Continuing to work while planning to run again

This past four-and-a-half years representing Senate District 14 has been an honor that I hope to continue. Judy and I have talked at great length about the commitment involved in serving one more term in the Senate. Having had encouragement from many of you and feeling that I continue to have a positive impact at the Legislature for north-central Montana, I’ve decided to commit to run for the Senate seat. With the upcoming redistricting, which will not affect this election, I will be filing after the first of the year. At this time, each district represents around 20,000 folks. District 14 starts on the east side of Havre south of the Milk River and runs northwest on the south side of the Milk River to where it meets Canada. Then the district goes to the west Liberty County line, south along that west line to Chouteau County’s west line to Cascade County. In Cascade County, the district starts in the very northeast corner of Great Falls staying north of the Missouri River east to the Chouteau County line. Then the district covers all of Chouteau County, except Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation, and back to Havre. It takes that much area to get the 20,000 people for a Senate district, 6,100-plus square miles.

I am excited to begin campaigning, getting out to you and your communities, after I file in January. Until then I will be working with our Education Interim Committee on a couple of projects. A couple of those projects are to allocate the COVID dollars coming to Montana for education, and education for incarcerated individuals.

As for upcoming events, I plan to attend the Pacific Northwest Economic Region Summit. States involved with this group are Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska, in addition to the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan. Some of the subjects on the agenda to be discussed are the boarder closure/reopening, of course the COVID issue across the border, broadband internet, wildfire costs, energy dams, and water, just to mention a few. If you would like to find out more about PNWER, a quick Google should provide good information. You will see what they are working on and more detail on issues being addressed. Senator Mike Cuffe, from Eureka, is the lead from Montana, and, like me, he would like to see the boarder reopen.

As always, be safe.

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