Montana Congressional Democratic candidate, John Driscoll of Helena (right) stands next to his friend Jeff Benson recently on a road tour (Courtesy John Driscoll).
As of Wednesday afternoon, Democratic U.S. House candidate John Driscoll, who is running against Republican Auditor Troy Downing, had $588.01 left to spend on the final 27 days of his candidacy — plenty of money, he said, to finish out the race.
Truthfully, it would have been more if he hadn’t hit a deer with his car while campaigning and added a $500 insurance deductible to the mix. Who knows? He could have had enough money to make it through the end of the year.
That may explain why Driscoll, a former Montana Public Service Commissioner and Speaker of the Montana House, doesn’t have yard signs. It probably means you haven’t seen any of his ads on television, or heard about him on the radio. And, in the flood of expensive, glossy mail flyers that have become as common as credit card offers or extended warranties, Driscoll is absent.
He’s drawn the ire of some columnists and Democratic Party members who have accused him of conceding the race to the Republicans in one of only two Montana seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. His campaign is so sparse that Former Democratic state lawmaker Reilly Neill has launched a write-in campaign to best Downing.
You won’t find any campaign finance reports for Driscoll on the Federal Elections Commission website, but that’s by design, too. Federal law doesn’t require them on campaigns that spend less than $5,000.
Driscoll beat three Democratic challengers in the primary, Ming Cabrera, Steve Held and Kev Hamm, for the chance at running in the very Republican eastern district. He knows it’s a long shot, but he has put on hundreds, if not thousands, of miles on “walking tours” to listen to people, especially those in rural areas.
Driscoll spends an indeterminate amount of time at each place — as much as he needs and as much as people seem to want. Driscoll told the Daily Montanan that he was just through the 10th long road trip of the campaign that took him from Livingston through the Judith Basin to places like Belt, Geraldine, Winifred then over to Culbertson and Malta.
Driscoll’s resume is both impressive and somewhat dated. He has an undergraduate degree from Gonzaga with graduate degrees from Columbia University, Harvard University and the University of Montana. He spent nearly 30 years in the Army National Guard as an intelligence officer, and ran for Congress nearly 20 years ago, losing to Republican Denny Rehberg.
Driscoll ran unsuccessfully in the 2014 Democratic primary for Montana’s U.S. House seat, losing to John Lewis, then ran in the 2020 U.S. Senate primary as a Republican, losing to Steve Daines, who took home 88% of the vote share.
His Facebook photo gallery is an extensive collection of images from all across Montana — from signs he’s seen walking around to the squat brick Wibaux library. Noticeably absent are any pictures of himself, even less common are the typical candidate-constituent photos.
Driscoll has taken to mostly the backroads of the sprawling district that covers around two-thirds of the geographic space of Montana, stretching from the west-central portions of places like Helena and over to the North Dakota border. He has focused on the smaller, more rural, and more conservative places, convinced that most politicians in these parts take voters for granted. From his accounts, Driscoll is correct — they don’t see politicians often.
“I’ve heard a lot of people tell me that I’m the only person they’ve ever seen campaigning for office,” Driscoll said.
The conventional wisdom likely bears that out: Democrats are in the minority and struggle with support, while Republicans can just count on it.
In a district known for its Republican politics, Driscoll said the overwhelming response has been positive, except for one owner of an ATV shop who walked him out the door because he said “he hated Democrats.”
And yet, in a district known for its heavily “red” political color, the criticism of Driscoll’s campaign — which consists of Driscoll himself — has come from the left.
In a commentary published in several places, including the Daily Montanan, former Montana journalist Peter D. Fox criticized Driscoll’s campaign tactics in an op-ed titled, “Driscoll robs Eastern Montana of a real political race.“
“His vanity won over common sense in choosing a low-budget campaign in the apparent belief that he is well-enough known and admired that he would win,” Fox said.
But Driscoll argues it’s not vanity, rather philosophy.
He said he wants to prove that a campaign can be run without the toxic effects of fundraising.
“That just draws so much of their energy,” he said.
Driscoll likens political candidates of both parties to performing circus bears that master tricks for the delight of donors.
He knows the chances of going to Washington, D.C., as a Democrat from the district are slim, but he hopes that he makes the point that candidates don’t need to fundraise millions to make a difference, and he’s the person who can prove it’s possible.
“It’s at least worth attempting,” Driscoll said. “Listen, to put it into firefighting terms, the fundraising of money has gone over the hill. It’s not worth it. Look at the top donors, like oil and crypto(currency). They’re trying to purchase a Congressional outcome, and that’s a bad situation. I’m doing this because I think it’s important.
“The money thing has to be penetrated.”
According to the Federal Election Commission as of Friday, the five other major party Congressional candidates — Tim Sheehy, Jon Tester, Troy Downing, Monica Tranel and Ryan Zinke — had raised more than $63 million combined from their own campaigns, and that excludes any outside spending from political action committees or Super PACs.
Most of the people he talks with vote Republican and support former President Donald J. Trump. Driscoll said he doesn’t try to change their mind about that, but rather urges them to split their ticket, maybe cross over once or twice.
“The chances of a Democrats winning here are steep,” Driscoll said. “It’s a military-like assignment. I’m not kidding. It’s getting tougher, but it doesn’t have to be that way. What I’ve learned is that no one has been talking to these people. I have been very pleasantly surprised. Traditional Republicans have been very gracious and surprisingly welcoming.”
He doesn’t spend money on campaign fliers and $5,000 wouldn’t buy much media anyway — not that you can find any primetime advertising slots anyway with the Jon Tester-Tim Sheehy U.S. Senate race or abortion (Constitutional Initiative 128) on the ballot. And, Driscoll eschews even the traditional door-to-door knocking.
“I try not to interrupt or harass them,” he said. “It gets into people’s lives. Instead, I go where people are.”
He practices his own technique of “walkabouts” where he goes to a town or city, looks for where people might be — downtowns, at businesses or even in bars. His “Democrat hat” has drawn a few sideways glances and comments. He says he was called a “baby killer” recently. Before that, the hat drew some snark from another person who called him a “communist.” Mostly, he introduces himself and listens. He meanders from business to business talking to people.
“I think a lot of business owners are Republican or vote Republican,” he said.
He knows it’s time to hit the road when he walks into a business and is greeted with, “we heard you’d be coming.”
He’s slept in some amazing camping sites in eastern Montana, stopping for showers at truck stops, although singled out the hot springs near Saco for getting a “great shower.”
But he insists this is more than a low-budget sightseeing excursion across the state. Instead, Driscoll is more than happy to discuss policy.
He said that rural communities face an unheralded crisis with emergency services: There are not enough volunteers or employees to staff ambulances or volunteer fire departments, and he worries that critical infrastructure will continue to risk public health and safety without support of the federal government.
In Driscoll’s opinion, it’s an extension of the hollowing out of rural communities. Gone are the service clubs and Main Street businesses that would stand up for the agricultural communities. Speaking with farmers and ranchers, he hears about the isolation, the concerns and worries about the mental health safety net in those places.
“My job is to see where the system has holes,” Driscoll said. “I talk to the farmers and tractor supply stores. There used to be a Rotary Club or a Chamber (of Commerce) to give these people support, but where is that now? I can see why mental health is a big issue.”
He’s worked with the unhoused population and worries about the increasing number of people who cannot afford housing.
He said that while cities have increasingly become less welcoming and more hostile to the unhoused, Driscoll said that won’t solve the problem.
“It’s costing someone somewhere,” he said.
He’s traveled to Montana’s Indian reservations and heard firsthand about the lack of support for Indian Health Services. He said that’s exactly the kind of thing a Congressman should be pushing for — fully funding the IHS. It’s not as spicy or eye-catching as abortion or immigration, but it covers a significant swath of people, he said.
The Daily Montanan reached out to the Montana Democratic Party, which mostly side-stepped questions about Driscoll’s campaign. It doesn’t control any of the candidate’s campaign, and last election cycle, candidate Penny Ronning was critical of it for the lack of support.
It acknowledged that it has heard the criticisms.
“Montanans are tired of watching our housing costs skyrocket and multimillionaires buying up our state to turn it into their personal playground. That’s why Montana Democrats are energized and mobilized like never before, with the largest organizing program in state history and a strong slate of candidates up and down the ballot fighting to protect reproductive freedom and access to healthcare, strengthen public education, and defend our Montana way of life,” said Gabriella Krevat, communications director for the Montana Democratic Party.
While most other candidates are burning through piles of cash — hundreds of dollars for every man, woman and child in the Treasure State — the self-described “Charles Kuralt of Eastern Montana” is sitting on his own pile of pennies, nearly $600 — and he has all the receipts to prove it.
“That’s 10 tanks of gas,” he said.