Rosendale stumps in Havre for Congress

A candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives was in Havre Wednesday, telling local voters why they should send him to Washington and what he would do if he was sent.

State Sen. Matt Rosendale, R-Glendive, who was elected to the Montana House of Representatives in 2010 and the Senate in 2012, said he decided to run for Congress because he took a close look at how he could serve the state most efficiently and effectively.

"The big problems we are dealing with originate in Washington. ... They are coming in the way of rules and regulations and mandates that are being passed down from the federal government ... , " he said. "If I go to Washington and fight these things, maybe they will never begin and we won't have to deal with them in Helena."

In the primary, Rosendale faces three other Republicans who have filed as candidates - former state Sen. Corey Stapleton of Billings, state Sen. Elsie Arntzen of Billings and former state Sen. Ryan Zinke of Whitefish.

No Democrats have yet filed as candidates for the seat, opening up with U.S. Rep. Steve Daines, R-Mont, running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. Former Baucus aide John Lewis has announced his intent to run for Daines' House seat as a Democrat.

Baucus said in March he would not run for re-election after four decades of serving in Washington, and has been appointed as the U.S. ambassador to China.

Rosendale said 60 current and former legislators from Montana have endorsed his campaign, including Rep. Kris Hansen, R-Mont.

Hansen, who this year is facing Sen. Greg Jergeson, D-Havre, in the race for the new Senate District 14 that includes Havre, parts of Hill County and Chouteau and Liberty counties, said during Wednesday's event at Wolfer's Diner in Havre that she has been impressed with Rosendale's research on issues and attention to details.

"You give him a topic that's not very interesting or very thrilling, like subdivision regulations, and he will see the need there and he will dive in and actually say, 'OK, how do we fix this problem."

He listed several issues as the top priorities in Washington, including dealing with the impacts of the health care reform act, commonly called Obamacare, reducing federal regulations and infringements on rights and civil liberties, and cutting the deficit.

A top priority, he said, is the state taking possession - or at least having more say in the operation and management of - the 35 percent of the state that is federally owned. He said he wants the Legislature to request the federal government turn the land over to the state, and would work in Congress to have that body approve it.

He said any lawmaking requires the lawmaker to find what will sell it to the other lawmakers - as far as the federal land swap, he said, he could point out the massive amounts of money the federal government spends on managing the land, and show how that would reduce other state's taxes going to that management while increasing revenue from the land.

One of the biggest priorities is reducing the federal deficit and debt, he said.

"We've got to do something about that deficit," Rosendale said "Does that takes some serious cuts? You're darn well right it does. Is that difficult? Yes, it is, but it's got to be done. It's not going to get any easier tomorrow or the day after that or the day after that."

The federal deficit was $680 billion last year, down from the staggering $1.4 trillion deficit in 2009.

Rosendale said the way to cut spending is through targeted cuts, working and negotiating with other lawmakers to find ways to cut programs. For example, he said, Social Security could be changed slightly, such as moving the benefit age for people born 50 years ago to 63 rather than 62, and to 64 for people born 45 years ago.

He said entitlements are the biggest cost to the government, and paying for them infringes on people's rights.

"At the end of the day, all of the spending that takes place on social programs is in some way restricting your freedoms, so you have to is look at it and see how is it taking place ... ," Rosendale said. "I want businesses to be more free to conduct in the fashion that they see fit. It's about religious freedom, it's about freedom of speech, it's about educational freedom. ...

"We have got to get back to where people can make their own decisions about their lives and function in a free society," he said.

Rosendale said he wants to take what he has used in the business world to bring back opportunity to people who want to get ahead - people now can't take small investment and hard work to build a business, he said.

Before he bought his ranch, Rosendale said, he used hard work, good business sense and good ethics to build a real estate development company.

"I took a fledgling one-office real estate company with about a handful of agents and was instrumental in converting that, building that, to a four-office, 65-agent multi-million dollar corporation," he said.

The best way to again allow people to do that, he said, is to reduce government intrusion. The best kind of government is the government closest to the people, Rosendale said.

"The less interference the federal government has with the state of Montana, the better off we are going to be," he said.