Western district candidates allege shady campaign finance activity as primaries wind down | 406 Politics

After an outside spending group recently began attacking Democratic candidate Cora Neumann as being more Californian than Montanan, her campaign has responded by painting her primary opponent, Monica Tranel, as too closely tied to the political action committee’s activities.

A disclosure report filed with the Federal Elections Commission last week showed that Tranel’s husband, physician Gregor Lind, contributed $5,000 to Montanans for a Better Congress, which spent $109,000 in May on a political ad supporting Tranel and attacking Neumann and GOP candidate Ryan Zinke. As a super PAC, the group can raise and spend unlimited money but must disclose its donors.

Tranel’s campaign manager, Sam Sterling, was quick to point out that nothing in the FEC rules forbids a candidate’s husband from contributing to an independent PAC. Campaign finance laws forbid campaigns from coordinating with outside PACs on political activities. But that legal threshold is based on the FEC’s…