Campaign cash failed to sway

Registered voters in Columbia Falls may not have sat on the same side of the political aisle, but they seem to have one thing in common: They claim money spent on this year’s election had little impact on how they actually voted.

Voters were bombarded with ads in television, newspapers and on the Internet. Their mailboxes were stuffed with political flyers — mostly attack ads against one candidate or another. In addition their phones rang every night, with many of the calls being “robo calls” where a person isn’t actually on the other end of the line, but a recorded message plays, provided the caller holds onto the phone long enough to hear it. Oftentimes, the line was simply dead.

“It (the campaigning) made me re-think several things,” said Day Thommen. “But I still made my decisions based on track records.”

Voter Shonda Kennedy has lived in Montana 42 years and this was one of the nastiest campaigns she could remember.

When a negative ad came on the TV she said she just changed the channel.

The mailers?

“I didn’t read them,” she said. “I threw them out right away.”

She said she researched the candidates on her own and then made decisions.

Stephanie Mills said she also found the campaigns annoying, but the debates were where the rubber met the road.

“”You’d get tired of it,” she said. “The debates and things they actually said and what they didn’t say” is what made up her mind.

Michelle DiGaetano also said the campaigning was too much. The flyers went in the trash.

“I did my own research online,” said.

The campaign was one of the most expensive in Montana history. The U.S. Senate race alone likely had more than $30 million in outside money spent on it, not including the $18 million that was raised by the candidates.