Candidates Vie for Votes

SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Community Council hosted two candidate forums, April 9 and 11, covering eight races with 31 candidates in attendance. All candidates on the May 8 Special District Mail-in ballot and June 5 primary were invited. Absentee ballots for the June 5 election were mailed May 11.

The U.S. House of Representatives race is the final from the Candidate Forum. Previous coverage of the Missoula County Sheriff, Justice of the Peace, House District 92, Missoula County Commissioners and U.S. Senate are available at http://www.seeleylake.com.

MCAT also recorded both candidate forums. They are available by following the links:

April 9 Forum including U.S. Senate, Missoula County Commissioners, Missoula County Sheriff, Justice of the Peace and Seeley Lake Rural Fire District: http://69.144.69.99/Cablecast/public-site/index.html#/show/8653?channel=1

April 11 Forum including U.S. House, House District 92 and Seeley Lake Sewer District Races: http://69.144.69.99/Cablecast/public-site/index.html#/show/8654?channel=1

A Need for Change and Montana Values Dominates Debate

U.S. House of Representative (Partisan – 2 year term) Democratic candidates John Meyer, Kathleen Williams, Grant Kier, are running in the June 5 primary for a chance to unseat incumbent Greg Gianforte (R) in the Nov. 6 general election. Libertarian candidate Elinor Swanson was also in attendance at the forum and will be on the Nov. 6 ballot. Democratic candidate Lynda Moss sent a surrogate to the forum but as of April 19 withdrew from the race. Her comments are not included in this coverage. Moderator Klaus von Stutterheim said Gianforte never responded to the invite after three emails and three phone calls. He was the only candidate of the 40 candidates invited that did not respond.

Elinor Swanson (L) said the federal debt is out of control. It is her biggest issue. It is not right for future generations to pay for the current debt, "It is taxation without representation." She said she will not increase that federal debt and will say no to 'investing in infrastructure' or 'investing in technology.' "That is code for we are throwing away American taxpayers money without a cost benefit analysis."

Swanson said she believes in the constitution, especially the Bill of Rights. Freedom of religion should include freedom of conduct. "We are a free country. We should be able to behave like we want to behave, drink beer, drink raw milk, climb a cliff without a harness." She believes in freedom of speech. She feels the government needs to expand these rights not decrease them.

John Meyer (D) pointed out that he was wearing his nicest Carharts. He has a federal court hearing April 23 where he is working to open up 16,000 acres of federal land to recreation, that would be the time to see him in a suit.

Meyer said he used to work for the Flathead National Forest based out of Condon. His job was to find special rare plants and cruise timber. There were post fire timber sales because a senator said that the timber needed to be salvaged or it was going to go bad. He found a baby fawn. He realized that the timber wasn't going to go to waste if it was not cut down.

Meyer changed his career path and went to law school. He has been working to protect public land and he's tired of getting overturned in Congress. "Instead of wasting all my time in front of a computer, why don't I go run for Congress so here I am."

Kathleen Williams (D) is a daughter of a World War II veteran and a woman who left blue jacket Oklahoma to move west to work in the Navy shipyards in 1941. She is the youngest of four. She took piano lessons and worked with her father's general contracting firm. Her family taught her to love the outdoors and value of hard work and service.

Williams has built a 35-year career in natural resources and problem solving. She has worked together with diverse interests to find win-win, long-term solutions. This includes working with the Blackfoot Drought Response Plan and was the lead negotiator on the Confederated Salish Kootenai Water Rights Compact. "I'm all about trying to figure out how we can all win with our natural resources in the long run."

Williams' top priorities are health care, repairing a broken Congress, fostering opportunity, rebuilding the United States' place in the world, protecting the environment and outdoor heritage.

Grant Kier (D) lives in Missoula. He doesn't feel that the current representative represents Montanans. A single mother raised him. He remembers her crying at the kitchen table because she didn't know if she would be able to pay the rent and still buy groceries. "I made it in my life because the community around me invested in me more than I believed in being invested in."

Kier credits public education for getting to where he is today. He met his wife in college. He has worked for Five Valleys Land Trust where he worked with people who have helped farm and ranch families expand their businesses, communities like Seeley Lake invest in public lands and expand their rural economies and helped recreationists get better access to public lands so people can get out and do the things they love.

Kier is running because he thinks someone is needed who understands the everyday struggles, the values and bringing people together with different beliefs to bring their best solutions to the table to help solve complex problems.

John Heenan (D) is from Billings. He feels that if people would pay attention for longer than just sound bites there would be a much stronger government and democracy. He graduated from the University of Montana. He has been an over-the-road truck driver, school bus driver and operated a forklift prior to attending UM's law school. Up until running for Congress, Heenan has been a consumer protection lawyer representing working Montanans when they are ripped off by banks and insurance companies.

"Washington doesn't work because we have people there representing corporations, wealthy lobbyists, wealthy donors and making decisions that benefit them and not us," said Heenan. "I'm running to represent the people of this state."

While Heenan is running as a Democrat, he wants to represent all of Montana. He said he has put 35,000 miles on his car talking to all Montanans to win their vote.

Jared Pettinato (D) is running because he is frustrated with how Washington is being run. He sees people that would rather fight than work together and solve problems. He's heard that people want someone in Congress with Montana values. Out of everyone in the race, he is the only one born and raised in Montana. He is a fourth generation Montanan from Whitefish where his father, grandfather and great grandfather all worked for the railroad.

Pettinato said Montana values include working together to solve problems, investing in the communities and participating. He believes in public service. Montana has the second highest number per capita of service members in the United States.

Pettinato took these values to Washington D.C. where he worked for the Department of Justice defending public lands for nine years including the ability of the Forest Service to drop fire retardant out of airplanes, wilderness study areas, wind farms, public rail and highways. The United States trusted him with $16 billion in projects and he succeeded in about $15 billion of them.

Pettinato sees opportunity for Montana by making money out of the wind and the trees. "Making money out of thin air and using the money that grows on trees to manage the forest to reduce high severity wildfires."

In your opinion what do you think has contributed to the polarization of the country at the national and local levels and if elected what specific things would you do to repair Congress, work together or repair this riff?

Meyer (D) said that so many problems in politics stem from fear. People are scared of not winning or not getting their way. People are so entrenched in who is right and who is wrong. Daines and Gianforte keep saying "this disastrous Cottonwood Environmental law case." But he is working with the Forest Service to develop some timber sales right now. "That's how I'm trying to work across the isle with folks."

Williams (D) said people are not longer engaging with people anymore. Her style is to focus on solutions not the problems. She served three terms in the state legislature and she was able to return some integrity, decency, process and dialogue. "We need to put people over party and policy over politics. That is how we rebuild our institutions and they absolutely need rebuilding."

Kier (D) said he agrees with Williams on the source of the problem. The work that he has done has taught him that there is a lot more in common than division even when leaders try to convince people otherwise. "If we are trying to represent this whole state, it is really important that we show up and try to represent everyone in it. We respect people and we listen to them. When we go to D.C. we deliver and we serve."

Heenan (D) said he feels Congress works really well for people like Gianforte, corporations, billionaires and the wealthy insiders. It doesn't work for everyone else. There is room for compromise. Most people just want to provide for their families, ensure their children have an education and have their medical needs taken care of. What is standing in the way is greed by insiders that want more and are working to dismantle public lands, public education, social security, medicare and the broken health care system.

Pettinato (D) said it takes time to figure out the details of the problems and it is easier to just throw rocks over the fence. The current representatives don't have the time to do that because of campaign finance, gerrymandering, voter ID, doing what donors want instead of doing what constituents want. Republicans voted in favor of tax cuts even though the people did not want it. They voted to repeal Obama Care even though their voters did not want it. "We need to fix Washington that way."

Swanson (L) said the political parties have become more war-like. There is more violence by loners directed against the other side and is a symptom and is only going to get worse. She feels that part of it is because the government is more intrusive and if one side loses they are going to intrude into people's lives in ways people don't like.

How do you feel about privatizing veterans' care?

Williams (D) is daughter of a WWII veteran and is married to a veteran. She opposes privatizing the VA and veterans' care. Veterans have served, sacrificed their lives and they deserve to have the care that they want and to ensure that that works well. The VA needs to be reformed so it functions and people don't have to wait in lines so long.

Kier (D) said it is a moral obligation to provide health care to veterans. The country owes it to them to provide the best care and it is currently failing and needs to do better. He does not favor privatization but feels Congress should focus on improving the public system in place and give people more flexibility on the local and public level. He would like to see expanded public services for those who aren't getting them in their local communities.

Heenan (D) said veterans do not receive the health care they deserve. He does not believe privatization is the answer because he does not want to see the Wall Street model of greed at the expense of veterans. He supports Medicare For All and believes that would give veterans the top level of health care that they deserve.

Pettinato (D) said the VA has problems. Wait times are too long, quality of care is not high enough and people have to go too far to get care. The country needs to invest in their veterans because they invested in the country and people owe them everything. They need to get the care that they need. He said he has yet to meet a veteran that wants to see the VA privatized. "Until they want it, we are going to keep it."

Swanson (L) said she has met veterans that want to privatize the VA. Veterans do deserve better than the VA. They are not getting good care and aren't being given choices. The problem can be fixed by enabling veterans to have the care that they want on the private market.

Meyer (D) is opposed to privatizing the VA. He doesn't know the best way to provide adequate funding and reform the VA but he wants to hear ideas.

What are your thoughts on term limits for the House and for the Senate?

Kier (D) comes from a Republican family. He feels that term limits have been a disaster for Montana because it allows lobbyists to take over. There needs to be a compromise. There shouldn't be career politicians. There is a problem when people spend their whole careers in politics but right now there is not a good solution that comes with term limits that does not turn this over to dark money that is already corrupting government.

Heenan (D) supports term limits for the House. He said the House is supposed to be the regular people, friends and neighbors, stepping up to serve like jury duty. The founding fathers never intended for people to be in office forever. The longer someone is in, the less connection they have. Because this is a two-year seat someone is constantly campaigning.

Pettinato (D) said he trusts the founding fathers and they included term limits, two years for the House. Since the voters decide whether people get to stay, additional term limits are not needed. He thinks that the money makes people entrenched. There needs to be another way to ensure representatives are representing the people and not the money.

Swanson (L) supports term limits to reduce the influence of people trying to buy votes instead of figuring out how to best represent the people. She is not sure how members of Congress magically become millionaires. She thinks that is it through developing relationships with lobbyists and donors rather than doing their job.

Meyer (D) is in favor of term limits. He took a poll of those at the Candidate Forum and agreed on three terms for the U.S. House and two terms for U.S. Senate.

Williams (D) said she doesn't feel term limits are needed. However the voters need to elect people that are there to serve, that have policy experience and aren't going to be corrupted by money. Her first job 24 years ago was working as non-partisan legislative staff before term limits. She saw a legislature that worked, they could roll up their sleeves, disagree on the House floor and then go out for beers. "I think term limits destroyed that." She wanted to bring some of that process, statesmanship and integrity back to Congress.

Tourism is the number two industry in Montana. How do you feel and what is your approach to the fact that public land managers' budgets are decimated by wildfire instead of being used to bolster tourism?

Heenan (D) supports public lands, public input before giving away public lands and hearing from everyone. He said public lands are the treasure in Montana and they need to be respected and balanced. This includes finding out how to balance the tourism industry and ensure that forests can still be logged appropriately while having people working in the community in multiple aspects.

Pettinato (D) said the wildfire budget needs to be kept separate and the federal government needs to invest in public lands. Last year, 1.2 million acres burned and the state lost $240 million in tourism. That is not healthy for America or Montana. Forests need to be managed more effectively to reduce that and restore fire to its natural role in the system.

Swanson (L) agrees with separating the budgets but not sure about increasing the amounts of them. Montana has beautiful lands and increases property values. The national debt will not be addressed by selling or giving away federal lands. She wants to increase use of public lands. It is responsible to permit some logging to reduce fires.

Meyer (D) the Forest Service budget is now separate from the firefighting budget. In terms of addressing causes of forest fire, burning coal and climate change are huge issues that need to be addressed. He believes coal is causing climate change and to the extent that America can stop burning coal and find alternative jobs, it would do much better.

Williams (D) has a career in natural resources and outdoor recreation so she looks forward to mobilizing resources in Montana. The fire borrowing issue should have been solved years ago. She wants to get to Congress and find way to use outdoor recreation and tourism to build communities and economies.

Kier (D) he thought separating the firefighting budgets and other budgets was great and pointed out that Gianforte did not support it. He also said that the Land and Water Conservation Fund is something that is rarely fully invested in by Congress and it doesn't cost taxpayers anything, coming out of royalties from off-shore drilling. It is critical for investing in public lands.

How do you feel about making Health Care more affordable and available for all citizens rather than limiting it to those that can afford it?

Heenan (D) supports a Medicare for All system. He has represented people in medical bankruptcies and those where insurance companies won't pay claims. There is a very broken health care system. "I'm in the trenches and I see all the people that fall through the cracks. We have unequivocally the worst health care system of any industrialized nation paying double for an inferior product."

Pettinato (D) said Americans deserve affordable health care. He thinks drugs should be priced the cheapest of any developed nation so they don't need to be imported and there is a benefit of the market. He also wants to pay people to get on the exchanges to encourage more people in the system, reducing health care costs and premiums for everyone.

Swanson (L) said what is needed is catastrophic health care, just like with cars. There is legislation that requires health insurance to cover a lot of things that aren't needed and people don't want. She would prefer a system where people are given money and they select what they want that works better otherwise money is continually dumped into a public system that doesn't work.

Meyer (D) said rural Montanans that he has talked to are not in favor of one governmental system Medicare for All. He likes the idea of markets where people pick what they want and pay for what they pick. He feels that as much of the market working as a non-profit would be a much better system.

Williams (D) said there are non-profit providers and they are struggling as well. She would like to stabilize the individual market, make the payments that Congress committed to make under the ACA to lower the cost on the individual market; allow Medicare to bargain for drug prices like the VA and Medicaid; ensure that rural health center funds and CHIP are funded in the long run; allow people that are 55 and older to buy into Medicare to create a demand for a better public option.

Kier (D) said he has similar positions on health care as Williams. He said the Center for American Progress's Medicare Extra is the best plan that balances the benefits of a public/private partnership, delivering faster and more pragmatically to get universal access. He feels this is already happening but the question of whether to treat people without insurance in the emergency room and not provide preventative care or get serious about preventative measures to save costs in the long run is still a big question.

Closing Statements:

Pettinato (D) said there is one person that needs to be kicked out because he isn't advancing Montana values, isn't helping move Montana or America forward. Pettinato said he can do these things the best because he has nine years of experience working in the federal government on federal lands issues that are dealt with in Montana. He knows how the agencies work. It will take the other candidates nine years to get the experience he already has. He will start building and improving Montana, "With the wind in the trees we can invest in Montana. We can make money out of thin air. Wind is the next treasure from the treasure state. The money that grows on trees can be used to manage forests and reduce high severity wildfire. This includes thinning the forest and restoring fire to its natural role in the ecosystem."

Swanson (L) said one commonality between Medicare and the VA is they are unfunded. The federal debt just keeps climbing. It is unpopular to raise taxes, it is unpopular to decrease spending, "so we don't, we just push it on to the next generation. The is irresponsible and will cause immense damage to future generations." Swanson said the last thing that needs to happen is to expand the public projects until they can become fiscally responsible and sustainable.

She implored people to ask how poverty can be meaningfully decreased. She feels free markets and economic freedom are the way to go. Regulations build walls between good, peaceful friendly people that would otherwise get along.

Meyer (D) is the first person in his family to graduate with a four-year degree. He worked for the Flathead National Forest and is now a public lands attorney. He is teaching at Swan Valley Connections in May to students about public land policy.

Williams (D) said her health policy is not exactly Center for American Progress's so she encourages everyone to look at her website. What is needed to unseat Greg Gianforte is a unique candidate with a strong, progressive voting and advocacy record; someone who has been honored by the chamber of commerce for their work with business; someone with strong connections in the agriculture community with people of all political stripes; and someone who has policy experience passing legislation in a divisive, inexperienced, hyper-partisan environment while in the minority. "It would be my honor if you felt that I was that candidate."

Kier (D) wants your vote. He is a scientist by training and has worked as a geologist in Wyoming drilling for natural gas. He worked as an engineering geo-physicist building bridges and tunnels across North America and Europe watching America fall behind the rest of the world because we weren't investing. People need to listen to evidence and facts and not partisan rhetoric to solve problems. He will show up in every community in Montana, he will respect the people and listen to the problem they have and work to solve them. "I've dedicated my life to service. I love this state, I love this country and I want to serve you."

Heenan (D) is running to represent all Montanans. He feels the current representative doesn't care about showing up and doesn't care about the people of the state. There is only one representative in the state and it should be someone who is willing to show up and listen to people. "You can't be an advocate until you first listen." He said things he holds dear are now under attack because of partisan issues including: public education, a living wage and health care. "Washington is broken. I want to represent people and fix it."