Tempel wants to continue in Senate

I pray you all had a great Christmas and are looking forward to a happy and heathy New Year.

Over the past year, I have had the wonderful opportunity and privilege to serve as your District 14 senator. It has been a great experience for me to expand my public service from a county level to the State. Though the learning curve has been steep, I’ve enjoyed the year immensely and look forward to continuing to tackle state and local issues.

During my current tenure, Senate District 14 has faced and addressed a number of obstacles that no one could have foreseen. A little over a year ago, zebra mussel was detected in Lake Elwell at Tiber Dam. Then, early this fall, the Hi-Line and Havre had a once-in-a-hundred-year storm that took out power from Chester to Malta. Additionally, during this hunting season, chronic wasting disease, which has never before been seen in Montana wildlife, was found in northeast Liberty County. The first two events are being dealt with or taken care of, and we’re just now in the process of getting an idea of the total impact of the CWD in our area. All of these events are very expensive to deal with and take the combined collaborative efforts of local and state resources to address and solve. When I was appointed to the Senate seat, who would have guessed these things (and many more) would have to be dealt with by the state?

That being said, with these successes and experiences under my belt, it is time to announce that I am filing for Senate District 14 seat for the 2018 election. I have had a lot of encouragement and support over the last year, and I thank you all for that. When my name went to the four county central committees last year, I was asked if I would be willing to run this coming election cycle, if appointed. At that time, I felt with good heath, support from family, friends, and community, I would be willing to run. That is where we are today. I am going to need help getting from where we are today to winning an election. A few things that have been suggested are: a Facebook page, developing election cards, doing an introduction flyer, and a full-blown election flyer. Hopefully, I can find folks to help with these, as my skills at these things are very limited to say the least.

Again, I want to thank everyone for the help, suggestions, information, and encouragement over this past year. Happy New Year!

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State Sen. Russ Tempel, R-Chester, can be reached at [email protected].