Lang, Adolphson face off in race for Senate District 17

Douglas Adolphson, a plumber and motel owner from Glasgow, is making a bid for the Montana Senate this November.

Adolphson is the Democrat in the Senate District 17 race. The district stretches from northeastern Hill County east to the North Dakota border.

He faces state Rep. Mike Lang, R-Malta, in November's general election. The seat is now held by state Sen. John Brenden, R-Scobey, who is unable to seek re-election because of term limits.

Adolphson said he decided to make a run for the Senate in order to improve several things at the state level.

He said he wants to make sure women get paid as much as men for doing the same job. Imposing of a state sales tax is

something Adolphson said he is against. It would lead to people

having less disposable income and therefore hurt businesses and the state economy.

Veterans care is something that Adolphson said he wants to improve. He said the federal government has not done an adequate job of ensuring that veterans get the care they need when they need it. He said that maybe the state can take action to better the situation.

Adolphson said that his drive to seek answers and bring people together to tackle issues would benefit him as a lawmaker.

The key to solving the state's shortage of revenue is to fix the state's infrastructure, Adolphson said.

Infrastructure repairs would not only help rehabilitate the state's roads, bridges and water systems, but also create jobs, he said.

"Those are high-paying jobs," he said.

Those workers would pay the state's income tax, which, in turn, would boost revenue to the state.

He said though it would cost the state money they would end up bringing in more revenue.

Many workers are making lower wages than their counterparts in neighboring states, Adolphson said.

A union member for 56 years, Adolphson said that wages improve for workers when labor unions are strong.

"If you have a union, you have insurance and pension funds," he said.

Despite his support for fixing the state's infrastructure, Adolphson said he is not sure if he would support using state bonding to pay for it.

"Bonding, I don't know," he said. "I might support it if I knew how much it would cost."

In the last legislative session a bipartisan infrastructure bill was taken up by both the House and Senate. It would have paid for infrastructure projects through a mix of cash on hand and bonding.

The bill passed the Senate but fell one vote shy of the two-thirds necessary to authorize state bonding.

If the coal industry was in better shape, taxes the state collects from it could help cover the cost of infrastructure upgrades, Adolphson said.

He said he stands against the transfer of federal public lands to state control. He said that would lead to private individuals and organization buying large swaths of land, and reduce tourism to Montana.