Montana Can’t Afford To Send A Deadbeat To Congress

Montana Democratic Congressional candidate Rob Quist was already an unconventional choice to fill Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s open Congressional seat. Now a new deep dive into Quist’s finances by the Billings Gazette shows the Montana Democrat has a “16-year legacy of financial troubles” that call into question his fitness for office:

“Flathead County court and property records indicate the popular musician turned politician has been turned over to collections, sued by a bank after not repaying a loan and accused of fraud and deceit by a former member of Mission Mountain Wood Band, the group that vaulted Quist to Montana stardom in the 1970s.”

At around the same time as Quist’s financial problems were making news, the Billings Gazette also noted that Quist is paying himself a salary while he runs for Congress, something that further highlights the candidate’s history of financial problems.

Quist’s history of not paying what he owes casts doubt on whether he can be trusted in Congress. See below for the many examples the Billings Gazette has found in Quist’s past in which the Montana Democrat evaded paying what he owed:

• In 2001, a lien was placed on Quist’s property after he failed to pay a contractor the almost $5,000 that he owed.
• In 2007, Quist did not pay property taxes, resulting in a lien of $8,189.38 placed on Quist in 2015.
• In 2011, Quist was order to pay $1,380.17 in debt he owed by the Flathead County Justice Court.
• In both 2011 and 2012, Quist failed to fully pay his property taxes, resulting in another lien being filed by the Montana Department of Revenue.
• In 2013, Quist was sued after he neglected to pay members of the Mission Mountain Wood Band the royalties they were entitled to.
• In 2014, Quist was sued because he stopped making payments on a line of credit in 2010.