Montana Lowdown

This week's episode of the Montana Lowdown podcast features an interview with Republican candidate for the U.S. House and current Montana Secretary of State Corey Stapleton. He and Montana Free Press editor-in-chief John S. Adams discuss topics including Stapleton's path into politics, his work as secretary of state, elections security, and his vision for Montana's lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Stapleton grew up in the latter part of the Cold War era, and says he considered it his patriotic duty to enlist in the U.S. Navy — a duty that developed into political aspirations after campaigning for Republican presidential hopeful Bob Dole in the mid-1990s.

Stapleton was elected to the Montana Senate in 2000, and was termed-out of office in 2008. He ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2012, and for the U.S. House in 2014, before being elected secretary of state in 2016, as elections security became a prominent national issue.

Stapleton says that he's proud of his work safeguarding Montana's election systems, and shares an anecdote about receiving a report from Gov. Bullock's office regarding a spike in activity on a backup power supply for the state's elections system associated with IP addresses in Ukraine. He also sees a pressing need to address economic threats from China. Stapleton says the current trade wars are emblematic of a global shift toward protectionism, and adds that he thinks free-market capitalism is key to addressing global issues like the warming climate and poverty.

Says Stapleton, "We're trying to find a way to be a constitutional republic, keep our sovereignty, [and] at the same time, as a Republican, try to embrace free markets, which is kind of the opposite of that, right? You're not supposed to tell people who to buy stuff from, and so it's a balance." He also posits a distinction between Republican and Democratic appeals to voters via populist sentiment, telling Adams, "We forget that it is capitalism, not socialism, that's the most beneficial force in the history of the world. It's the only system that brings the most people out of poverty, and so America should continue to be that beacon."

Elsewhere in the interview, Stapleton is critical of the current U.S. Congress, and makes his case for why he believes he's the best candidate to represent Montanans in the House.

"I have never seen a more disappointing, dysfunctional United States Congress than exists now," he says. "Montana still wants a common-sense conservative, fiscally conservative, congressman. We want someone who supports agriculture and energy, understands our way of life, shares our values, shows good judgment in dealing with leadership decisions, and I think that I'm that candidate."

Stapleton had previously announced his candidacy in the Montana governor's race, but pivoted to the House race shortly after incumbent U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte announced he would not seek reelection, opting instead to enter the governor's race.

Stapleton is now campaigning in a Republican primary that includes State Auditor Matt Rosendale, former state GOP party chair Debra Lamm, rancher and Lewis and Clark County GOP Central Committee chair Joe Dooling, and Corvallis School District Superintendent Tim Johnson. The Democatic primary candidates for the House seat are former state Rep. Kathleen Williams, Missoula state Rep. Tom Winter, and rancher Matt Rains.

In this week's Montana Lowdown podcast, we interview Dr. Steven Running, who contributed research to a 2004 report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. An international body of the United Nations, the IPCC is composed of scientists and other experts working to assess the science of climate change. The panel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, and its work helped inform former Vice President Al Gore's book and film "An Inconvenient Truth."

Running, Professor Emeritus of Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences at the University of Montana and a former NASA scientist, shares an outlook on the subject that's sobering but measured. Drawing on decades of research, Running views the changing climate as a global challenge that's urgent, but manageable.

He tells Montana Free Press editor-in-chief John S. Adams it bothers him when the press reports "things like, 'We have until 2030 to fix this, and if not it's too late.' Because in reality, there's no single threshold of when we're over the edge … This is a big problem. It's going to basically pervade the world for the coming century, and the sooner we get to work, the better it'll be."

Running says he sees immediate opportunities to address the crisis, both globally and in Montana. And he pushes back on claims that favorable local weather is proof that climate change fears are unfounded.

"The day will come when there'll be a reckoning for everybody on this …," Running says. "This is a long, long term dynamic, and it isn't going to turn bad or good in just a year or two. It's going to be over decades and decades."

This Montana Lowdown podcast is published in conjunction with a week-long international journalistic effort to maximize coverage of the climate crisis in the lead-up to the United Nations Climate Summit on Sept. 23 in New York City. You can follow more climate reporting from around the world with the hashtag #coveringclimatenow on social media.

This week Montana Free Press continues its ongoing coverage of the lead-up to the 2020 elections with an interview with Mayor Wilmot Collins of Helena. Collins joined host John S. Adams to discuss his emigration from Liberia to the United States, starting a new life in Montana, his current role as mayor of the state capital, and his campaign for the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican incumbent Steve Daines for a seat in the United States Senate.

Collins emigrated to Montana in 1994 as a refugee after a bloody civil war broke out in his home country of Liberia. Over the course of the next two and a half decades, he and his family have made a new life for themselves in Helena.

Collins tells Adams about having to flee Liberia once war broke out, saying, "Within a matter of two weeks we were homeless, walking the streets and starving."

Collins and his wife, Maddie, later found temporary refuge in a small village in Ghana. But Maddie, who had studied in the United States as an exchange student, told her husband, 'I think we can do better … Let's go to Montana.'"

Collins said his decision to run against four-term incumbent Helena mayor Jim Smith in 2016 was the logical next step in a career dedicated to serving the state that gave his family a fresh start. He ran, and won, in a year when Donald Trump carried the state by more than 20 points, and he cites his victory as evidence that Montanans are independent thinkers and voters.

Collins has been treading the campaign trail statewide, and says his would-be constituents understand how Trump's trade wars are affecting Montanans, telling Adams, "The people are aware that the tariffs are hurting Montana, and they are also aware that taxpayers are giving them the subsidy that the federal government is giving [back]. So they know that China is not … hurting the country, but we are hurting ourselves."

Collins also takes Daines to task over a perceived lack of accessibility to voters, saying, "[Daines] is not meeting with the people of Montana, he's not listening to their issues. … And when you see the senator run from his constituents, it's concerning."

Daines was elected to office in 2014 after serving a single term in the House of Representatives, and is now in an uncontested primary for re-election. Collins faces two Democratic primary opponents: engineer and Navy veteran John Mues of Loma, and author Jack Ballard of Red Lodge.

Montana Free Press continues its coverage of the state attorney general's race with an interview with Republican candidate and current Roosevelt County attorney Austin Knudsen. Knudsen talked to Montana Free Press founder and Montana Lowdown host John S. Adams on Aug. 22.

Knudsen represented House District 34 for four sessions starting in 2011. In 2014, he was elected as the youngest-ever speaker of the House at a time when his caucus was in the midst of a long-standing ideological divide that continues to this day.

Knudsen's House term ended in 2017, and rather than pursue a seat in the state Senate, Knudsen ran for Roosevelt County attorney, a job to which voters elected him in 2018.

Now, after six months in that position, Knudsen has his sights set on the attorney general's office.

Said Knudsen: "I think this is an office that needs aggressive conservative leadership. I don't think we've had that for the last eight years. I really don't think [Republican candidate] Jon Bennion will bring that into the attorney general's office, either."

Knudsen asserts that while the nation grapples with an epidemic of opioid addiction, it's methamphetamine that is wreaking havoc across rural Montana. He says he doesn't believe the current attorney general, Republican Tim Fox, nor Fox's chief deputy, Bennion, have done enough to curb the flow of meth from the southern border.

"I do think the attorney general's office can do a lot more to address the crime problem in Montana, because there is one," Knudsen said "It all comes back to the meth epidemic that's here in Montana … This meth is destroying our communities, it's destroying families, and it's all coming through that southern border because it's unsecured."

This is the fourth Montana Lowdown interview covering the attorney general's race. Adams previously interviewed Deputy Attorney General Bennion; Democrat and Gov. Bullock's chief legal counsel Raph Graybill; and Missoula attorney and four-term Democratic state Rep. Kimberly Dudik. A third Democratic candidate, Kalispell attorney James Cossitt, has also entered the race.

The Montana Department of Justice's Missing Indigenous Persons Task Force held its second meeting in Great Falls on Saturday, Aug. 10, and Montana Free Press founder John S. Adams interviewed task force members Deputy Attorney General Melissa Schlichting and Ellie Bundy McLeod of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes to discuss the results of that meeting, the formation of the task force, and plans moving forward.

Montana's Indian Country is in the midst of an epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous people, mostly women and girls. The Billings Gazette reports that more than two dozen indigenous women went missing in Montana in 2018, and indigenous women nationwide are being killed or trafficked at rates much higher than the non-Indian national average.

In the last legislative session, lawmakers passed a series of bills aimed at untangling jurisdictional conflicts, developing reporting guidelines, and creating a central repository for data on missing and murdered indigenous people.

"I think the problems have always been there," McLeod said. "We don't have the data so much, but we do have the stories … It's the combination maybe of the drugs, the domestic violence, the runaways. There are just so many things happening, but I don't think we can blame any one thing."

One of the Montana bills, Senate Bill 312, created the Looping In Native Communities, or LINC, Act, authorizing Attorney General Tim Fox to appoint a statewide Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Task Force. The new task force includes representatives from each Indian tribe in the state, the attorney general's office, and law enforcement.

Schlichting said, "One of the main directives to the task force is to determine what the scope of the missing indigenous persons issue is within the state of Montana, to specifically identify any jurisdictional barriers that exist … so that we can all better address the missing persons in Montana."

The task force's third meeting is scheduled for Sept. 27 in Billings, and will be open to the public. Schlichting and McLeod shared with Montana Free Press a list of additional events, resources, and advice for anyone looking to get involved.

Montana Federation of Public Employees President Eric Feaver sat down with John S. Adams last week to discuss his career in the public sector labor movement. Feaver began his union leadership when he became president of the Montana Education Association in 1984. He continued in that role when MEA merged with the Montana Federation of Teachers in 2000, and again when MEA-MFT joined with the Montana Public Employees Association in 2018.

The newly formed MFPE now represents nearly 25,000 members, constituting one of the most professionally diverse public unions in the nation, representing teachers, health-care workers, highway patrol officers, wildlife biologists, and more. Feaver acknowledges the challenges of representing such a diverse group, but he says his principles haven't changed, and he gauges legislative opportunities according to how they will impact his whole constituency, in both the short and long term. And he says he's encouraged by a recent uptick in bipartisanship that has led to legislation public sector employees can get behind.

Referring to his position on a public preschool bill, Feaver asks, "Is this a public good that creates a social compact where folks belong to each other and know that the future depends on how well we deliver? ...These are the things that matter, and we can make that happen together a whole lot better than if we are sitting at different tables, arguing our own specific point of view, without caring about how it impacts the guy at the other table. I mean, you can't really operate in a vacuum like you're the only game in town."

Feaver was a vocal opponent of HB 755, a failed bill sponsored by Rep. Eric Moore, R-Miles City, that would have created additional funding for public preschool in Montana, a goal long pursued by Feaver and Democrats alike. Feaver says he opposed the bill because it would have also created public funding for private schools.

Feaver says the 2019 session was ultimately his most successful: "This last legislature may well have been the best legislature in which I have ever lobbied. … And I attribute that to just some good collaboration, bipartisan effort, between Democrats and the Solutions [Caucus] Republicans. And so we will do everything we can to reward Solutions Republicans in their effort to be re-elected to the legislature."

He also says there's an "anti-union animus" developing in the country, and in Montana, and that ongoing efforts by anti-union forces to pass so-called right to work legislation, coupled with recent high-profile court cases, threaten to undermine unions and public education. In 2018, the United States Supreme Court issued a ruling in Janus v. AFSCME that effectively reversed 41 years of precedent by holding that public unions can not compel non-union members to pay fees for union activity. The court has also agreed to hear Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue in its next session; that case could decide whether private schools can be supported by public tax dollars.

Feaver noted that he endorses Democratic candidate Melissa Romano for state superintendent of public instruction in the 2020 election. Both Romano and her Republican opponent, incumbent Elsie Arntzen, were recent guests on the Montana Lowdown.

Montana Senate President Scott Sales, R-Bozeman, was a guest on the MT Lowdown podcast last week, where he discussed with Montana Free Press founder John S. Adams his 16 years in the Montana Legislature, his prior professional experiences in computer technology and agriculture, and his current candidacy for Montana secretary of state.

Sales is the only Montana lawmaker to have served as both speaker of the House and president of the Senate. A self-described constitutional Republican, Sales is a reliably staunch conservative with a reputation for opposing government spending and shooting straight. Democrats occupied the governor's office throughout Sales' legislative career, and the Republican caucuses he led were often divided — sometimes bitterly — between more conservative lawmakers such as Sales and more moderate Republicans who were willing to compromise with Democrats to pass legislation.

Reflecting on his years in the state capitol, Sales said, "I thought that ... the Republicans would be more conservative-minded like myself, and it turned out I was quite a bit to the right of most of my caucus members. … I wanted to make some huge changes and coerce some of my moderate brethren into maybe thinking the way I did. That's not the way the place works. … A mature individual learns what you can get done, and what you can't get done, in your environment."

Now seeking the job of the state's top elections official, Sales calls the right to vote "a cornerstone of the foundation of the country," and says that our state's voting systems require a "fine balance" between integrity and flexibility.

The secretary of state also occupies one of five seats on the State Land Board. When considering his potential seat on the board, Sales noted that "There's a constitutional obligation for us to maximize the amount of benefit financially from those lands for the benefit of the schools," adding, "We can develop our resources … in an environmentally friendly fashion." Sales went on to say that while he does accept that climate change is happening, he also believes that "It is not confirmed science that man-made climate change is upon us."

Sales will be termed out of the Senate in 2020, and is running in the Republican primary against Rep. Forrest Mandeville (HD 57). Democratic challenger Sen. Bryce Bennett (SD 50) is running unopposed, and discussed his candidacy on a recent episode of MT Lowdown.

Democratic candidate for superintendent of public instruction Melissa Romano sat down with host John S. Adams to discuss her views on school choice, modern teaching tools, civics and media literacy, teacher retention and mental health, and more.

A Montana native with more than 15 years of experience teaching in Montana public schools, Romano has earned state and national accolades for her work in the classroom, and was named the 2017 teacher of the year by the Montana Professional Teaching Foundation. Romano has a particular interest in early education, and said, "We have to be investing in kids at an early age. ... The research is there that shows when we invest in our early learners, the end result is a strong economy."

This is Romano's second bid for the superintendent position. Romano lost to Republican Elsie Arntzen in 2016 by a 3% margin, despite support from statewide education and labor organizations. Arntzen became the first Republican to hold the office since 1988.

Arntzen was a recent guest on Montana Lowdown, where she discussed her work at OPI, her prior legislative experience, and her previous career as an educator in Montana. Arntzen recently made headlines when she expressed support for school choice in Montana, and again when she pushed back against proposed rule changes that would have led to statewide lead testing in Montana public schools.

Romano was critical of Arntzen's position on school choice, as well as the incumbent's neutrality regarding three education-related bills that came before the 2019 Legislature. House Bill 387 expanded personalized career and technical education opportunities while reducing out-of-pocket expenditures for families, and was passed by a vote of 33-16; Senate Bill 92 revised laws related to school safety and was passed with near-unanimous support; House Bill 303 would have eliminated compulsory enrollment requirements, thereby making it easier for parents to opt their children out of school (the bill died in process).

Says Romano, "I hear Ms. Arntzen talk about putting students first. But as the leader of public instruction, when you don't show up to oppose bills that would completely dismantle public education, when you don't show up to support bills that would create opportunities and better education for all Montana students, that's not putting Montana students first, it's putting them dead last."

Both Romano and Arnzten are currently campaigning in uncontested primaries for their parties' nominations in 2020.

In this week's podcast, freelance journalist and former wildland firefighter Amanda Eggert joins us from Bozeman to discuss her recent three-part series for Montana Free Press, Living With Fire.

While the 2019 fire season is off to a slow start due to unseasonably cool and wet weather, the city of Helena is watching as firefighters battle the North Hills fire, which has burned more than 4,000 acres and prompted the evacuation of more than 400 homes.

Eggert's series explores the evolution of wildfire suppression, the role land-use planning can play in limiting property damage from wildfire, and the rise of the private firefighting industry. Says Eggert, "There's an economic inequality aspect to [the private firefighting industry], where essentially wealthy people with disposable cash can better protect their homes and properties from fire than people who rely on public agencies."

Readers can find Amanda's Living With Fire series by visiting montanafreepress.org and clicking on the "News" tab at the top of the page.

Montana Free Press Editor-in-Chief John Adams sat down last week with Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen for a wide-ranging discussion on the Montana Lowdown Podcast about growing concerns over lead in the drinking water of Montana public schools, Title 1 funding, school choice, and President Trump's rollback of key provisions of President Obama's Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

In one of his first actions as president, Donald Trump, with the help of House and Senate Republicans, rolled back key provisions of ESSA, the 2015 education law that replaced George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind Act. Arntzen says that while she supported ESSA, she also supporters less government regulation of schools and current moves toward taxpayer funding for private schools. Says Arntzen: "Why would anybody want a top-down law that's going to have compliance measures to that? Nobody wants a student to fail. ... School choice ... is a flexibility for a student. ... It's a consumer choice of what you do with your money before it's taxed. ... If I want to say, 'I want to spend my money here, or spend my money there,' the state should have no authority on what that should be."

Montana Free Press Editor-in-Chief John Adams sat down last week with Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen for a wide-ranging discussion about growing concerns over lead in the drinking water of Montana public schools, Title 1 funding, school choice, and President Trump's rollback of key provisions of President Obama's Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

In one of his first actions as president, Donald Trump, with the help of House and Senate Republicans, rolled back key provisions of ESSA, the 2015 education law that replaced George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind Act. Arntzen said that while she supports ESSA, she also supports less government regulation of schools and current moves toward taxpayer funding for private schools.

"Why would anybody want a top-down law that's going to have compliance measures to that? Nobody wants a student to fail," Arntzen told Adams on the podcast. "School choice ... is a flexibility for a student. ... It's a consumer choice of what you do with your money before it's taxed. ... If I want to say, 'I want to spend my money here, or spend my money there,' the state should have no authority on what that should be."

Arntzen recently made headlines when she sparred with state health officials over proposed new rules aimed at dealing with lead in the drinking water of Montana schools. Arntzen said her decision to push back against the changes was grounded in her objection to the process by which they were proposed.

"Patience is going to be needed for this," Arntzen said. "We are going to be pressing for this in front of interim committees before the Legislature comes again in 2021. ... The Office of Public Instruction and other stakeholders, education advocates, were not even invited to the table in a broad, meaningful discussion. ... That's not good government, that is not transparent government."

Arntzen also discussed her prior career as an educator, her six terms in the Montana state Legislature, and her current campaign for re-election against Democratic opponent Melissa Romano. Arntzen defeated Romano in the 2016 race for the office of public instruction by a margin of 3.3 percent, becoming the first Republican to hold the office since 1988.

Arntzen also discussed her prior career as an educator, her six terms in the Montana state Legislature, and her current campaign for re-election against Democratic opponent Melissa Romano. Arntzen defeated Romano in the 2016 race for the office of public instruction by a margin of 3.3 percent, becoming the first Republican to hold the office since 1988.