Tempel speaks at local Pachyderms meeting

Republican incumbent for Montana Senate District 14 Russ Tempel spoke about a number of topics at a meeting of North Central Pachyderms Friday, including his candidacy.

Tempel, a Northern Montana College, now Monana State University-Northern, alumni with 18 years as a Liberty County commissioner, is running to maintain his seat, facing Republican primary opponent Steven Chvilicek of Havre, who will be speaking at a Pachyderms meeting later this month.

The winner of that race will face Democrat Dave Brewer of Havre in the general election.

At Friday's meeting, Tempel talked about the natural beauty of his district including all its rivers and waterways.

He said he and his colleagues are supporting the St. Mary Diversion Rehabilitation Project, a $200 to $225 million project to repair and update the St. Mary Diversion which is vital to local irrigators.

Typically, area irrigators are responsible for the majority of the system's maintenance costs, but they don't have the money to cover the massive amount of work the project needs, and they've been warning for decades that the lack of maintenance and repairs would result in catastrophic failure, a prediction that came true in 2020 when drop structures failed.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill passed by Congress has provided up to $100 million to the project and lawmakers are trying to find a way to shift the remaining costs there as well to make it more reasonable for irrigators, but it remains an important ongoing project.

Tempel said many legislators in Montana forget about the state's rural areas, and it is sometimes a challenge to get them to care about the unique issues his region faces, but making them care is part of being a legislator for a district like his.

He also touted recent bills passed in the last legislative session to increase election security but lamented that four of them, including one that would have eliminated same-day voter registration in the state, had been temporarily suspended by a judge.

"An unelected judge," Havre City Councilperson Andrew Brekke interjected.

Judge Michael Moses temporarily suspended these new laws last month, saying plaintiffs who filed suit against them made compelling arguments that they are unconstitutional.

Tempel said it is now unclear to many, including some clerks and recorders, whether same-day registration is allowed or not, and he feels sorry for them.

Under Moses' order same-day registration will remain legal until the case is given a final ruling.

Despite many conservative activists and operatives, as well as some Republican politicians, raising suspicions about the integrity of Montana's elections in the wake of the 2020 election, no evidence of wide-spread voter fraud has been found in the state or the U.S.

Tempel also touted a bill he pushed last session which streamlined the process of county's applying for gravel permits, significantly reducing paperwork for many projects and speeding up the process of getting approval from two years to six months.

He said the bill passed despite opposition by many environmentalists who were concerned the policy would have an adverse effects on local wildlife, which he said was untrue.

He also talked about an upcoming event at Northern that seeks to gather as many state legislators as possible to see the merits of the institution and its work.

After his address audience member Bob Sivertsen asked him why Republicans are not talking more about the area's flagging economy, as well as drugs and human trafficking, which he thinks should be a top issues for them.

Tempel said the economic issues are a big part of the reason he's trying to get as many legislators as possible to the upcoming event at Northern.

Sivertsen also asked Brekke what the local Republican party is doing to get their candidates elected, but Brekke said he wasn't going to reveal his plans in public.

"We have a plan," he said. "I've been doing this 13 years, I'm no slouch, but I'm not going to reveal my strategy to the newspaper so the Democrats hear about it."

Montana Rep. Ed Hill, R-Havre, also spoke at the meeting and complimented Tempel's performance.

Hill briefly discussed some issues he's faced at the Legislature and responded to a recent request by his Democratic election opponent, Bear Paw Development Corp. Executive Director Paul Tuss, to debate him.

He said he agrees with Tuss that an informed electorate is an empowered one, but he is focused on campaigning during the primary.

Brekke said North Central Pachyderms will have a full schedule in the coming months including speakers like K. Webb Galbreath of Browning, who's running against Montana Public Service Commissioner Randy Pinocci for his seat in the upcoming Republican primary, and Chvilicek.

He said the Montana Election Integrity Project that has been pushing claims of voter fraud in Missoula, will also come to discuss what has been done with grant money in Hill and Blaine counties as well as the recent recount in Missoula.