Page 13 - Flathead Beacon // 8.20.14

FLATHEADBEACON.COM NEWS AUGUST 20, 2014 | 13
Curtis Strikes Populist Theme in Senate Campaign
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Curtis, 34, was chosen as the Democrats’ replacement candidate for Sen. John Walsh
By MATT VOLZ, ASSOCIATED PRESS HELENA — State Rep. Amanda
Curtis immediately struck a populist note as Montana Democrats’ new U.S. Senate candidate, saying the November election will not be about which political party controls the Senate but whether it will be controlled by millionaires or the middle class.
Curtis, 34, was chosen Saturday as the Democrats’ replacement candidate for Sen. John Walsh, who withdrew from the race earlier this month over plagia- rism allegations. She is a high school math teacher from Butte whose polit- ical experience amounts to a single term in the Montana Legislature, but she is touting her relative inexperience and blue-collar roots as assets, not liabilities.
She framed her campaign as one that will champion the interests of the working class against those of the wealthy and of corporations, and she put her Republican opponent, Rep. Steve Daines, squarely on the side of the latter.
“This is the fundamental difference between Steve Daines and me,” Curtis said. “He seems like a nice guy with a wonderful family, but I’m pretty sure he doesn’t understand what life is like for the rest of us.”
Financial disclosure forms filed last month show Daines has personal assets worth between $8.9 million and $32.7 million. He was an executive with Bozeman-based RightNow Technolo- gies from 2000 to 2012 before resigning to run for his U.S. House seat.
Daines’ campaign declined to address Curtis’ candidacy directly but released a statement that said he respects Montanans’ judgment to decide the best path for the state, and he will fight to grow the economy and prevent overreaching federal regulations.
“This November, Montanans will have a clear choice between my positive agenda for more jobs and less govern- ment, or more government and fewer jobs,” Daines said in the statement.
Montana has never elected a woman to the U.S. Senate. It has sent one woman to the U.S. House, Jeannette Rankin, who was the first woman elected to Congress in 1916. She was elected again in 1940.
Democrats are hoping Curtis’ working-class message will breathe new life into the party’s chances of keeping the seat it has held for more than a century. Walsh’s own campaign acknowledged that he was trailing Daines even before the plagiarism alle- gations surfaced against the former lieu- tenant governor, and political analysts say a replacement candidate at this stage in the campaign will make a Democratic victory all the more difficult.
“If she comes within 5 points, that would be a big deal,” said David Parker,
DREAM
a political analyst at Montana State
University.
Curtis dismissed notions that the
BUSINESS?
race was unwinnable, telling The Asso- ciated Press that she is “in it to win it” and she plans to get her message out by crisscrossing the state from now until the election to woo independents.
“They’re fed up with politics as usual. They feel like they don’t have a place and their voice is not heard. And I represent something different for them,” she said.
Curtis plans to gain ground on Daines by forcing him to express his views to those people in debates, she said.
“If we can get him on the record on the issues of importance to Montanans, it will all be over,” she said.
Curtis was elected in 2012 and was not seeking re-election this year. Ahead of Saturday’s party convention, Curtis gained endorsements from teachers unions and the Montana Sportsmen Alliance. She has voiced support for labor unions and women’s rights.
Walsh dropped out of the race earlier this month, saying the allegations against him had become a distraction. A U.S. Army War College is investigating whether the 33-year Montana National Guardsman plagiarized a research paper written in 2007 for a master’s degree.
Curtis declined to comment on Walsh’s decision to withdraw.
“I would thank him for his lifelong commitment to service and that’s all that needs to be said,” Curtis said.
Municipal Matters
A recap of recent city council and county commission meetings
KALISPELL
• Members of the city council debat- ed the merits of ongoing proposals to expand the road lanes around the Flathead County Courthouse at last week’s work session. The coun- cil settled on an initial agreement amongst itself that expanding U.S. Highway 93 to four lanes around the couplet would harm downtown Ka- lispell and increase traffic patterns through the city’s core, offsetting any improvements made by the de- velopment of the alternate route, or bypass. The Montana Department of Transportation is developing plans for addressing the bottleneck around the courthouse, and the ini- tial vision supports expanding the couplet to four lanes. The county has voiced its support for removing the highway lanes on the west side
of the courthouse and adding four lanes of north and southbound traf- fic on the east side. At last week’s work session, county administrator Mike Pence explained the county’s motivation, describing a dangerous situation for pedestrians and driv- ers alike. “There’s a lot of safety is- sues,” he said. “We see it daily and experience it daily with our person- nal and the public who are trying to access the county buildings and the campus.”
Members of the city council ex- pressed widespread hesitation over expanding to four lanes, claiming the realignment would harm down- town businesses by keeping large trucks and other heavy traffic flow- ing along Main Street. City officials continue to survey business own- ers, residents and other stakehold-
ers as part of a new scoping plan to re-energize downtown. Councilors said they hope members of the pub- lic will voice their opinion on the potential road couplet issue to help inform MDT, the county and the city as the planning process moves forward.
WHITEFISH
•City officials are welcoming resi- dents to attend the latest public meeting on the design of the fu- ture City Hall and adjacent parking structure. The event is Thursday, Aug. 21 at 7 p.m. in the city coun- cil chambers. Members of Mosaic Architecture will be in attendance and discuss the latest updates on the renovations.
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