Page 19 - Flathead Beacon // 10.5.16

Chet Billi speaks at a rally at Depot Park in Kalispell. IMAGE FROM YOUTUBE
Taylor Rose addresses Republicans at a Pachyderm lunch in Kalispell. BEACON FILE PHOTO
HOUSE DISTRICT 5
The open seat for House District 5 — which covers White sh and the sur- rounding area, and is currently occupied by Democratic Rep. Ed Lieser, who is not running for reelection after a single term — features a race between longtime White sh School Board trustee Dave Fern and recent White sh High School graduate Chet Billi.
The race is interesting on several lev- els, not the least of which is Billi’s youth- fulness, which, at 18, he has held up as a key strength in order to freshen the face of the state Republican Party.
Before he entered the race for HD 5,
Billi made headlines by launching a bal- lot initiative that would have allowed public school teachers with a concealed weapons permit to carry a weapon inside a school classroom.
At the time, Billi, then a junior at White sh High School, said he believed more guns would make schools safer places, and would be instrumental in preventing school shootings. Billi said he believes tragedies like the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecti- cut in 2012 could have been prevented had a sta member been armed.
A longtime gun enthusiast, Billi said he came up with the idea of a citizen’s
ballot initiative and submitted the pro- posal with the Secretary of State, but failed to gather the requisite 24,175 sig- natures from 5 percent of registered vot- ers in the state. Instead, he gathered 30 signatures, and the initiative quali ed in zero of the 34 legislative districts needed.
The defeat did little to stanch Bil- li’s enthusiasm for joining the political process, however, and he announced his decision to join the race for the liber- al-leaning HD 5 a year ago.
With 24 years on the White sh School Board, including chairmanship and serv- ing on the Montana School Board Associ- ation, Fern is running to replace Lieser,
and held up his seven terms as a school board trustee as evidence of his high level of understanding about public school funding.
Fern said as a school board member, he was surprised by Billi’s conviction that allowing guns in schools would serve as more of a deterrent to school shootings than gun-free zones and crisis-response protocols.
“As a school board member, I did have concerns,” Fern said.
Mail-in ballots go out Oct. 14 and the election is Nov. 8.
tscott@ atheadbeacon.com
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