Rumors are swirling that Seth Bodnar is weighing dropping out of the Montana Senate race. A new report is highlighting how Bodnar’s desperate attempts to smear Alani Bankhead are backfiring…
As reported in Breitbart:
“Things are bleak for Seth right now. He’s spending all of his campaign and super PAC money trying to generate momentum, but he just hasn’t caught on yet,” said one well-connected Montana Republican strategist. “If Alani refuses to drop out, there is really nothing Seth can do because, unlike him, she was actually nominated by voters in a primary.”
Sources also said frustration has grown within Bodnar’s camp over Bankhead’s decision to stay in the race. They claimed the campaign has begun circulating opposition research centered on Bankhead’s old Facebook posts in an effort to pressure her to withdraw.
“Seth is going to try to smear Alani to force her out of the race, but if that doesn’t work then he’s screwed,” said another longtime Montana political operative. “If Alani won’t drop out, Seth probably will because he will have even less of a path to victory than he does right now.”
The sources also said a super PAC backing Bodnar has started sending text messages urging Bankhead to leave the race before the filing deadline.
Lindsey Ratliff, a member of the Montana Democratic Party’s Executive Board, criticized the messages in a Facebook post, accusing the PAC of encouraging supporters to pressure the Democrat nominee into dropping out.“I have kept mostly quiet on social media regarding the quagmire that is the U.S. Senate Race. But I cannot condone the behavior of the Bodnar campaign’s associated PACS and their Hail Mary request to thousands of Montanans to essentially harass the Democratic nominee into dropping out of the race by August 10th,” Ratliff wrote.
Ratliff also said the Bodnar campaign waited until this summer to begin reaching out to Democrat leaders rather than building support over a longer period.
“Now, an unproven candidate’s PAC is enlisting his supporters to harass the Democratic nominee all because his campaign consultants don’t know how to plan ahead or work with the Democratic Party he clearly so wishes he was the candidate for. Sounds SLOPPY to me,” Ratcliff continued.
###