A Republican hopeful campaigning to run for Senate in 2018 is defending himself against misdemeanor charges of purchasing resident hunting and fishing licenses as a nonresident.
Yesterday, Troy Downing posted on his Facebook page that he is, “looking forward to showing and demonstrating these charges are baseless.” Downing also suggested in the post that the charges are politically motivated.
The seven citations are for illegally buying resident hunting or fishing licenses over a number of years. To qualify as a resident, a person must live in Montana for 180 consecutive days.
A Bozeman blogger first reported the story after obtaining court documents through an open records request.
Downing is seeking the Republican nomination to run against U.S. Sen. John Tester.