Busse ad rips a page from the GOP playbook

By CHRIS PETERSON

Hungry Horse News

In his latest video, Ryan Busse drops his head and looks through the scope of his rifle and fires off a round.

“I’m a gun guy,” he says after the shot. “I sold 3 million of them. Hell, I helped design this rifle. I can’t spot someone who can’t shoot straight a mile away,” Busse says, looking the camera, leaning on his rifle.

Busse, the Democratic gubernatorial challenger to Gov. Greg Gianforte then goes on to criticize Gianforte for hiking property taxes in Montana and, he claims, lowering his own.

The ad ends with Busse taking aim at a target again, this one loaded with Tannerite. An explosion ensues.

It’s not exactly the sort of ad one sees from a Democratic candidate, but Busse spent the better part of his career working for Kimber Firearms and is also the author of “Gunfight: My battle against the Industry that Radicalized America.”

The book aside, Busse is still a gun owner and gun enthusiast. He said the campaign offered several ideas on his next political ad, and he suggested that they “just kind of do a day in our life and show who we are. Let’s just go to the gun range.”

From there he said he just talked to the camera and said what was on his mind.

What’s on Busse’s mind isn’t guns, it’s taxes, specifically property taxes which he noted zoomed up for most homeowners after the last reassessment.

He claimed the Gianforte administration could have simply cut the tax rate just as governors before him did.  But he didn’t.

(Gianforte has since assembled a task force to look at property taxes and ways to fix the issue. The administration is offering one-time $650 per year property tax rebates, but one has to apply for it).

Busse said property taxes are on everyone’s mind this election cycle.

“Not only did (Gianforte) not fix it. He put the increase in his budget,” Busse claimed. “Then they tried to blame county commissioners.”

What Busse claimed was especially irritating was the state has a $3 billion budget surplus, while homeowners on fixed incomes can’t afford their property taxes.

In that same vein, Busse said the surplus could have been used, in part, to help fund innovative programs, like one he recently saw in Bozeman where a nonprofit helped fund a 64-unit subdivision that offered half its units at an affordable rate and half at market rate.

He said a similar program could be used statewide to help ease the housing crunch.

Busse said he’s been traveling all over the state, claiming he’s logged about 62,000 miles to date talking to folks. He said the ad, which has been running on TV and other media outlets during the Olympics, has been well-received, not just by Democrats, but by Republicans.

As a Democrat in a red state, he still has an uphill battle to gain the governorship, but he said he’s hearing positive things from both sides of the aisle.

“We believe in what we’re doing,” Busse said, claiming that many county commissioners aren’t happy about being fingered for property tax increases, and most of them are Republicans.

Busse easily won the Democratic primary and so did Gianforte on the GOP side. 

Busse will likely need help from at least some disgruntled Republicans and independents to take the governor’s seat.

In 2016, incumbent Steve Bullock, a Democrat, beat Gianforte 50.25% to 46.36%.