Page 16 - Flathead Beacon // 10.28.15

NEWS
ELECTIONS
Flathead Primaries Taking Shape
Candidate filings trickling in for contested races in Flathead, Lake counties
BY TRISTAN SCOTT OF THE BEACON
The smoke has barely cleared follow- ing a divisive 2015 Montana Legislature, and the primary election is still more than seven months away, but already the prospect for political fireworks is emerg- ing in several contested races throughout the Flathead Valley.
With a March 14, 2016, deadline for candidates to file their declarations for the June 7 primary election, there’s plenty of time for the political landscape to shift. But recent developments have raised the specter of a few fiery contests as candidates file their official C-1 decla- rations to begin raising campaign cash.
In Senate District 6, which runs from Polson to Kalispell and includes Flat- head Lake, incumbent Sen. Janna Taylor, R-Dayton, has announced she will not seek re-election. Former Republican Sen. Carmine Mowbray has thrown her name into the mix, while first-term Republican Rep. Al Olszewski, of Kalispell, has pub- licly stated his intention to run to take her place, with Taylor’s support.
Olszewski hasn’t yet filed his state- ment of candidacy, but if he runs it will highlight a familiar schism in the state Republican Party’s nuanced political spectrum and pit a more conservative lawmaker, Olszewski, against a more moderate Republican, Mowbray.
Meanwhile, a termed-out Rep. Keith Regier, the current Republican House majority leader from Kalispell, has filed to run for Senate District 3, which is cur- rently occupied by a termed-out Sen. Bruce Tutvedt, R-Kalispell, who is pre- cluded from running for Senate.
In Montana, House members may serve four two-year terms in any 16-year period, while Senate members may serve two four-year terms in any 16-year period.
In his tenure in the Senate, Tut- vedt and other moderate, or so-called “responsible” Republicans, became well-established whipping posts for the more conservative GOP, which launched a drumfire of ire down the middle of the Republican road.
Mowbray aligns with Tutvedt on the political scale, and both have been prom- inent opponents of “dark money” and have worked to reform the state’s cam- paign finance laws. In 2012, Mowbray narrowly lost to Taylor in a bitter pri- mary, 1,630 votes to 1,792. Crossover vot- ing was a significant factor in that close race, and could figure into the 2017 pri- mary as well.
On the prospect of Regier filling the senate seat he’s occupied for eight years, Tutvedt said the House majority leader would have to answer to voters on his “obstructionist” voting record.
Last session, Tutvedt and 18 other
House Majority Leader Keith Regier, left, talks to Speaker Austin Knudsen during the 64th Montana Legislative Session. BEACON FILE PHOTO
Republican lawmakers were targeted by Republican leadership for voting with Democrats on new laws that added thou- sands more people to government-sub- sidized health care, settled water rights on the Flathead Indian Reservation and required more financial disclosures in elections.
Those new laws were born of collab- oration and compromise, Tutvedt said, while other major spending bills were hamstrung by hardline conservatives like Regier, who voted against the state’s sprawling budget-and-infrastructure package, which ultimately failed by a sin- gle vote.
“Keith’s going to have to own his ‘no’ vote on infrastructure, he is going to have to own his ‘no’ vote on dark money, and his ‘no’ votes on the water compact and Medicaid expansion,” Tutvedt said. “He’s definitely from the far right of the party.”
Regier defends his voting record, and said he stood by his caucus in opposing Bullock’s infrastructure bill and oth- ers because they didn’t include enough compromise.
“The idea that there has ever been a true compromise is fantasy,” Regier told the Beacon.
Regier noted that moderate Republi- cans had defected from the conservative bloc to pass major legislation on issues like Medicaid expansion and the Flat- head tribal water compact between the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the state of Montana, compromising
KEITH’S GOING TO HAVE TO OWN HIS ‘NO’ VOTE ON INFRASTRUCTURE HE IS GOING TO HAVE TO OWN HIS ‘NO’ VOTE ON DARK MONEY .... HE’S DEFINITELY FROM THE FAR RIGHT OF THE PARTY.
SEN. BRUCE TUTVEDT
the state GOP’s values.
Although term limits rule out Tut-
vedt’s running again for the State Senate, he’s eligible to run for a seat in the Mon- tana House of Representatives. He could file for the GOP nomination in House Dis- trict 4, where term limits prevent Regier from running again. He could also run in House District 11, which Olszewski is vacating to run for Senate.
“I’m not ruling anything out. I’m reflecting on it, it’s on my mind,” Tutvedt told the Beacon.
Regier represents House District 4, an area south of Columbia Falls character- ized by a deep conservative streak that Tutvedt would likely struggle to alloy to his base.
A few Democrats have also filed to run in the Republican-dominated Flathead.
In House District 5, which covers Whitefish and the surrounding area, David Fern, a longtime Whitefish school board trustee, is running to replace Dem- ocrat Ed Lieser.
Fern said his seven terms as a school board trustee has given him a high level of public school funding and made him a skilled negotiator.
“I’m a consensus builder,” Fern said. “I respect other view points, and by mak- ing competing points of view part of the negotiating process we have settled some major issues.”
Although no candidates have filed to challenge Fern, Whitefish teenager Chet Billi has stated publicly that he will file as a Republican when he turns 18 later this year.
Billi made headlines in June when he brought forward a citizen-initiated bal- lot proposal that would allow teachers from elementary school through college to carry concealed handguns if they have permits.
Freshman Rep. Zac Perry, D-Hungry Horse, has filed to run again for House District 3, and political newcomer Tay- lor Rose, a Republican, has announced he will challenge.
Democrat Lynn Stanley has filed to run in House District 7 against incum- bent Republican Rep. Frank Garner.
No Democrats have filed to run in Sen- ate District 3, House District 4 or House
District 11.
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OCTOBER 28, 2015 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM