Rival raps Rehberg over meat banAssociated Press
HELENA - Democratic U.S. House candidate Tracy Velazquez on Friday attacked Republican incumbent Denny Rehberg for opposing a Bush administration ban on meat from cows that cannot walk or stand.
That position sides with out-of-state meatpacking interests and betrays Montana ranchers and consumers, Velazquez said in her first political assault on the two-term lawmaker since she launched her campaign last week.
"His insistence that the ban on 'downer cows' is not good for Montana's agricultural economy shows where his true interests lie," she said in a news release. "The only group that opposes a ban on downer cows is the out-of-state meatpacking industry."
The ban was announced by Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman on Dec. 30, a week after news broke about the first mad cow case to be diagnosed in the United States.
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