Election 2014: House District 28: Janet Trethewey

Janet Trethe-wey is running for House District 28 as the Democratic candidate in Tuesday's election.

Trethewey was born February 1963 in Chester and graduated from Hingham High School in 1981. She attended Montana State University and received a bachelor's degree in athletic training with a minor in health in 1985, a master's in sports medicine in 1988 and a doctorate of education in 1997.

Her work experience includes working with the ambulance service in Bozeman, where she met her husband, and as a graduate assistant. In 1998, she began working at Montana State University-Northern as an athletic trainer and was given a full-time teaching contract. She retired in 2013 and now spends her time staying active in the Democratic party and Havre City Council as Ward 2 Chairperson in her second term.

She has been married to her husband, Jack, for 28 years and they have a son and grandson. Her parents live in Rudyard and she has a grandmother in Hingham who will soon turn 90.

She is a retired member of the National Athletic Trainers Association, a member of the Montana Democratic Party and an alumna of Leadership Montana.

Why should the voters vote for you?

"I've been really concerned about what's going on at the state and, obviously, federal level," Trethewey said.

She said she has been perfectly happy being on the city council, but while she and others were waiting for someone to file to run for House District 28, she was thinking about who was going to step up and who was going to "work toward making things more civil."

"Somebody who would work for the betterment of Montana," Trethewey added. "And then somebody said 'well, why don't you do it?'"

After talking to her husband, she decided to file for the race a week before deadline.

"I think Montana needs good leadership," she said. "I'm from here. I've lived here my whole life. I know the people, I know the problems, I know the history, I know what has worked in the past and what hasn't worked."

She said all this is what makes her the best candidate for representative, in addition the her background in education teaching her how to work with all kinds of people.

"I think we need to work together," she said. "We need to work together in that fight. We need to get things done. I can do that."

She said working in a collegiate environment is political experience in itself because of the bureaucracy involved, which would give her over 25 years of experience.

"I think that I can represent people well and I think that we have to have good representation in Helena," she said. "I listen, I'm compassionate, I'm empathetic, I'm thorough, I have a sense of humor and I think that there's a lot of things that we need a better sense of humor about."

Medicaid expansion

Trethewey said the Affordable Care Act is what it is and it needs to be made better. She said Montana has 70,000 people who are not insured could be if money from the federal legislation was used to get them insurance.

"It's astounding that we have people in our society today who can't get basic health care," she said.

Early Edge Montana state-funded kindergarten

Trethewey said she is for it.

From research started in the 1960s that she has seen, she said it shows that children who go to preschool do better than their counterparts who do otherwise. The research shows that children who go to preschool are more likely to further their education, not do drugs later on and they will be more prepared for school because of it.

She said that kids from lower socioeconomic backgrounds do not have enough opportunity to send their kids to preschool and many parents do not have the money to send them.

She said if it had not been for preschool, her grandson, who was discovered to have speech and language issues that required therapy, would have been seriously set back in his education if he had not gone to preschool.

"He's just one of thousands in the state," she said. "We should have every child have that opportunity."

State taking control of federal land

"I don't think that's a good idea," Trethewey said. "We can't afford it. We can't afford the state land we have now."

No texting while driving law

"You can't regulate stupidity," she said. "Having the law is great, but we have a seat belt law and how many people follow that?"

She said in her time working in an ambulance has taught her you cannot make people do what is the smart thing to do as far as safety goes. She said she thinks people will not realize it is an unsafe thing to do until they have an accident.

"If texting while driving causes you to drive carelessly, you should get charged with reckless driving," she said.

She added that she thinks adding another law that people will not pay attention to will not help things.

Same-sex marriage

"I support it," she said. "I think we cannot deny people their civil rights."

She said the religious component of marriage needs to be separated from the legal portion. She said she believes that marriage is in part a legal contract for issues like survivorship and insurance and people should not be denied those things. She added that churches should not have to conduct gay marriages if they do not want to, but it should not be denied by the government.

"So go get married in court and have those civil rights provided to you, but leave the religion out of it," she said.