Sweeney campaigns for Congress in Havre

Montana Sen. Mark Sweeney, D-Philpsburg, is running for one of Montana's two seats in the U.S. House Representatives, and during a trip to the Havre area this week talked about his campaign and political goals recently.

Sweeney is running for the seat held by Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., who has filed as a candidate for reelection.

The race also has three Republican challengers including Kyle Austin of Billings, a Havre native; James Boyette of Bozeman, and Charles Walkingchild. Independent Gary Buchanan of Billings and Libertarians Sam Rankin of Billings, Roger Roots of Livingston and Samuel Thomas of Missoula also have filed as candidates.

Background and qualifications

Sweeney was raised in Miles City, where he graduated from high school before attending Miles Community College, then Western Montana College obtaining a Bachelor's of Science degree in wildlife management.

After that, he spent 29 years at Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, which he said was the best job he could have asked for, spending his time interacting with Montana biologists working all around the state was great.

In 2005, he said, he was asked to run for county commissioner in Anaconda-Deer Lodge County, a unique area of Montana politically both for having a city-county government and one in which commissioner elections are non-partisan.

He said this was great because it erased the stigma of political parties and made it easier for him and his fellow commissioners to work together efficiently.

"There was no stigma at all, it's just, 'Here's the task, here's what we need to do, here's the budget, these are the projects,'" he said. " ... Everyone was pretty much on the same page."

He said he would get plenty of experience in partisan races when he ran successfully for a seat in the state House in 2018, then the senate in 2020, though not before a failed bid for a seat on the Public Service Commission, a race he narrowly lost.

Sweeney said his record indicates a commitment to bipartisanship and, like most Montanan's he suspects, is tired of the deep political divides in the nation.

Local, state, national and international issues

While Sweeney did talk about his positions on a number of national level issues, he said he's trying to keep it local for his campaign, listening to the specific issues that the people of the 42 counties his district contains have.

He said in this area, the Milk River Project is one of the big issues he wants to see addressed as it connected to two of his biggest interests as a legislator, infrastructure and agriculture.

He said the Milk River Project is a huge deal for the irrigation water it provides and he wants to do whatever he can to make sure resources are available to keep the system viable.

As for agriculture issues on a more national level, he said he's fully in support of restoring the Right to Repair, which would allow ag producers to fix their own equipment without having to waste time taking them to certified dealerships for repairs they can do themselves, saving time and money.

Sweeney said he's also in support of Country of Origin Labeling, especially because "Montana produces the best beef in the world."

Sweeney also talked about energy, and his belief that Montana should be an energy exporter, with its diverse sources of power, from hydroelectricity to coal to natural gas to wind and solar.

On an international level, he said, the U.S. desperately needs to kick its dependence on foreign oil, which remains the driving force behind many of the wars the U.S. gets involved in.

He said, in general, the U.S. needs to get its energy from more renewable sources, but oil and gas are never going away, so the U.S should be dealing as much as it can with democracies instead of the unstable dictatorships that so often produce the country's oil, including Russia.

"That can't be our supply chain," he said.

He said the ongoing war being waged on Ukraine by Russia was another big concern of his, and one that revealed how badly Montana needs to get his potential general election opponent Matt Rosendale out of office.

He said Rosendale's refusal to support a recent resolution for the U.S. to support Ukraine, one of only three members of Congress to do so, is the worst kind of political grandstanding and put Montana in the public eye for the worst possible reason.

"I'm sure he has his reasons, but none of them hold water," he said. "... That's not who we are in Montana."

As for the war itself, Sweeney said, he subscribes to the philosophy of President Theodore Roosevelt, "walk softly, and carry a big stick."

He said he doesn't want to see the U.S. mired in a war in Europe and wants the world to use every effort to give Russian dictator Vladimir Putin a chance to withdraw and end this conflict without further bloodshed.

"We have the most powerful military in the world, that's our 'stick,'" he said. "'Speak softly' is diplomacy."

Sweeney said the U.S. does have commitments with NATO and is obligated by law to defend its member countries should they be attacked, and Poland is right next door to Ukraine, which is worrying.

Rosendale's handling of the Ukraine resolution wasn't the only issue Sweeney took with Montana's current representative.

He said his refusal to honor the capitol police officers who defeated the U.S. Capitol Building from insurrectionists last year with Congressional Gold Medals was deeply insulting.

He said his grandfather was a capitol police officer and Rosendale refusing to support giving them the recognition they deserve is wrong.

On a more practical level, Sweeney said, his vote against the bipartisan infrastructure bill was another black mark on his record.

He said that bill is vital to a lot of projects in Montana including the St. Mary Diversion which desperately needs money for repairs to keep local irrigators operating.

Rosendale joining a recent lawsuit against the Centers for Disease Control over mask requirements on airlines is another thing he has an issue with.

Sweeney said the government and public health have done the best they can dealing with COVID-19 but far too many were lost, including his own mother, who died from COVID-19 in October of last year.

He said if the nation wants to avoid economic shutdowns during the next pandemic the best way is for as many people as possible to get vaccinated as quickly as possible, unfortunately this time around political divisiveness stymied those efforts, which may have been avoided under the right leadership.

He also talked about supporting public education after the rough years of COVID-19, which negatively affected many schools, as well as improving the U.S. supply chains which remain in a state of disruption from the pandemic and an ongoing labor shortage.

Sweeney said the pandemic laid bare deficiencies in the U.S. supply chains which he saw locally when talking to people at Triangle Communications.

"They ordered fiber-optics months and months ago, and it was just delivered yesterday," he said.

He said the U.S. needs to work on designating critical products and bolstering supply lines for the next pandemic.

Though he does think the labor shortage will drive up wages, he worries about workforce housing, which is not just a Montana problem by any stretch.

Sweeney also talked about the Build Back Better plan, which he believes should be broken up into smaller bills passed individually in a bipartisan fashion.

When asked if there were any elements of the plan that he was fully in support of and interested in seeing passed, he said he would need to see the individual bills and if any of them have bipartisan support.

He said the American Rescue Plan and the Bi-partisan Infrastructure Bill were both good, but the Democrats in 2020 were not elected with a mandate other than getting then-President Donald Trump out of office so Build Back Better may have been a bit too ambitious.

Sweeney also talked about the ongoing difficulties at the U.S.'s southern border which he said needs to be addressed.

He said the U.S. needs to keep illegal immigrants out of the country and in some places that will require a wall, but in other places it will require investing in technology to process legal immigration more efficiently.

He said legal immigrants need a better process for entering the country so both they and the U.S. can benefit from the labor they bring, often filling positions that are otherwise difficult to find people for.

Sweeney also said the U.S. shouldn't overlook its northern border and the disruption COVID-19 brought to it.