Local candidates stump in Blaine County

Republican candidates for Blaine County sheriff, the state Legislature and the Montana Public Service Commission introduced themselves to voters Sunday night at the annual Lincoln-Reagan Dinner hosted by the Blaine and Hill County Republican Central Committees.  

For $50 a ticket, people ate prime rib, took part in a live auction and heard from Political candidates at the event held in the Commercial Building on the Blaine County Fairgrounds.  

Blaine County Central Committee Chair Don Richman said despite heavy snowfall the night before, he never considered canceling the event, which serves as the biggest fundraiser of the year for the central committees.

"We are Montanans," he said.

Montana Senate District 14 Republican primary candidates Brad Lotton of Havre and state Sen. Russ Tempel, R-Chester, both addressed the crowd.

"I have never had a job where I was fed by taxpayer dollars," Lotton said.

Lotton, owner of Lotton Construction and finance director of the Hill County Republican Central Committee, and Tempel, a former  three-term county commissioner appointed to the Senate seat in 2016, are vying to be the Republican candidate in Senate District 14.

The district runs from the Canadian border north of Chester to just outside Great Falls and includes Havre, Kremlin, Gildford, Hingham, Rudyard, Joplin, Inverness, Fort Benton, Chester, Box Elder and Big Sandy.  

Both contenders will face off for the party's nomination in the June 5 primary and the winner will take on Bear Paw Development Corp. executive director and Democrat Paul Tuss in November.

Lotton and Tempel along with Darrold Hutchinson, a farmer who lives north of Hingham and a candidate in House District 27, were all considered by members of the county commissions in the Senate district to fill the seat in late 2016 after state Sen. Kris Hansen, R-Havre, resigned from the Senate to move to Helena and accept a job as chief legal counsel for Montana Auditor Matthew Rosendale.

As a business, Lotton said he is familiar with the issues that affect industry in Montana such as the high cost of worker's compensation in  the state, limits on  logging and how what he calls government overreach has caused the oil and gas industry to scale back their operations in Montana.

If elected, Lotton vowed that he will represent the entire district.

"I am not going to just represent Havre, I am not just going to represent Liberty County," he said.

Lotton also said that he would not vote to raise taxes or increase government bureaucracy.

Unlike legislators elected in November of 2016, Tempel said his appointment was so sudden he was not able to attend the three-day legislative training session put on for newly elected lawmakers.

"Everyone else had gone down in November and did their little  three-day training I spent the next three weeks getting that three-day training on the job." Tempel said.

"Spending four months in Helena was a real eye-opener, and at this point I believe I can probably do a good job competing with the Democratic side going into this thing," he said.

Joshua Kassmier, a Republican running in House District 27 also spoke to the crowd.

Kassmier, a former candidate for mayor of Fort Benton and crop adjuster, and Hutchinson are running in the party's primary for the seat now held by state Rep. Jim O'Hara, R-Fort Benton, who has decided not to file for re-election.

Hutchinson was not at the dinner.

No Democrats, independents or third party candidates have yet filed with the Montana Secretary of State's office to enter the race.

Kassmier, a Fort Benton native, said that after graduating from High School in 2000, he became an intern for then-Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont. He then returned to Montana where he attended Carroll College and earned a degree in political science and public management.

He then returned to Fort Benton where he helped out on his family's farm and eventually became a crop adjuster.

Kassmier said his work takes him as far north as Cut Bank and as far south as Wyoming.

"So I know the issues facing the state," he said.

Blaine County Undersheriff Frank Billmayer also spoke, as he runs to be the party's nominee for county Sheriff.

A former Marine who also worked briefly in business in South Korea, Billmayer said that he will be the first Republican for that office in quite sometime.

"I know running as a Republican in Blaine County is a challenge, but I have never shied away from challenges," he said.

Billmayer will face Blaine County Sheriff's Office Lt. John Kolby, a Democrat, in November. Billmayer was among several candidates considered for the office of undersheriff, after UnderSheriff Pat Pyette died in the line of duty in 2012.

Billmayer said he along with other deputies were told by Sheriff Glenn Huestis to submit a letter of interest for the position.

He was appointed undersheriff in Aug. 2012.

Billmayer said that in his current position he supervises all the country's deputies and, performs pre-employment background checks. He also supervises all criminal case files and coroner death investigations and helps out with the budget process.

Fiscal responsibility, Billmayer said, will be a major plank in his campaign because he is concerned with federal deficit spending and knows the fiscal constraints the county faces.

Billmayer said he will do what he can to get federal grants "when they make sense for Blaine County."

Two of the four Republicans running for the open district 1 seat on the Montana Public Service Commission also addressed the crowd.

Mark Wicks of Inverness and former state Rep. Randy Pinocci, R-Sun River, were at the dinner.

Fellow Republican candidates state Rep. Rob Cook, R-Shelby, and Cory McKinney of Great Falls were not at the dinner.

The candidates are running in the primary for the seat now held by term-limited Commissioner Travis Kavulla, R-Great Falls.

No Democrats, independents or third party candidates have entered the race as of print deadline today.

Mark Wicks is an Inverness farmer, rancher and contractor with U.S. Postal Service, who last year ran as the Libertarian Party candidate in the special election for Montana's lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Wicks said that in college he studied technology education, which is the study of how energy, manufacturing, technology and communication industries relate to one another.

"So that blends really well to what this seat does," he said.

Wicks said he has gone online to research the PSC and talked about issues with some of its members.

"So I am doing my homework, getting ready to run," he said.

Issues related to the regulation of electric and telephone co-ops, and making sure that when utility companies ask the PSC to raise rates for infrastructure upgrades those projects are being carried out, are issues Wicks said he is interested in working on.

Pinocci said that it is important that people research the candidates and vote in the primary because there are high differences between the candidates.

"There is a very important election and it is called the primary," Pinocci said.

A one-term legislator, Pinocci served in the 2015 legislative session in the Montana House of Representatives. He said that his time serving on the House Committee on Energy, Technology and Federal Relations, familiarized him with many of the issues taken up by the PSC.