Tester headlines Pasma-Peck Dinner

With midterm elections a year away, local Democrats flocked to the Havre Eagle's Club Friday night to hear from several of the party's candidates during the Hill County Democratic Central Committee's annual Pasma Peck Dinner.

Hill County Democratic Chair Rep. Jacob Bachmeier, D-Havre, who will be up for re-election, said Democrats will have to work hard as they seek to make Havre blue again.

"I am going to work you harder than you have ever been worked before, so get ready for that," he said.

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and three Democrats trying to unseat U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont. - John Heenan, state Rep. Tom Woods, D-Bozeman, and Grant Kier - were the featured speakers.

Democratic Senate candidate Sarah Dean and her husband, Republican Senate candidate James Dean, also attended the fundraiser.

Tester, who is running for a third term in a race that is being closely watched by political observers, said he is expecting another tight race.

"This is going to be another tough race, there is no ifs, ands or buts about it," he said.

Tester faces primary challenges from writer Greg Strandberg and Dean. Six Republicans so far have launched campaigns to unseat Tester.

In his speech, Tester, who narrowly unseated Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., by less than 1 percent in 2006 and was re-elected in 2012, criticized President Donald Trump on issues ranging from health care to his promise to build a wall on the southern border and his administration's repeal of an Obama-era rule that protects small meat packers.

"This is not about draining the swamp, folks, this is about filling it right up to the max, and we can do better," Tester said.

He added that Trump's populist rhetoric from the campaign trail is at odds with what he is doing as president.

Tester said Trump has worked to deliberately sabotage the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Though Trump said during the campaign he would enact a plan that would offer people cheaper health care, Tester said, the last effort that Trump backed to repeal Obamacare would have led to 20 million people losing their health insurance.

Though it is not perfect, Tester said, Congress should address flaws in the law in a bipartisan manner. He praised Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash. for their efforts to find a legislative fix that will stabilize insurance markets.

Tester said Montanans need somebody like him who will stand up to powerful interests, something he said he has done.

The three Democratic House candidates spoke before Tester's keynote speech.

Gianforte was elected in last May's special election to Montana's only seat in the House of Representatives after Ryan Zinke resigned to serve as Interior secretary in the Trump administration.

John Heenan, a consumer attorney from Billings, said Gianforte's assault of reporter Ben Jacobs of the Guardian in the last days of the campaign prompted him to run for the seat.

Heenan said he was angered that Gianforte had not only committed a crime, but lied about it and acted in a way that showed he felt he was above the law. He also compared Gianforte to the former copper kings of Butte, who used their wealth and power to buy their way into government.

Gianforte, he said, backed policies such as a tax reform plan by House Republicans that benefit him and the wealthy, not most Montanans.

Heenan said his work as an attorney who has taken on cases against banks, insurance companies, debt collectors and powerful interests show he has a track record of standing up for the little guy.

"Montanans don't want a handout and they don't want to hear about benefits," he said. "What they want to hear about is that if they work hard they can get ahead."

He added that he supports a single-payer health care system, a living wage and funding the hell out of public education.

Grant Kier, a former land trust director, said he is running because he believes he can help solve problems and bridge the urban rural divide.

"I think right now what America needs is people who are much more interested in mending fences than building walls, really expensive walls." Kier said.

He said that the campaign trail he has met people such as a waitress in her 20s who said that she would not be alive if not for Obamacare.

Gianforte, he said, is not listening to the public.

"If my Republican opponent was representing us, he would be talking to the communities, he would hear what I am hearing on the campaign trail," Kier said.

He added that he is someone who can build partnerships, find common ground and come up with pragmatic solutions to big issues.

Democrats, he said, need to think about which candidate can not only win the primary but also the general election.

State Rep. Tom Woods, D-Bozeman, said the economy and Washington, D.C., have not been working for ordinary Montanans' and basic needs are getting further out of reach.

He said what has united Democrats is the belief that when everyone comes together through government, lives can be improved.

People, he said, have grown skeptical of that message, as evidenced by last year's election of Trump.

People are worried about health insurance and education, Woods said, and Democrats can't expect to get the votes of middle and working class people if they don't say how they will address those problems.

He added that he has a record of fighting for progressive ideals as a state legislator and standing up to special interests. He said that if elected, he would do the same in the U.S. House, which would include supporting a Medicare-for-all single payer health care system.

"I admit it, I have a reputation for kicking the hornets nest," Woods said. "I enjoy it."

If Democrats want to win, he said, they have to be willing to do more of that.

"As Democrats, it is not enough to stand up and say no to the Koch brothers, and no to Greg Gianforte," Woods said. "We have to put forth a vision of this country that will inspire people."

The annual fall event, named after former Havre Democratic organizer Jim Pasma and former state Rep. Ray Peck, D-Havre, is the Hill County Democrat's largest annual fundraiser.

Bachmeier, D-Havre, said about 60 people came to the dinner. People in attendance ate prime rib, took part in auctions and heard from several speakers.

Watch for profiles of the Democratic House candidates in upcomming edition of the Havre Daily News.