Dems talk in Havre about 2020 elections

Democrats met in Havre Thursday to talk about their prospects in the next election.

The new executive director for the Montana Democratic Party, Monica Lindeen, visited with community members at Triple Dog Brewing Co.  

"We've got so many opportunities in 2020," she said in an interview.

She took over as executive director of the state party the start of this year, taking the place of Nancy Keenan, who retired at the end of last year.

Lindeen, a former state legislator, two-term state auditor and candidate for Congress and Montana secretary of state, said she started traveling around the state to speak to community members March 19, starting in eastern Montana. She said that Wednesday she was in Chouteau County and spent the night in Great Falls, before traveling to Fort Benton and Chinook. She said she was spending Thursday night in Havre then leavig for Chester and Shelby this morning.

She is spending time during these trips speaking with people about the 2020 elections, Lindeen said. Next year, a seat in Congress and all five statewide seats in Montana - governor, attorney general, secretary of state, auditor and state superintendent - will be up for election.

"Lots of great opportunities," she said.

She added that it is important to get a Democrat in the governor's office, to balance out all the legislation which goes through during session.

"Too often when you have a one-party rule, it causes some serious heart ache, because a bad policy may have passed," Lindeen said.

The Democratic Party has a good bench of candidates wanting to run for these offices, she said, and a large number of young people are excited about the election cycle.

She added that depending on what gets done in the Legislature, next year may be interesting for state legislators. This year, she said, it sounds like Medicaid expansion will be reauthorized, the infrastructure bonding bill will be passed and the education budget will be funded.

"There is a lot of pretty good stuff happening right now," she said. "But things can always fall apart at the very end."

Lindeen, a graduate of Shepherd High School, said that she first wanted to get involved in politics when she was younger, growing up in a community smaller than Havre.

"I was just very active in my community," she said.

She said she lost the first two elections in which she ran for the Legislature, but decided to run again after the Legislature passed energy deregulation, and won. She served eight years as a state representative, terming out of that office, then was elected twice as state auditor, overseeing insurance and securities in Montana.

She said her tenure was interesting for her. As state auditor she was responsible for implementing and educating insurance commissioners across the state about the Affordable Care Act. She added that at the time a lot of misinformation was floating around about the act.

After she termed out of that office, she made an unsuccessful campaign for secretary of state, losing to Republican Corey Stapleton.

She said that, after that, she thought she was done running for office, until she began watching what was going on with the country over the past two years.

"I feel very strongly about our democratic system in this country," she said. "I feel that it is important that we, as a country believe in that system and treat it with the respect that it deserves."

She said people should understand the institutions are in place for a reason, and she is concerned what it means for the future if the country continues to go down the same road it is going down.

She was also concerned about making sure the people in statewide offices were doing a good job for the people of Montana.

Lindeen said that when Nancy Keenan announced she was retiring from the Democratic executive director position, different folks reached out to her, asking her to take the position.

She said she had to think about the offer first but ultimately decided to accept.

"It was time to move on and mentor other candidates and help them," she said.

She said she wanted to come out to Havre because she likes the town.

"Havre has it," she said.

As someone who comes from a rural part of the state, Lindeen said, she understands how important it is to go to rural Montana, to talk to people about what they can do as a party to get people the resources they need, helping them elect their local candidates and also educate candidates on what issues are important in rural Montana. She added that agriculture issues are incredibly important this year with the trade issues heavily affecting farmers and ranchers.