What makes me the right candidate for HD-28

Yesterday, I spent the day driving the north side of the Sweet Grass Hills in a snowstorm and meeting voters that never see a candidate at their door. I have to say it’s a strange experience. It leads to a lot of introspection after showing up on a stranger’s doorstep, hoping they’ll open the door to talk to a stranger, and then essentially selling yourself to them. When each doorstep is five miles apart it gave me a lot of time to think.

In the race for HD28 I have three opponents, two Republicans, and one Democrat. Even I had to ask myself what sets me apart from the other two Republican candidates? I don’t know them, so I will have say what I think are the qualities I believe makes me the best candidate. I have empathy to understand a person’s situation, and can place myself in their position and try to see their point of view. Yes, I can be an old softie, but I’ve lived long enough to know the difference between a hand-out, and a hand-up. I also understand that sometimes we have to take a hard line, because helping and enabling often confused in government. I want to help people, but they have to want to help themselves!

If you’ve ever read my book, you know I can communicate well, and have the ability to share my ideas and love to think outside the box. We need people in the legislature that can look past the name of the bill and really think about the future impact of the bills being passed. I know some good legislatures that don’t always have the highest conservative ranking, but in fact have shot down bills that looked and sounded good, but were going to come back to haunt us. The law might sound good when Republicans are in power, but eventually the Democrats will be back in power and how will it be used then? What door is it opening? I think the Republican party could really use someone like me in the legislature, and House District 28 would be in good hands.

I listen to people and to what they are saying. I don’t have to agree, but sometimes there’s gold to be found. I’m also stubborn in good way. I will stand up for what I believe in. I’m not scared to spar with other politicians, no matter who they are. If you don’t believe me, go watch the 2017 Congressional Debate, where I took on Greg Gianforte, and Rob Quist, and according to the round table of newsmen dissecting the debate I clearly won the debate. I should point out I had 24 hours to prepare for that debate, and the other two prepped all week with coaches before stepping on the stage with me.

I believe there is right and wrong, and sometimes a lot of gray in between. How we interpret those gray areas, is the difference between our political parties. I lean towards liberty and freedom very hard. I believe that adults need to make their own decisions, and as long as they are not hurting anyone else, they should live life how they want, and when I say hurting, I mean physically, mentally, and financially. I think living a Christian life-style is a good way to go through life, and although I am not particularly religious, I will fight to defend that life-style, because the world is a better place because of it.

I don’t want to go to the legislature to make money, that doesn’t happen if your honest. I hate thieves, and dishonesty, they make my blood boil. People that take our tax dollars to enrich themselves, shouldn’t be anywhere close to government, but of course they gravitate to it, but I will do everything I can to keep their hands out of the cookie jar. Another thing that I really hate is bullies, and not all bullies are the physical type, some use the law, some use money, or a combination thereof. We live in a state with a small population, and not a lot of big money, which makes us a target. Outsiders consider us a “cheap state” to get things done in. I will not hesitate to stand up against those people. That can make me a target, but I’ve got big shoulders, and don’t expect me to apologize if I offend the woke crowd. I will most likely double down and make them back up.

I’ve been told that if your honest and break even at the end of the session, you’re doing good! I’m not going to try to enrich my relatives, or myself through schemes, the only thing I’m going to steal is good ideas! I don’t care where they come from. I don’t care if I get credit either, I just want Montana a better place because of the work I do.

I am going to work diligently for the entire district from Chester to Glasgow. I hate elected leaders that disappear after their election and aren’t seen again until the next one. This should be easy for me to do, because I really like the district and who it’s made up of. It’s all Class C&B rural towns, full of tough hardy people. You don’t stay in HD28 if you aren’t a little bit tough! This isn’t a forgiving area.

Mostly what I see and hear when I talk to people is, we just want to be left alone to do our thing. We’ve got a pretty good life up here and we don’t need Helena, or DC meddling in our lives. We are not an island though, every county in the district needs more money for roads, and bridges. We need to get funding secured to keep our Milk River water supply secure. So my top priority is getting the St. Maries Canal funded.

We have some real problems in rural healthcare, and healthcare in general. We have to make sure there are rest homes, and nursing homes so our elders can stay in the communities they built, close to their families.

Taxes always come up, and I don’t care for paying taxes any more than you do. I believe in cutting fat, and really looking at areas where money can be saved. Too often, especially in the health and human services we have programs that sound good, but don’t make a real impact. Just throwing money at a problem to say “I care” is not enough! We need to have programs that spend money wisely and I intend to make sure they do just that, I will cut programs with nice names if they don’t make a difference. One thing I will guarantee you, I won’t support a sales tax. I’ve already talked with legislators and have some ideas about real estate taxes that not only will help spread the burden, but may also bring a couple of other problems under control.

People also ask me about the Federal government. The border comes up a lot, there’s not much the state can do there, and Governor Gianforte has stepped up to the plate with Texas and I believe is doing a good job. I will say the Redneck in me thinks that criminal aliens that keep sneaking in repeatedly should be deported to one of our many military bases around the world and see how long it takes them to make it back. I’m sure Mr. Coyote will have a new appreciation for crossing the border if we let him walk home from Libya.

Along those lines I would like to get more funding for the Attorney General’s office to fight organized crime coming into Montana. He has said he can use a dozen more investigators to fight sex slavery. I’m a family man and the thought of people selling little boys and girls for sex is truly one of the worst things in this world. We need to save these children and adult victims and lock their slavers away in very dark places. The Justice department could also use some forensic accountants to make sure that our tax dollars are recovered when they are stolen, or misused. I’m going to help the attorney general with that.

Another topic that comes up is Transgender issues. I believe that if someone wants to change their sex they need to wait until they are adults. They need to get through puberty and be able to make adult decisions before permanently changing their bodies. Puberty is an awful time, no one would ever willingly go back to junior high and do it again! It’s something you just have to get through, and unfortunately there are people that whisper crazy stuff in our children’s ears, we have to give them the time to grow up and decide what they truly want. I don’t think that men should be playing in women’s sports either. We shouldn’t have to even argue this! That said, I believe in treating everybody equally, the LGBT community has nothing to fear from me, but I will not give anyone special rights! No one! As the Constitution says we are created equall.

One of the toughest things I want to work on is fighting censorship. We all remember Covid, and how the Social Media companies hid our posts, put fact checkers on them, and yet oddly never seemed to fact check a left wing post. They even did this at our government’s request. The social media companies also interfered with the 2020 elections, and put us on this terrible road we are on, this has to change. The cornerstone of our Republic is free speech, and it’s been trampled on. I myself have been shadow banned for years on Facebook. My postings go to very few people. I can post the same thing in another place and suddenly my memes are everywhere, often the people posting them are on my friends list and should have seen them on my page, but they’re hidden. This is going to be a tough fight to get some good laws passed to prevent this, and we’ll probably have to work with legislators from other states to get a workable solution that has enough teeth to make it work.

I know this letter is lengthy, but I hope you’ve taken the time to read it and decide I’m worthy of your vote. I would also like to ask you to think about contributing to my campaign fund. This district is huge and a few dollars for gas money or postage would be well appreciated.