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The robocalls to John Sivlan’s phone this summer just wouldn’t let up. Recorded messages were coming in several times a day from multiple phone numbers, all trashing state Republican Rep. Llew Jones , a shrewd, 11-term lawmaker with an earned reputation for skirting party hardliners to pass the Legislature’s biggest financial bills, including the state budget.

Sivlan, 80, a lifelong Republican who lives in Jones’ northcentral Montana hometown of Conrad, wasn’t amused by the general election-style attacks hitting his phone nearly a yea

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