by Klint Cleveland, Hamilton
I recently received a political mailer attacking Representative Dave Bedey, accusing him of “pushing the trans agenda” and “funding the trans agenda with tax dollars.” In tiny, nearly unreadable print at the bottom, the mailer references “HB 9, 2023; HB 9, 2025.”
I looked up these bills. HB 9 appropriates funding for cultural and aesthetic grants—supporting museums, libraries, historical societies, and arts organizations across Montana. The money comes from coal tax trust fund interest, not general tax revenue. There is absolutely nothing in either bill related to LGBTQ issues. Nothing.
Representative Bedey voted for these bills as Vice Chair of the House Appropriations Committee. The 2025 committee vote was 22-0—unanimous. All 12 Republicans and all 10 Democrats on the committee voted yes. Both bills passed the full House and Senate and were signed into law by Governor Gianforte.
Based on this mailer’s logic, are all 12 Republicans on the committee, Governor Gianforte, and every legislator who voted yes equally complicit in “supporting the trans and LGBT agenda”? Of course not. None of them are. This is routine governance being twisted into a culture war attack.
The mailer comes from “Accountability in State Government,” based in Lewistown—not in Ravalli County or Dave Bedey’s district. Their website claims they promote “honesty, openness, and responsibility.” Yet this mailer is the opposite: misleading, deceptive, and designed to manipulate voters through fear.
When I searched Montana’s campaign finance database for this group, I could not locate their registration for 2026. I filed a complaint with the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices. The state has since informed me that the committee is, in fact, properly registered. I appreciate this clarification.
However, this does not change the disingenuous nature of the mailer. While the committee is registered, their funding sources and expenditures are not easily accessible to voters. We deserve to know who is paying for attack ads in our elections.
More importantly, the content of the mailer is dishonest. It uses inflammatory language to deceive voters about what Representative Bedey actually voted for—museum and library funding, not any “trans agenda.” Spreading false information to manipulate voters through fear is wrong, regardless of whether a group is properly registered.
We in Ravalli County should be making decisions about our own representatives based on truth, not misleading claims from groups outside our community spreading lies in tiny print.
Montanans deserve honest campaigns. We deserve to know who’s trying to buy our elections. This mailer is neither honest nor transparent—it’s political propaganda designed to deceive.
We the voters of Ravalli County need to do our homework. Look up the bills ourselves. We should not let anonymous attack ads make our decisions for us.
Kathy says
On the surface, that bill does look innocent. What you need to check is the background of the organizations that were funded and what they do. Several of the organizations do promote and teach LGBTQ and DEI issues. That’s fine if they want to do that and they have the right to do so but it shouldn’t be done with taxpayer dollars.