Make Senate District 28 great again

Defying all logic I am coming out of political retirement.

I have filed to run for a seat in the Montana Senate. If successful, I will represent Senate District 28 which includes the diverse areas of Lockwood and Laurel, Montana.

I had no intentions of re-entering Montana politics as the environment went from caustic to septic during my 16 years of service; then it went downhill.

However, watching the “Save Colstrip” bill (SB 331) go through the system without honest discussion on the Billion Dollar Price Tag associated with it changed my perspective. I am convinced SB 331 made it as far as it did because legislators are not well schooled in energy matters so are easily duped by NorthWestern lobbyists and their cadre of loyalist legislators. Termed out legislators often move to the Public Service Commission. I will be the first to go from the PSC to the Montana legislature. I offer to do so in hope that another attempt to fleece Montanans will not even be tried. SB 331, with its billion dollar price tag payable by ratepayers, came within a scant breath of being signed by the Governor. With all due modesty many joined in trying to stop it but my efforts were critical to its defeat.

There are other issues of concern. How do we reform welfare and Medicaid Expansion to help people out of poverty instead of binding them and their children to generations of poverty? Should male students be able to compete in girls athletic programs because they claim identity as female? Should the state budget always grow to consume all projected new tax revenues? Should the Montana Board of Investments be allowed to invest in Russian and Chinese sanctioned firms that threaten our troops? Should Montana’s elderly have their social security funds double taxed? To all of these, I answer with a steely-eyed “no”, but the votes will not be unanimous.

These are but a few issues of interest to Montanans that I shall explore during the campaign and hopefully during the legislative session.

Conservative before it was cool, Brad Molnar