Candidate For Congress Shoots Down Govt. Drone [Video]

Matt Rosendale’s new campaign ad shows him shooting down a federal government drone with his rifle, at least a pretend drone.

Rosendale is one of five candidates running in the June 3 GOP primary for the open US House of Representative seat in Montana. The winner of the Republican primary is likely to prevail in the general election.

In the 30-second video (see embed below), Rosendale — a state senator and rancher — says “I’m Matt Rosendale and this is how I’d look from a government drone. And this is what I think about it.” At which point, he fires a shot from his rifle in the air at the imaginary drone, and “signal lost” appears on the screen.

Continues Rosendale: “The federal government is too big and too powerful. More taxes and regulations put Montana families out of work. Spying on our citizens: that’s just wrong. I’m Matt Rosendale and I approve this message because I’m ready to stand tall for freedom and get Washington out of our lives.”

In a crowded political primary, quirky commercials help would-be officeholders — especially the initially lesser known, less well-funded ones — try to stand out from the pack if they can: “‘You want people to pay attention. It’s one component of the race,’ Rosdendale said. Rosendale acknowledged that he has no evidence of government drones spying on citizens. The ad is a metaphor for overreaching government regulations, he said, and he pointed to the phone and email data collected by the National Security Agency as examples of government snooping.”

As a Montana state senator, Rosendale attacked drones in a different way: He “introduced and helped to pass a bill that prohibits data gathered by drones to be used in courtroom proceedings if the evidence was gathered without a search warrant.”

Joni Ernst, a GOP candidate for US Senate from Iowa, generated a lot of momentum for her primary campaign by releasing a commercial linking her experience in castrating hogs on the farm to making the big spenders in Congress “squeal.”

Watch the “rifle shot” drone Montana political ad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOoXJI4vBns