Montana State Auditor Matt Rosendale missed what amounts to 12 weeks of work in 2017 and the first five months of this year, according to his official calendars, raising questions about his performance in his current job as he seeks a promotion to the U.S. Senate.
According to Rosendale’s official calendars, there was nothing scheduled for 62 days — excluding holidays — between January 2017 and May 2018, while there was only a lunch or a 30-minute staff meeting scheduled for 66 others.
Rosendale, a Republican and former majority of the state Senate, is running to unseat Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, who has criticized Rosendale for his relatively shallow connections to Big Sky Country.
Rosendale, for his part, has played up his work in the state Legislature and the Capitol while tying himself to President Donald Trump.
And like Trump, Rosendale’s schedule was routinely blank.
According to an analysis of Rosendale’s calendars, which the Tester campaign released ahead of next week’s election, he had nothing or just a meeting or a lunch on scheduled for more than 36 percent of the 354 workdays in the 17-month span.
The trend didn’t just start as the campaign heated up this summer. In 2017, Rosendale’s schedule was bare 32 percent of the time.