health + wellness - Explore Big Sky
health + wellness - Explore Big Sky
health + wellness - Explore Big Sky
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Montana<br />
Montana candidates:<br />
the u.s. house of<br />
rePresentatives<br />
by kiM ibes<br />
This is the first of a series of interviews with 2012 U.S. Congressional candidates<br />
from Montana. Thus far, two Bozeman residents have announced intentions to<br />
run for Montana’s singular congressional seat currently held by Republican Denny<br />
Rehberg: Republican Steve Daines and Democrat Franke Wilmar. (Rehberg will be<br />
challenging John Tester for the 2012 senate seat.) As of the end of March 2011, only<br />
two of the five declared candidates, Daines and Wilmar, had filed quarterly financial<br />
statements with the Federal Election Commission. The primary election will be held<br />
on June 5, 2012 and the general election will be held on November 6, 2012. For up to<br />
date information on candidate filings see fec.gov.<br />
explorebigsky.com<br />
big sky weekly<br />
a conversation with candidate steve Daines<br />
Bozeman native Steve Daines is running<br />
for the 2012 House of Representatives<br />
seat. Daines, 48, graduated<br />
from Montana State University with<br />
a Bachelor of Science in chemical<br />
engineering in 1984. After 13 years<br />
with Proctor and Gamble and a few<br />
more working for his father’s local<br />
construction company, he hired on<br />
with RightNow Technologies and<br />
today is their vice president and<br />
General Manager for Asia-Pacific. His<br />
ties to <strong>Big</strong> <strong>Sky</strong> begin with his cousin,<br />
Katherine Askevold—known in the<br />
early 1970s as ‘Grandma <strong>Big</strong> <strong>Sky</strong>’.<br />
Daines, a passionate skier and hunter,<br />
notes that if elected, he might be the<br />
first congressman in Montana who’s<br />
climbed Granite Peak and scrambled<br />
across the Spanish Peaks.<br />
Why are you running for the 2012<br />
House of representatives seat?<br />
Elections are about the future. My<br />
wife Cindy and I have four children—<br />
two in college and two in Bozeman<br />
public schools. We are concerned<br />
about the direction the county is<br />
heading. Will our kids have the same<br />
opportunities we received from our<br />
parents and grandparents? We may<br />
be the first generation that instead of<br />
sacrificing for our kids, we’re sacrificing<br />
their future with an inheri-<br />
tance of debt. We need a thoughtful<br />
conversation on how to solve these<br />
problems leaving our American<br />
dream intact.<br />
What values are most important<br />
to you?<br />
It starts with moms, dads and families.<br />
My great-great grandmother migrated<br />
from Norway and as a widow<br />
pushed forward to Conrad. She came<br />
here for freedom, for opportunity and<br />
the promise America offered. We cannot<br />
be free without having individual<br />
accountability and personal responsibility.<br />
These are my core values<br />
and part of the lens through which<br />
I see issues. I grew up in Montana<br />
from kindergarten through college,<br />
and I hold dearly these family values<br />
passed down through five generations<br />
of Montanans.<br />
What unique skills and experiences<br />
would make you a successful<br />
representative for montana?<br />
As a fifth generation Montanan, father<br />
and husband (Cindy and I have<br />
been married for 25 years) I come<br />
with a grounded Montana perspective.<br />
I’m not a career politician. I’ve<br />
spent the last twenty-seven years<br />
of my professional life involved<br />
in the private sector creating jobs<br />
and being accountable for bal-<br />
daines and his son, david, with Granite peak in the background<br />
candidates as of July 7, 2011:<br />
rePublican:<br />
steve Daines - as of the first quarter, 2011 daines had raised<br />
$189k in funds, cash on hand $331k; filed statement of<br />
Candidacy Feb 2011 along with financial statements.<br />
John abarr (former Ku Klux Klan organizer out of great<br />
falls) - no filings or financial statements filed.<br />
DeMocrat:<br />
franke wilmer - as of the first quarter, 2011 wilmar had<br />
raised $10k, cash on hand $9k; filed statement of organization<br />
Feb 2011.<br />
Kim gillan - billings, state senator, no filings or financial<br />
statements filed.<br />
Dave strohmaier - Missoula City Council Member, no filings<br />
or financial statements filed.<br />
anced budgets. I’ve had to do this<br />
every day—not only talk about it.<br />
I’m a chemical engineer, and I was<br />
trained to think analytically about<br />
creating solutions for problems. We<br />
need more people with real world<br />
experience managing payrolls and<br />
budgets.<br />
What will be the main issues in<br />
the upcoming election? How will<br />
you address these issues?<br />
Cindy and I have been driving<br />
across Montana and what we’re<br />
hearing first and foremost is about<br />
the debts and deficits in Washington.<br />
Montanans realize we have to<br />
live within our means. I support a<br />
balanced budget amendment. Nearly<br />
every state has a constitutional<br />
amendment that the state budget<br />
must be balanced. The federal government<br />
should have that, as well.<br />
The second concern is jobs and the<br />
economy. We’re seeing economic<br />
growth in eastern Montana with<br />
oil and gas exploration but western<br />
counties are still experiencing<br />
double-digit unemployment. University<br />
students are concerned with<br />
finding jobs.<br />
Third is about energy, the price of<br />
gas and how that hits our pocket<br />
books, and our dependence on foreign<br />
sources of oil<br />
There are two different worldviews,<br />
in terms of the challenges we face in<br />
our country. Raising taxes is not the<br />
answer. The focus should be on reducing<br />
spending. One of the quickest<br />
ways to stifle growth is raising taxes<br />
on job creators. We must provide<br />
incentives for small business owners<br />
to take risks and create jobs. The<br />
private sector is known for ingenuity<br />
and effectiveness, but these are<br />
not associated with government. I’d<br />
like to continue to allow families<br />
and small businesses to keep more of<br />
their money. They’re better stewards<br />
than the government.<br />
there’s a saying in congress that<br />
freshman should be seen and not<br />
heard. If elected how would you<br />
be heard?<br />
It’s not just what one person does<br />
but what one person does in working<br />
with like-minded members of<br />
congress. I’m not bashful. I don’t<br />
come into this having been a wallflower<br />
in the business world over<br />
the last 27 years.<br />
July 15, 2011 13