.