Mining for votes in Montana

THE RESIDENTS of Big Timber, a mining town near the Crazy Mountains in Montana, can’t wait for the elections to end. Campaigning is too exhausting. Each day they must empty a dozen glossy political pamphlets from overstuffed letterboxes. Local television news is interrupted 15 times every half-hour by candidates’ 30-second spots. These are usually fearmongering attacks on rivals, with ominous voice-overs. Negative ads arrive just as frequently on the radio and in digital form. “Ads sneak onto your phone like a snake in the grass,” grumbles one man.

They are right to feel overwhelmed. In all, campaign spending in Montana is likely to pass $150m, smashing all records in the state. “It’s theatre of the absurd, the cost per vote is through the roof,” says a senior figure in a statewide campaign. Even if turnout passes 80%, that money is chasing about 600,000 ballots. Everything is so saturated, he says, he can find no more television advertising inventory to buy. Even when it is available, the cost of a “gross rating point”, a measure of the reach of a given advert, has soared.

Money has gushed from out-of-state to a Senate contest that is unexpectedly close. The outgoing two-term governor, Steve Bullock, a Democrat, may yet topple a first-term incumbent senator, Steve Daines. The Republican, who is closely aligned with Mr...

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