Democrats hold Congressional, Senate primary debates in Helena

Jordan Hansen

Daily Montanan) All three Democratic candidates for Montana’s eastern district want President Donald Trump impeached and called on Congress to act.

The three took the stage on Sunday at the Helena Avenue Theatre as candidates for both U.S. House seats, as well as an open U.S. Senate spot, debated and answered questions for an hour, as voters got a glimpse of how they’d approach the office.

Questions by moderator Mike Dennison covered a variety of topics, including President Donald Trump’s actions in Iran, money in politics, housing and the economy.

Montana’s Western Congressional District race is open, with Republican U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke announcing his retirement earlier this year. It’s also become heated, with Democrats Russ Cleveland and Ryan Busse attacking Sam Forstag over data centers and political action committee money.

U.S. Senator Steve Daines is not seeking reelection either. Current U.S. Rep. Troy Downing is seeking reelection in the Eastern District.

Multiple Democrats have filed for the three positions, with the U.S. Senate election also including former University of Montana president Seth Bodnar, who is seeking the seat as an independent candidate.

Eastern District

Three Democrats have filed for the Eastern District, Brian Miller, Sam Lux and Jonathan Windy Boy.

The district includes major cities Great Falls, Helena, Lewistown and Billings, plus the more rural half of the state. Miller is an attorney in Helena, Lux is a Great Falls farrier and Windy Boy is a long-time legislator from Box Elder.

The Trump Administration and the war in Iran were early questions for the candidates, with Miller and Lux explicitly saying they didn’t support the conflict and all three calling for the impeachment of the president.

Windy Boy said the President had overstepped his powers and war can only be declared by Congress under the War Powers resolution.

“Congress needs to stand up and take the power back that this authoritarian regime is taking over,” Windy Boy said.

A healthcare question drew strong responses from multiple candidates, with Miller going as far to say the obstacles to a good healthcare system are “greed and stupidity,” and added a nationwide approach to the issue isn’t the way to go.

“(Former U.S. President Barack) Obama made a huge error when he tried to impose a solution on everybody. We got to have this come from the ground up,” Miller said.

Lux and Windy Boy pointed to the rural nature of the state as a barrier for people to access healthcare. Lux advocated for a “complete repeal” of subsidies paid toward “for-profit insurance companies,” and Windy Boy touched on native healthcare issues, saying, “There’s a saying out there that with the (Indian Health Service’s) lack of funding is, ‘Don’t get sick after June, because … there’s not going to be a new budget to address any healthcare issues until October.’”

Lux also said he’d push for rural infrastructure improvements and ways to connect those needing employees with people applying for work.

“Right now, we hear two things all the time; there’s no jobs and we can’t find anybody at work, and how the hell it is those things go together?” Lux said.

U.S. Senate

Four Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate were on the stage Sunday — Reilly Neill, Alani Bankhead, Micheal Black Wolf and Michael Hummert.

All four expressed displeasure with the president and actions in Iran. Hummert said he understood “why (Trump) did it” before saying “there’s absolutely no reason for such an outburst.”

Bankhead pointed to her defense background — she’s a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel — and education, which includes a master’s degree in international relations.

“Even I, who’s pro-defense and pro-protecting our borders, still believe that we need to stop the war in Iran, stop the bleeding on the finances,” Bankhead said.

Candidates also received a question on immigration, with Black Wolf calling the Trump Administration’s policies “absolutely racist” and said he would lead the fight on immigration reform.

Neill called the system “broken” and, pointing to the case of a Froid man, said it, “shouldn’t take a decade to become a law-abiding worker.”

Hummert said he’d written a 120-page law on immigration policy, appearing to take a harder line on the topic.

“Immigrants can be exploited by large corporations and small businesses alike,” Hummert said. “So when your high school student wants to find a job and he can’t find one, it might have been because of illegal immigration.”

Candidates were also asked if Congress has a role in addressing the affordable housing crisis, with Reilly saying more federal infrastructure dollars are needed to address funding.

Hummert said it was a state issue, not a federal matter, which Black Wolf agreed with, though added he’d look to fight against “large-scale investor purchases.”

Bankhead said corporate entities need to be out of the housing business, but said she’d look to offer financial incentives for builders.

“We’ve talked to a number of construction companies and talked about taxes being their biggest burden,” Bankhead said. “So I’m offering tax breaks to companies that are in construction and other tangential businesses to get tax breaks of 30% or more of their portfolio consists of affordable housing, which I define as $350,000 or below.”

Western District

Four Democratic candidates have lined up in a 1st District Congressional primary race that got heated on Sunday afternoon.

In their opening statements for the debate, Ryan Busse and Russ Cleveland took aim at Sam Forstag’s union connections and “dark money.”

Cleveland said that after he’d taken a meeting in Washington, D.C., regarding data centers, he got a call from “our chair” warning him about talking about them.

“One of the first calls I got was from our chair saying, ‘Hey, be careful about talking negatively about data centers, AFL-CIO has asked us not to report negatively on these issues,’” Cleveland said. “That’s the same organization that has endorsed one of my competitors, Sam Forstag. The leadership in that organization is out of touch with 83% of Montanans who stand against data centers. We don’t want them here, so we have to be careful about who we hitch our wagon to. Now is not the time for picking the best show pony, it’s picking who’s going to stand up for the best interest of Montana.”

Busse meanwhile, claimed that Forstag was inviting dark money into the race.

“Sam, you’ve talked continually about keeping dark money out of this primary election, something I think we should do, something Russ thinks we should do,” Busse said. “Yet today I see on your website a literal invitation to dark money to come into this race.”

Busse did not name the organization he was claiming was putting money into the race, though Forstag is endorsed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a political action committee that seeks to elect progressive leaders to Congress.

“I’m not accepting a dime of corporate PAC money,” Forstag said in response. “I am not accepting a dime of dark money. And I think it is a damn shame that we have Democrats on this stage trying to villainize labor and the AFL-CIO, because I am proud have the endorsement the AFL-CIO, SEIU, home care workers across the state, firefighters’ unions, my own union of federal employees, that is the kind of coalition we need.”

Matt Rains, the other candidate on the stage, has previously reminded Democrats their political opposition is using the same rulebook they are and has made distinctions about PAC money.

“As much as I love to know that the grassroots movement is there and split four ways, it’s not going to get us across the finish line, and we’re going to be looking at a Republican back in Congress representing Montana,” Rains said. “We have to accept that fundraising right now.”