Senate District 46 Candidates Go Head to Head

SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Community Council hosted two candidate forums, Sept. 19 and Sept. 26, at the Seeley Lake Community Hall. Candidates for state and local races answered questions from moderator and Council Chair Klaus von Sutterheim and the audience.

All candidates that appear on the ballot including Republicans, Democrats and Libertarians, were invited.

This week the Pathfinder features the candidates for Montana Senate District 46 and Montana House District 92. Visit http://www.seeleylake.com for coverage of the Governor/Lieutenant Governor; U.S. Congress; Secretary of State; State Attorney General; Montana Supreme Court; State Auditor; Superintendent of Public Instruction and Public Service Commissioner candidates. Look for the Missoula County Commissioner and Justice of the Peace coverage in the next issue.

Absentee ballots were mailed Oct. 14. The general election is Nov. 8.

Senate District 46: Incumbent Sue Malek (D) has served as the Senate District 46 representative for the past three years and was the SD 98 representative from 2009-2013. She is challenged by Adam Pummill (R). Both were in attendance at the forum.

Adam Pummill (R) was born and raised in Missoula, Mont. He attended college in Oregon and returned to finish his business administration and economics degree at the University of Montana. He's has been in the construction industry and owns and operates a couple of his own small businesses since graduating college.

Pummill said he got into the race to help the next generation of Montanans.

"We are at a cross roads in this state right now. We have some very important economic and social issues coming up," said Pummill. "I would like to bring forth some of my economics and business sense as well as many outdoors and general Montana values to this race and to the state Senate."

Pummill wants to bring new ideas, a new generation and stewardship to Helena.

Senator Sue Malek (D) was born and raised in Baker, Mont. until moving to Conrad, Mont. when she turned 14 years old. She graduated from a Montana State University in Bozeman with a degree in psychology. She worked as a social worker in Anaconda, Mont. during deinstitutionalization in the 1970s.

She completed a Masters in Communication Studies at the University of Montana (UM). She worked as an academic advisor running the advising office in the school of business for 24 years.

Malek served as the president of the staff union at the UM. She ran for the City Government Study Commission and served as president for two years.

"It was always my desire when I was in my early 20s to advocate for low income people. That is what I will continue to do," said Malek.

This session Malek said she will advocate for public preschool. With the average Montana family paying $600 a month per child for day care, Malek sees this as an opportunity to take the pressure off families when their children turn four years old.

"The states that have enacted this not only find better achievement in school but a reduction in child abuse and neglect," said Malek.

Infrastructure in the state is a concern for Malek as well as protection of public land and diversifying our energy portfolio.

"If we can develop renewable energy. This is what Google [Yahoo and Amazon] wants. We can do data centers," said Malek. "[A local business person from Washington] Knows what can happen in small communities like Centralia, Wash. when they develop data centers they develop renewal energy."

How much does a State Senator get paid?

Malek (D): $10.33/hour for eight hours per day. The usual work load requires 12 hours per day for six days per week over four months with no holidays or time off.

What are your legislative priorities for the next session and how do they different from your opponent?

Malek (D): Four priorities are public preschool, infrastructure, protecting public lands and diversifying the energy economy.

"If Montana will come up with a plan [for data centers], Washington will help us," said Malek. "Talon Energy is losing millions of dollars a year and Colstrip Coal could close at any moment. We have to be thinking about what we can do for communities like Colstrip."

Pummill (R): Infrastructure would be his first priority. The lack of legislature and governor to provide Montana with a good infrastructure funding bill set the state back.

"We need to take care of our roads, our bridges, our sewer systems and water systems and make sure we can sustain what we have going on in Montana," said Pummill.

Other priorities include to promote education as it applies to economic growth and development.

"We need to bring in economic development and value-added jobs to the state of Montana," said Pummill.

What is the top priority and how will these priorities be funded?

Pummill (R): "We must stay behind the industries that have created the jobs and revenues that brought people and kept people employed in this state," said Pummill. "We can't give up on the timber industry, walk people out of the woods or give up on Colstrip. We've got to encourage economic growth."

Ideas Pummill proposed were supporting all industries especially technology and investing in the Internet backbone to attract larger companies.

Malek (D): Infrastructure was all figured out last session but it felt like eastern Montana said either we get it all or nothing.

"I'm in this because I'm from eastern Montana and I would like to build a bridge where we can all get along," said Malek. "There often is a difficult divide."

The infrastructure bill from last year was funded by $50 million of the $350 million surplus and bonding for the rest. Montana has one of the lowest bonding rates in the nation. The interest rate was 1.5 percent which was less than the interest that was being made in the bank.

"We would have been making money by borrowing that money. Having people working and paying taxes, we would have been in a lot better financial shape than we currently are," said Malek.

How do you see the government regulation impacting housing cost and how would you change how that works?

Malek (D): The opinion was that a sewer in Seeley Lake would provide the capacity to build low-income housing. There are grants and loans available to pay for low-income housing, reducing taxes and in turn allowing lower rent.

"It can be done here, but you need to have a sewer," said Malek.

Pummill (R): Inevitably a sewer is needed in Seeley Lake. It will allow for higher density and provide a better service and treatment.

Affordable housing is not something that can be regulated or funded by the government.

"More money in people's pockets, lower taxes, more conservative, fiscal responsible policies are the way to go, not more government to help create affordable housing," said Pummill.

What committee would you like to serve on and why?

Pummill (R): The Judicial Committee and Finance and Budget committees. He sees great gains that could be made on the Judicial Committee that he would like to help with.

"Finance and economics is right in my wheel house and knowing how to manage a dollar and use it wisely is very important," said Pummill.

Malek (D): Served on revenue and transportation committee for the past eight years. The committee discussed the 18 month holiday on oil wells in Montana, not being able to provide infrastructure in eastern Montana because they were unable to collect taxes and corporations shifting money oversees avoiding the state and federal taxes.

Served on law and justice committee last interim and was happy to see the sentence reform happening.

Also proud of the Campaign Finance reform that she was a part of last session.

"It's going to be either a Natural Resources Committee or Law and Justice Committee," said Malek.

Closing Statements:

Malek (D): Last session was happy with the Medicaid expansion. States that did not accomplish that lost doctors and hospitals.

"We are now covering 100,000 more Montanans before the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion," said Malek. "Those things as well as campaign finance reform were a big thing for me. I think we can accomplish big things next session as well."

Pummill (R): Wants to bring rural Montana values back to the Senate seat.

"We don't do that through more government and more regulations," said Pummill.

Pummill said that the $300 million rainy day fund isn't there anymore. It's going to be a fiscally tight budget with a lot of hard decisions and strategic planning.

"I'm a very good negotiator, I have the business skills and I'm not new to coming up with new ideas to solve problems [being an inventor for the last 10 years]. These are things I can bring to the table in Helena," said Pummill. "I don't think more taxes, more regulation and more government are going to solve our problems."

Instead Pummill proposes developing Montana's economy, encourage businesses to stay in the state, maintaining quality education from state universities while getting them to provide applicable education so graduates can stay in Montana where there are jobs and opportunity waiting for them.