Pundits on Rosendale – Is: Real Estate Developer, Hard Right, Lining Up With Bannon. Isn’t: Native Montanan, Top Recruiting Target

National and state pundits have been weighing in recently on the Montana GOP Senate primary and, well, they haven’t been kind to Matt Rosendale – no one’s first choice. Among other things, the pundits note that Rosendale is headed toward an expensive and nasty primary, and is a real estate developer who is not a native Montanan.

Check out what some of them had to say:

CNN: “Republicans missed on their top recruiting targets here. And now, state auditor Matt Rosendale and businessman Troy Downing are headed toward what could be an expensive and nasty primary.”

Yahoo News: “[Rosendale]’s taken hard-right positions on health care, gay marriage, and land use, a big issue in the West…Rosendale, 57, is not a native Montanan, having moved from Maryland to the state a little more than a decade ago. But his background in land use as a real estate developer…”

Roll Call: “After several higher-profile Republicans passed on the race against Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, the field has been crowded but relatively stagnant. State Auditor Matt Rosendale is still regarded as the candidate to watch and has picked up some conservative endorsements from Great America, the Club for Growth and Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee. Businessman and Air Force veteran Troy Downing is trying to claim the Trump mantle, too, sending out lots of fundraising emails with pictures of himself with the Trump sons. He’s met with the president’s team, The Washington Post reported. But both Rosendale and Downing will have to contend with attacks that they’re from out of state.”

MTPR: “Sally Mauk: Matt Rosendale has previously bragged about being endorsed by Steve Bannon. And one wonders if he will continue to tout that endorsement in the wake of the falling out between Bannon and President Trump this week.

Chuck Johnson: That’s correct. Today he’s just said through his spokesman he appreciates all his endorsements, so he’s not said one way or the other, so we’ll wait and see. But certainly the Bannon connection was well publicized when he got the endorsement.

SM: He publicized a photo of him and Steve Bannon standing next to each other and grinning widely, and obviously it was an endorsement, that at least at that point in the campaign, he sought and was happy to have.

SM: So we have Troy Downing lining up with Trump, Matt Rosendale lining up with Bannon…”