Downing, Nicol, Tuxbury face off in GOP auditor primary: Scott 'Tux' Tuxbury

Insurance agent Scott "Tux" Tuxbury of Helena is facing off against Billings insurance company employee Nelly Nicol and Big Sky businessman Troy Downing in the Republican primary to select the candidate who will advance to the general election in the race for Matt Rosendale's position as Montana auditor.

The office regulates insurance and securities in Montana.

First-term Auditor Rosendale is not running for re-election and instead is

one of five candidates in the Republican primary in the race for Montana's U.S. House seat.

Tuxbury said his experience gives him an edge in the auditor race.

"I think the main reason is that I'm running for it is the fact that I'm very qualified for this position," Tuxbury said. "I've been training most of my life for this job and I have this absolute desire to do that job and that job alone. I got primarily into the race because I didn't see the viability of the other candidates who were in there."

He said he spent 37 years working in the insurance world - all aspects of it - in Montana.

"My whole life has pretty much revolved around insurance," he added. "Besides the fact that I've worked throughout Montana throughout this 37 years here in this business, I've traveled to every single county, I've been in every city of Montana and so I know and understand the needs of all the Montana consumers when it comes to their insurance needs, so this is something I know each and every aspect of it."

  He said he's heard people say they have experience in insurance and that bothers him a lot because he would say he has expertise. He teaches insurance classes, he takes insurance classes and teaches other insurance professionals as well.

There are multiple purposes and aspects of the position, he said.

"They are the regulator of insurance companies and insurance agents in Montana; they also do the same for the securities business, they regulate security sales and also security sales people," Tuxbury said. "The third aspect is the land board, so it's important to know and understand that those are the three aspects of the job."

He said the importance of the land board is that it's there to generate revenue for the public school system in the state of Montana and it oversees 5.3 million acres of public land located in all counties of Montana.

"It becomes very important when we're talking about managing state lands, and so the question always is, 'What is your intention on how you manage state lands?'" he added. "... I think my main goal would be, OK, we have to maximize revenue, but we also have to take in account how it affects the counties or the community when we're making those decisions. So I would be reaching out in each of those communities and getting public input before I make a decision when it comes to the land board."

He said that, in the past, it has been so difficult to do business here that the state has kept a lot of good insurance companies out of Montana.

He said one of his main goals is to bring good insurance companies into this state and to regulate those that are behaving badly, but the state also needs to get the good ones here and do a good job doing that.

"We need to be aggressive, we need go out there and get them to come into Montana, and prove to them that it's a good place to do business. ... One of my roles that I really want be involved in is bringing in those good insurance companies in," he added. "The other thing I will do immediately in addition, would be educating consumers in Montana, spending time and spending a lot of my time out on the road in the different communities, talking to the needs they have out there."

He said bringing good insurance companies in is the "only way we are going to do a better job for everybody in the state."

Tuxbury said the auditor's office should be managed to do that.

"I do believe that when I look at changing the department itself, ... we have to continue to run it very efficiently and economically, but we do have to make sure that is job one is everybody in the department needs to know that we need to bring more insurance companies into Montana to create more competition," he added.

Rosendale brought back the Christian health ministry plan Medi-Share to Montana after it had been removed from the state for more than 10 years over questions of whether it was truly insurance and if it selectively refuses to pay for some treatments.

Tuxbury said he thinks it's a good option for the right people, but not going to solve all the problems with health insurance, but doesn't see a reason for it not to be a viable option for people who want it and qualify for it.

From the standpoint of the Montana State Auditor, he said, they have to work around what is there for the Affordable Care Act.

"We don't have a say in what happens with the Affordable Care Act, we are going to have to react to what changes would be at the federal level," he said. 'There certainly is no regulatory authority or legislative authority to change the Affordable Care Act, so in the role that I would have we basically work around the federal guidelines that are there. We need to make the environment more eligible for insurers in Montana so that they want to compete more so that we can have more people on more insurance companies on the exchange to, in essence, bring down the premiums for everybody.

"We need somebody in that job that is going to be there every single day, that is focused on the job - it is a full-time job, we need somebody that is not going to use that as a stepping stone for another job, and I have made that commitment from day one," Tuxbury said. "I'm going to take that job. I  will be there for the term I'm elected to and if I'm fortunate enough to be elected I will serve two terms, that's what my goal is. We need somebody who is in there every day, taking care of consumers and not running for another office on the taxpayer's dime and I think that's important."

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Born in 1930, Muskegon, Michigan

B.A. insurance and risk management, University of Iowa, 1983;

Certified Insurance Counselor; Accredited Farm Insurance Specialist; Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter

No military service

Big Sky Underwriters- 1991 to present, purchased in 1992; Travelers Insurance  Company 1983-1987, farm and ranch underwriter.

No public offices held

Life partner is Renee,  two children