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GOP Senate hopefuls stump in Havre

Four Republican Senate candidates and a spokesperson for a fifth possible contender looking to enter next fall's Senate race introduced themselves to the local party faithful and took aim at both the D.C. establishment and Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., Saturday night during the Hill County Republican Central Committee's Fall Harvest Dinner.

"Jon (Tester) has an immense amount of money, a big mouth and he has a lot of ability, but we have the better ideas," Hill County Republican Central Committee Chair Andrew Brekke told the people attending.

For $50 a person, attendees ate prime rib and prawns, took part in a raffle for seven miniature elephants and two dolls of President Donald Trump, mingled with the candidates and posed for pictures alongside a Trump cardboard cutout.

In all, about 68 people bought tickets to the event, Brekke said afteward.

This year was the first time the Central Committee held a fall dinner, Brekke said, something they hope to make an annual event. He said the dinner this year was meant to re-engage the party's base and introduce them to the candidates ahead of next year's Senate race.

"We want to hear what they are going to do for Montanans and how they are going to beat Jon Tester," Brekke said.

Tester, a farmer from Big Sandy and the lone Democrat in Montana's three-member congressional delegation, is seeking a third term.

After dinner, the candidates were each allotted time to pitch themselves to voters.

"Talk to anyone in Congress, most of them would be happy if they had zero votes a year because then they aren't going to offend anybody and then they will stay there forever," candidate Troy Downing said.

Downing, a businessman, told the audience about how he was raised in poverty by a single mother. He later went on to work as a research scientist, launched a startup that would later merge with Yahoo and after Sept. 11 joined the U.S Air Force where he served two tours in Afghanistan. He now runs a commercial real estate business.

"I am tired of an over-intrusive federal government being part of our lives and I want to beat it back with a stick," Downing said.

"I am tired of our government taxing and regulating the American dream away from our grandchildren," he said. " I want to take that back."

Downing said he is frustrated with the stagnation in D.C. He said that he thinks the major cause of that inability to get legislation passed is career politicians. He said term limits for members of Congress is something that seriously needs to be looked at.

"Two terms in the Senate is 12 years, I've never taken 12 years to do anything," Downing said. "If you can't move the ball in 12 years, you're the wrong person for the job, or you are in the job for the wrong reason."

Ron Murray, a dog kennel owner and businessman from Belgrade, said he was drawn to the race by President Donald Trump's victory last November.

"I got into this race because of that guy over there," Murray said, pointing to the cardboard cutout of Trump.

He said that when Trump was elected president, his wife urged him to run against Tester, something he had previously said he wanted to do.

Murray had been an unsuccessful candidate for the state House in 2010 where he challenged an incumbent Republican. He was later sued by the state of Montana. Murray said he was sued by the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices, after he had been found to have coordinated with a group that favored right-to-work laws. He reached a settlement with the state last year where he would pay a $6,000 fine.

He said that a few weeks ago, a woman told him that voters need to elect more Republicans to Congress, and he disagreed with her. Though the party has both Houses of the state legislature, Murray said Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, has gotten "basically everything that he has wanted."

"We got the president., we have the House and we have the Senate, and we aren't getting a darn thing done," Murray said. "So we need more Republicans who are going to get the job done."

Murray said that when President Barack Obama was in the White House, Tester voted for Obama's agenda 98 percent of the time and was "a good yes man." Murray added that if he was in Washington, D.C., he believes he would be voting "98 percent or more" for Trump's agenda.

"The difference was Tester was voting yes for all the bad things for Montana, where we would be voting yes for all the good things for Montana," he said.

He said whoever the party picks to go up against Tester in the Republican primary in June must not have the weaknesses past candidates have had.

State Sen. Al Olszewski, R-Kalispell, a military veteran and orthopedic surgeon, played up his north-central Montana roots.

Olszewski said he was born and raised in Great Falls and is the great-grandson of miners and ranchers who homesteaded in Hoagland.

A U.S. Air Force veteran and orthopedic surgeon, Olszewski,said he is a fighter.

"I fight for my family, I fight for my patients, I advocate for them, I fight for my state as a state legislator and I am going to fight for our country and move forward," he said.

"We have to bring in new people with new ideas and we have to break up this stalemate we see in Washington," he said.

Olszewski said that after he declared his candidacy he went to Washington, D.C., to introduce himself to members of the party.

He said Republicans thanked him for coming, but that he was not "their guy." Olszewski, compared not being the party's preferred candidate to the status of Trump during the Republican primary's early last year, and that not being a party's preferred candidate gave him the freedom to pursue the interests of Montana and not be beholden to the party establishment.

"What I am telling you right now is if you send me to Washington as your senator, I am not going to join a club and be somebody, I am going to join a team and do something great," Olszewski,said.

State Auditor Matthew Rosendale said trying to push back against the federal government from Helena, he feels like he is trying to fight a fire in Glacier National Park while standing in Havre.

"I want to go where the fire is and deal with the problem where it is," Rosendale said.

Rosendale, a property developer and rancher from Glendive who served six years in the state Legislature before he was elected Montana State auditor last year, said most of the big problems emanate from Washington, D.C.

In his speech, Rosendale said the inheritance tax. which he called the death tax, should be abolished. The tax, he said, adversely effects family farms, ranches and businesses and called for tax reform.

"We need to have serious tax reform, so you are able to keep more money in your pocket, instead of sending it to someone 2,500 miles away and allowing them to spend it," Rosendale said.

He said federal regulations on business need top be rolled back.

"We've got people living a thousand miles away telling us how to regulate our businesses and industries, and that is who we don't have the timber mills functioning anymore," Rosendale said. "That is why we haven't had a new mining permit issued in the last 20 years."

He also blasted Tester for voting against the confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch earlier this year, while voting for Obama's two supreme court nominees Justices Sonya Sotomayor and Elena Kagan who Rosendale said are "openly hostile to our way of life."

Rosendale added that he supported Trump's proposal to build a wall along the U.S Southern border.

Rosendale, the only declared candidate who has run a statewide race, said he has volunteers across the state who will mobilize not only to support him, but candidates in local legislative races and local central committees.

Bowen Greenwood, a former executive director of the Montana Republican Central Committee, talked about his friend Judge Russ Fagg.

Fagg, a district judge from Billings who served in the Montana Legislature and was a prosecuting attorney, is exploring a possible run for the Senate.

Greenwood said Fagg could not be at the dinner because he was seeing his son off to college that weekend.

Fagg, Greenwood said, is "pro-life," "pro-Second Amendment" and is passionate about reducing the national debt.

"We can't go on with this inventing money out of thin air and spending as much as we want forever," Greenwood said.

Neither Rep. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont., nor Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., were at the dinner, but both had representatives at the meeting who each read brief statements on their behalf.

Misty Kuhl. the liaison for Gianforte, said Gianforte was sorry he could not be there.

Kuhl read from a statement in which Gianforte said during a recent 56-county tour across Montana he repeatedly heard Montanans say the reach of the federal government had grown too great.

He also said he had introduced a bill that would withhold the salaries of members of Congress if they did not pass a balanced budget and co-sponsored a bill for a constitutional amendment that would require a balanced budget. He also said he co-sponsored legislation that would ban members of Congress from becoming lobbyists and that would impose term limits.

Gianforte said that despite dysfunction in Washington, D.C., the House had a productive year in passing conservative items on the legislative agenda. Though it failed to pass in the Senate several times, he said the House passed legislation to repeal and replace the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, and passed reforms to the Veterans Administration. He said the House voted to give military service members a pay raise and increase by 25 percent spending on military infrastructure and passed three bills cracking down on illegal immigration, including a bill that would cut federal funds to sanctuary cities.

Allison Vergeron, a field representative and agriculture liaison for Daines, also read a statement on the senator's behalf.

In his statement, Daines said bad forest management by the federal government and "radical environmentalists" has prevented Montana from carrying out forest management projects and has cost Montana jobs.

At every turn, he said, radical environmentalists have litigated their way into stopping forest management projects that could reduce the frequency and severity of wildfires.

"We are tired of being told that Washington, D.C., knows better than we do as we watch our forest and our land burn every summer, our mills close and our neighbors lose jobs and our way of life threatening because of lack of commonsense management of our federal lands" Daines said.

Daines said land management decisions need to be returned to the states.

"We need to stop allowing liberal Democrats, radical environmentalists, career politicians dictate the future of our country and the future of our public lands," he said.

Daines said members of Congress need to be banned from becoming lobbyists, introduce term limits and pass legislation that would withhold the salaries of members of Congress if they do not get paid.

Congress, he said, need to move forward with tax reform and eliminate the filibuster.

"We have the Senate, we have the House and we have the White House, Daines said, "The filibuster was neither in the constitution nor something advocated for by it's framers.

Daines said Gorsuch was confirmed by the Senate by doing away with the right to filibuster Supreme Court nominees and the same has to be done for legislation.

 

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