BOOM!
The campaign of Rob Quist, the folk music star and Democrat running for Montana’s open House seat, opened up a new line of attack in an increasingly competitive special election by slamming his opponent, Republican Greg Gianforte, for allegedly discriminating against a disabled employee.
Gianforte, a tech millionaire originally from New Jersey, settled a 1991 lawsuit with a former employee who accused Gianforte of firing him for having multiple sclerosis, Raw Story reported in late April.
The details of the suit are harrowing. The former employee at Brightwork Development, Gianforte’s software company, won awards for his sales numbers after his diagnosis. Gianforte allegedly heard about the disease and summoned the employee to his office to ask probing questions about whether it was affecting his performance. The company reportedly fired the employee a couple of months later.
Now the Quist campaign is citing the suit as more evidence that Gianforte is out of touch with state residents.
“No real Montanan would fire someone after discovering they’re suffering from a health condition like multiple sclerosis,” Quist spokeswoman Tina Olechowski said in a statement. “Every day Montanans learn more about why New Jersey multimillionaire Greg Gianforte is not one of us and doesn’t share our values.”
Click here to read the full story at Raw Story.
Quist is going for the jugular in his attacks against Gianforte. Hopefully we’ll see him attacking Gianforte on this:
When Greg Gianforte, the Republican running for an open House seat in Montana, was asked on Thursday whether he would have supported the bill repealing the Affordable Care Act that passed the House that day, he declined to answer.
“Greg needs to know all the facts, because it’s important to know exactly what’s in the bill before he votes on it,” said a spokesman for Mr. Gianforte, who is running in a special election for the seat vacated by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.
But on the same day, during a private conference call with Republican-leaning lobbyists in Washington, Mr. Gianforte offered a more supportive view of the health bill. Making the case for the “national significance” of the Montana election on May 25, Mr. Gianforte said: “The votes in the House are going to determine whether we get tax reform done, sounds like we just passed a health care thing, which I’m thankful for, sounds like we’re starting to repeal and replace.”
Mr. Gianforte’s attempt to appeal to two different audiences — Montana voters skeptical about the House’s repeal bill and Washington Republicans eager to undo President Barack Obama’s signature domestic accomplishment — illustrates the complicated politics surrounding the health law. While Republicans expect their elected officials to fulfill their longstanding vows to tear up the Affordable Care Act, the broader electorate is uneasy about abandoning the law’s protections and benefits it has come to depend on.
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