Gianforte Apologizes For Campaign Gaffe

Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte apologized on Thursday for a February campaign statement.  Gianforte described Sanders County Commissioners as upset about the state buying a private ranch and converting it to a wildlife management area during a Q&A session in Malta.

In fact, the Sanders commissioners supported the 2013 acquisition of the Full Curl Ranch.  They sent a letter to Gianforte’s campaign asking for a correction.  Commissioner Anthony Cox said his support paved the way for the acquisition.
Gianforte emailed a retraction, saying “I apologize for mistakenly mentioning Sanders County rather than Mineral County and for any inconvenience that might have caused,” he explained, “I have done over 1,000 individual meetings in the past year, and regret that I did not keep this detail straight.”
Now, that explanation has raised more questions.  Mineral County Commissioner Duane Simons said that the campaign comment did not match their situation either.