Pettinato stumps in Havre for Congress

Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives Jared Pettinato talked with voters at Triple Dog Brewing Co Tuesday, part of a six-stop whistle stop tour he is making across northern Montana.

Pettinato said in an interview that he has already visited Wolf Point and Glasgow, and will round out his tour with stops in Cut Bank, Browning and Libby.

A former U.S. Justice Dept. attorney from Whitefish Pettinato is vying to be the Democratic candidate to take on Rep. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont., in the fall.

Pettinato is competing with Billings Attorney John Heenan, former Five Valleys Land Trust Executive Director Grant Kier of Missoula, former state Sen. Lynda Moss, D-Billings, former state Rep. Kathleen Williams, D-Bozeman and John Meyer of Bozeman to win the June 5 primary

The winner of the primary will go up against Gianforte and Libertarian Elinor Swanson of Billings and Green Party candidate Doug Campbell of Bozeman in the November general election.

Pettinato said he was motivated to run because he wants to push back against what he calls "the toxic politics" coming out of Washington, D.C.

"We are not seeing people working together, rolling up their sleeves and digging into problems," he said.

Pettinato is a fourth-generation Montanan and the son and grandson of railroad workers. He has a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics with minors in computer science and political science from the University of Montana and a law degree from Stanford University.

He was a clerk for former Montana Supreme Court Justice W. William Leaphart, and spent a summer working for Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., on the Senate Finance Committee and was a U.S. Justice Department attorney from 2008 to 2017 where he defended the government in cases involving public lands and infrastructure.

His experience working on the Senate Finance Committee and in federal law gives him experience his primary opponents don't have and will allow him to get to work quicker if elected, Pettinato said.

"You can either pick someone else and wait nine years to get my experience, or you can pick me and I can start tomorrow," Pettinato said.

Great potential exists for Montana's economy in renewable energy, especially wind energy, he said, adding that wind energy is an opportunity to "make money out of thin air."

"It brings money in, it brings the best-paying jobs into town, rent for the landowners and money for the schools," Pettinato said.

Washington and Oregon are aiming to have a certain amount of electricity in their states come from nonhydroelectric renewable energy sources, he said, and Montana with its abundance of wind can help them out.

"They have demand, we have supply, and we are never going to run out of wind," Pettinato said.

Rural communities in Montana are in need of good-paying jobs, he added.

"I see a lot of people moving out of rural areas because of jobs and because of the economy," Pettinato said.

Broadband internet also needs to be expanded to rural communities, he said. He added that broadband is the future and can help bring jobs to rural Montana.

On gun control, Pettinato said he wants to balance the rights of gun owners with the need for safety.

The best thing that can be done to reduce shootings, he said, is enforce laws now on the books, such as making sure the National Instant Criminal Background Check system has all the information needed to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.

He said he does not think the research exists to determine whether additional proposals such as an assault weapons ban, a ban on bump stocks or raising the minimum age to buy all guns from 18 to 21 would be effective.

Republicans in Congress have prevented the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from funding studies to analyze how effective those gun control efforts would be, he said.

"I am not aware of the research out there that would say how effective all these pieces would be to do that."

Tariffs proposed by President Donald Trump on goods from other countries are not the way to protect middle class jobs and wages, he said. Instead, Pettinato said he thinks the way to help workers is through labor unions.

"They need unions, they need collective bargaining because share holders already have a collective to bargain for them, they call it a corporation," he said.

Although infrastructure around the U.S. needs to be improved, Pettinato said President Donald Trump's plan is not the answer.

Trump's infrastructure plan that relies heavily on money from the private sector as well as local and state governments will not work, Pettinato said.

He said infrastructure improvements need to be done with federal dollars as they have since the 1950s.

"So if (Trump) wants to use a different system, I just don't see much coming from it," he said.

Pettinato said that he differs with people in the Democratic party who think forests should not be managed, adding that he sees opportunities to manage forests in a way that follows science.

"I think we need to manage our forests a little more effectively," he said.

Pettinato said he supports taking out some of the dead trees and downed timber that fuel forrest fires. Doing so would help make money on the timber and can be used to help clean up other parts of the forest.

He said all of the dead wood can't be taken out because wildlife need some of it to survive.

Pettinato said the if he is elected and the Democrats take a majority in the House, he doesn't know if he would vote to make House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, speaker of the House because he does not know if she will be re-elected next year.

Pettinato said his former law school colleague Shahid Buttar is challenging Pelosi in the Democratic primary in her San Francisco congressional district.

"So I am not convinced Nancy is going to be there." he said.