HuffPost recently uncovered undisclosed ties between Montana GOP Senate candidate Tim Sheehy and the Property and Environment Research Center, a right-wing organization advocating for privatizing public land and increasing fees at national parks. Despite Sheehy’s weak attempts to backtrack on his stance regarding public land privatization, his significant involvement with this group raises doubts about his commitment to safeguarding public lands. This latest revelation adds to a pattern of deception, further eroding trust in Sheehy among Montanans.
Read more below from HuffPost:
HuffPost: Montana GOP Candidate Failed To Disclose Post At Right-Wing Think Tank
Montana GOP Senate candidate Tim Sheehy failed to disclose his role at the Property and Environment Research Center, a property rights and environmental research nonprofit that has a history of advocating for privatizing America’s federal lands and rolling back environmental laws including the Endangered Species Act.
Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL and wealthy businessman who is running against three-term incumbent Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), joined PERC’s board in 2022, according to the organization’s filings with the IRS. But he failed to include his position at the think tank in his campaign financial disclosure, in violation of Senate rules, HuffPost has learned.
Public lands have emerged as a key issue in the race, with Tester painting Sheehy as a threat to their future and the Montana way of life. Sheehy’s failure to disclose his work at PERC could further complicate his already messy messaging on public lands policy.
Sheehy did report being a board director at other nonprofits; however, PERC does not appear on his disclosure form.
Sheehy’s campaign told HuffPost that Sheehy stepped down from the board prior to entering the Senate race last June. Asked why he didn’t disclose his role at PERC, campaign spokesperson Katie Martin said, “This omission was an oversight. We are working on amending the report.”
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PERC confirmed that Sheehy left its board before announcing his campaign last year. But as of Wednesday, PERC’s website still listed Sheehy as a board member.
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PERC is widely viewed as a right-wing outfit. It has deep historical ties to the fossil fuel industry and Donors Trust, a conservative group Mother Jones once dubbed the “dark-money ATM of the right” that has funneled millions of dollars to climate change-denier groups. Kimberley Dennis, the co-founder and board chair of Donors Trust, is a current member of PERC’s board of directors.
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Yet it remains a “partner” of the State Policy Network, a web of right-wing, industry-allied think tanks that for decades have waged war against environmental regulations, renewable energy and climate science. PERC supported the Trump administration’s industry-friendly rollback of Endangered Species Act protections and urged the Biden administration not to reverse the Trump-era changes.
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Over its four decades, the group has advocated for privatizing federal lands, including national parks, increasing fees for visiting parks and other federal lands, and covering park maintenance backlogs by diverting funding from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a decades-old program that uses offshore fossil fuel revenues to establish and protect parks, wildlife refuges, forests and wildlife habitat.
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Much like PERC, Sheehy, a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, is trying to distance himself from a once full-throated embrace of pawning off federal lands. As HuffPost first reported, he advocated last year for federal lands to be “turned over” to states — a wildly unpopular position among voters in Western states, including Montana.
“Local control has to be returned,” Sheehy told the “Working Ranch Radio Show” in October, “whether that means, you know, some of these public lands get turned over to state agencies, or even counties, or whether those decisions are made by a local landlord instead of by, you know, federal fiat a few thousand miles away.”
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Nico Delgado, a spokesperson for Democratic super PAC American Bridge 21st Century, told HuffPost that Sheehy’s failure to disclose his role at PERC is part of a trend of “bending the truth with Montanans.” Among other things, Delgado noted, Sheehy admitted to lying to a national park ranger about how he received a gunshot wound, as the Washington Post first reported.
“Now he’s hiding being part of a group that wanted to jack up fees at national parks,” Delgado said.
Read the entire story in HuffPost.
Published: Jun 13, 2024 | Last Modified: Jun 21, 2024