Zinke says he has no links to PAC he helped start

Republican U.S. House candidate Ryan Zinke says he stepped down from Special Operations for America, a political action committee he helped start, before he started running for office.

SOFA has put more than $200,000 in the bank for the 2014 election cycle, and some of that money came from fundraising Zinke was paid to do.

A former state senator who represented Columbia Falls and Whitefish, Zinke said he didn’t know if any of that money will be spent assisting his own election effort or for criticizing potential opponents.

“I don’t know, because I don’t coordinate with them,” Zinke said.

The retired Navy SEAL and Whitefish resident announced his run for Montana’s lone House seat last month after Rep. Steve Daines announced he will run for the Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Max Baucus. Zinke unsuccessfully ran for lieutenant governor in 2012 with gubernatorial candidate Neil Livingstone.

Zinke ran SOFA, which was started to assist Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, but he said he stepped down from the PAC at the end of September before announcing his candidacy in late October.

The PAC had paid Continental Divide International LLC, a consulting firm run by Zinke and his wife Lola, for fundraising help, but Zinke said that arrangement also has ended.

Independent spending groups are not allowed to coordinate their election activities with candidates. If they do, it’s considered a campaign contribution to the candidate which must comply with defined limits.

Shortly after Zinke’s departure, SOFA posted Internet messages encouraging Zinke to run for office. The PAC’s address in Whitefish was just a few blocks from Zinke’s home.

Zinke said he checked with lawyers to make sure his past involvement with SOFA and his current campaign for the House didn’t violate federal campaign laws.

Zinke said he’s going to focus his campaign on a message of uniting people to fix the country’s budget and job growth problems.

“For the extreme right, I am probably not conservative enough. For the extreme left, I am probably too conservative. For Montana, I think I am just right,” Zinke said.