Meyers shifts focus to Senate

Rep. Bruce Meyers, R-Box Elder, along with 111 candidates for state Legislature filed their paperwork with the Montana Secretary of State's Office last Thursday to get on the June primary ballot.

After one term in the House, the freshman lawmaker is looking to begin a new chapter in the saga of "Mr. Meyers goes to Helena" by making a run for the Senate District 16 seat now held by the erm-limited Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Box Elder, while Windy Boy makes a run for the House seat now held by Meyers.

The Senate seat will stretches from Hill to Roosevelt counties, while the house district that is its eastern half encompass parts of Blaine, Chouteau, Hill, Roosevelt and Phillips counties.

In 2014, Meyers pulled off an unexpected win against first-term lawmaker Clarena Brockie, D-Hays, in House Distict 32, and now he says he wants to complete what he says are "unfinished legislative agenda items" from the 2015 legislative session.

He says that by representing a large senate district, he can have more of an impact.

As a member of the House Judiciary Committee, Meyers said, he wants to help address the disparity in sentencing between Native Americans and other minorities and whites.

"American Indians comprise anywhere between eight and 10 percent of the state's total population but at one point 30 percent of inmates were Native Americans," Meyers said.

He also said that the prison system needs to look at whether people are rehabilitated.

Meyers also served as a member of the House Education and Fish, Wildlife and Parks committees.

In election after election, Indian reservations have long been a bastion of support for Democrats, making Meyers somewhat of an anomaly.

During Meyers first campaign, he said that a Native American Republican running for office was about as rare as a white buffalo.

However, after speaking with many Native voters within his district, he said, their allegiance to the Democratic Party is more because their parents and grandparents were Democrats.

Meyers said he has also been able to bring the point of view of Natives to the largely white Republican legislative caucus.

Meyers said he has also been surprised by a couple things since becoming a member of the House. One was the willingness of Gov. Steve Bullock to veto bills on conservative issues including tax cuts, legislation against gun control and creating education savings accounts.

Though they were Republican bills, he said, "nonetheless. they were still bills that were valid bills that went to his desk. and he vetoed them."

But, while there are the usual partisan differences, Meyers also said he thought those competing ideological camps would be much more entrenched than they often are.

"What surprised me was that people, if they really sat down and talked things out, could resolve their differences. I expected to see people locked in and digging their heels on either side of an issue, but I was pleasantly surprised to see the give-and-take on both sides of the aisle and over some very tough issues."