Local candidates answer questions at political forum
Joanna Hudorovich photo
Greg Hertz, candidate for Senate District 7, speaks during a Sept. 26 political forum hosted by both the Lake County Republicans and Democrats at the Montecahto Club in Polson.
Joanna Hudorovich photo
Linda Reksten, Republican candidate for House District 13, listens to the emcee ask another question.
Summer Goddard / Valley Journal
The Sept. 26 forum was held in the upstairs of the Montecahto Club.
Joanna Hudorovich photo
Audience members listen to local candidates speak on a variety of issues.
Joanna Hudorovich photos
Tracy Sharp, Republican candidate for House District 12, left, Democratic candidate for House District 13, right, answer questions prepared by emcee Spencer Thomas. Questions they and all attending candidates answered were centered on health care, housing, education, property taxes and abortion rights.
Joanna Hudorovich photos
Shirley Azzopardi, Democratic candidate for House District 13, answer questions prepared by emcee Spencer Thomas. Questions they and all attending candidates answered were centered on health care, housing, education, property taxes and abortion rights.
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Reproductive rights were a hot button topic at a political forum hosted by the Lake County Republican and Democrat groups on Thursday, Sept. 26 at Polson’s Montecahto Club. The most vocal response from audience members, both for and against, came during candidate response to the proposed constitutional amendment that would secure abortion rights as a private health care decision.
About 65 people, in addition to candidates, attended, filling the upstairs meeting area of the venue to near capacity. Seven candidates for local house district and senate district seats answered five prepared questions and then additional questions from audience members.
Polson High School government teacher Thomas Spencer served as emcee for the event. Before getting into the questions, candidates were first given time to introduce themselves.
Greg Hertz, Republican, introduced himself as a CPA, businessman and legislator. Hertz owns Super One Foods in Polson as well as five other grocery stores. He’s running for the Senate District 7 seat. Following last session’s redistricting, Hertz explained Senate District 7 is basically comprised of Polson and Sanders County.
Referencing his past work in the legislature as a senator for Senate District 6, Hertz said, “I’m known as the tax guy.” Hertz’ opponent, Craig Pablo, Democrat, wasn’t at the event.
Tracy Sharp, Republican candidate for House District 12, said he decided to run when he realized there are no “masterminds” running the state. “It’s us,” he said. If elected, Sharp said he would represent whether Independent, Democrat or Republican. Sharp’s opponent, Barry Olson, Democrat, wasn’t at the event.
Shirley Azzopardi, Democrat candidate for House District 13, said she’s running because she wants to see government be “responsive to our needs.” Azzopardi said she taught special education for 30 years, 28 in St. Ignatius schools, and is now working for CSKT Head Start.
“I’ve spent a good part of my life in education and believe in public education,” she said. Reducing property taxes, public education and reproductive freedom are her priorities.
Linda Reksten, who is running as the Republican candidate for House District 13, introduced herself as a third generation Polson resident who returned to Montana after spending 34 years in education in another state. Upon her return, she worked as a Superintendent of Schools for two different school districts before being elected to serve in House District 12. During her time as a representative in the legislature, Reksten served as Vice Chair of the House Education Committee.
With 33 years of experience working for the federal government, Thedis Crowe is the Democratic candidate for House District 13. She is running against Ralph Foster, Republican, who was not present at the forum. Crowe, an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Nation, said she is actively engaged in her family’s ranching operation in the Heart Butte area. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in land resource sciences and a master’s degree in Native American studies. Though new to politics, Crowe said she believes she has the skillset needed to represent her district’s citizens at the state legislature.
Shelly Fyant is running as a Democrat for the House District 91 seat. Fyant, who was born in St. Ignatius and lives in Arlee, has served two terms on the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Council and was elected chairwoman in January 2020. Fyant says she’s committed to advocating for Medicaid Expansion, public education, affordable housing, protecting the environment and women’s reproductive rights.
David Passieri is the Republican candidate for House District 91. Passieri introduced himself as an area realtor who’s lived in Montana for the past 20 years. He describes himself as a strong advocate for the rights of property owners and believes his experience serving on the Lake County Planning Board and Board of Adjustment as well as providing testimony during past legislative sessions have helped prepare him to represent his fellow Montanans at the state legislature.
Neither Jacinda Morigeau nor Charles Headley, Democrat and Republican candidates, respectively, for Senate District 46 were able to attend the forum.
The first question posed to candidates was, “What property tax reform policies do you support for Montana?”
Hertz said a homestead exemption is his number one priority. In order to give voters more choices, Hertz also said he supports reviewing taxpayer approved levies every 10 years.
Sharp responded that he thinks property tax is the worst kind of tax as it can force people out of their family homes. “Ultimately, I would like to see property taxes eliminated,” he said.
Though he doesn’t think that’s likely to happen in the next session, he said it’s something “we should work on.”
In addition to addressing high property taxes, Azzopardi said she’d like to see a thorough examination all of the tax exemptions the state allows. Azzopardi said that the Department of Revenue told the state’s legislature to reduce property taxes. Although Republicans “held a super majority and they didn’t do it,” she said.
In her response, Reksten noted that more people moved to Montana than went to Hawaii this year. She said she supports shifting the tax burden to those who are moving in and building big houses on the lake. “They should pay their fair share of taxes,” she said, to which there was audible agreement from audience members.
Crowe said she received a letter from the governor in November of 2022 that cutting property taxes was key to the state’s budget. “That does not reflect what actually happened,” she said.
Fyant said she’d like to see a housing fairness credit coupled with a homestead exemption. She noted that despite the state’s previous $2 billion budget surplus, people in Lake County ended up with higher property taxes.
“It’s up to you to decide who to vote for for property tax relief,” she said.
In his response, Passieri said he “lives and breathes property taxes.” As the state’s tourism base continues to increase, Passieri said he supports implementing a bed tax to help subsidize the correlating toll on public resources and roads.
The second question candidates were asked is “How important is Medicaid Expansion to Montana?”
“We have a problem with our health care system in the United States,” Hertz said. “Outcomes aren’t good. We need to look at how we’re delivering health care.”
He further noted that some of his employees only want to work 2-3 days a week so they don’t lose government benefits.
Regarding Medicaid Expansion, Sharp said “We need to make sure those who really need it are getting it,” but that the rolls need to be cleared of those who don’t.
Azzopardi said she supports Medicaid Expansion and simplification of the sign up process. She added that she’d like to see a permanent expansion of the program for full capture of the 90% costs paid the federal government.
“This is a real hot button issue,” Reksten said. She added that in recent talks with a local hospital administrator, she learned that hospitals could lose between $4 million to $5 million if Medicaid Expansion is not approved. She explained that when federal monies given to the state during the pandemic went away, people had to reapply. “We need to look at it and provide for those who really need it,” she said.
Crowe described the Medicaid reenrollment process as “broken.” She said Medicaid Expansion is badly needed and worries about the impacts to people, hospitals and services if it’s not approved. “We need to rework the system,” she added, “so it benefits those who need it.”
Fyant said she supports Medicaid Expansion and noted that “90% of those on Medicaid are working people.” “Medicaid keeps our rural hospitals open,” she said. “It results in $775 million in economic activity.” She further added that she’d like to see expanded outreach activities to assist people in the application process.
Passieri said he’d support Medicaid Expansion only if there’s another five-year sunset. He said he doesn’t trust the federal government to keep funding their 90% of the program and would hate to see the state stuck with the entire cost.
The next question Spencer posed was about Constitutional Initiative 128 and whether or not candidates support its passage and why. CI-128 would amend the state’s constitution “to expressly provide a right to make and carry out decisions about one’s own pregnancy, including the right to abortion.”
Hertz said he doesn’t support amending the constitution to put abortion rights in it. He also said that parents wouldn’t need to be notified if their child has an abortion and he disagrees with this.
Sharp also said he doesn’t support CI-128. He said the spark of life and divinity of every person is something that should be treated sacredly.
Azzopardi supports the passage of CI-128 and sees laws concerning abortion a form of government overreach. “Montanans deserve to make these decisions for ourselves,” she said. “It is not the government’s place to tell anyone what to do with their body.”
Reksten said she is opposed to CI-128 because it would be changing the state’s constitution. She said she thinks the push for the initiative came more from planned parenthood rather than citizens. “Funding was all out of state,” she said. “Montana people didn’t weigh in on this at all.”
Crowe said she supports CI-128 and “the right of women to make their own choices about their bodies.” She said constitutional initiatives are not brought forward by out of state interests, they must come from the state’s citizens.
Fyant also supports CI-128. She argued that Montanans did weigh in on the topic by bringing forth the initiative and that while only 30,000 signatures were required to put the issue on the ballot, more than 60,000 signatures were collected.
Passieri said he is not in favor of CI-128 because women can get an abortion. “It’s already supported,” he said. “I don’t know why this is in front of us. If you really look at it, this opens up pandora’s box on so many levels. Do we really need this? Is this a representation of evil?”
The fourth question posed was “What can state government do about affordable housing?”
“We need to build more houses,” Hertz said. Noting that it can take up to two years to get a new subdivision approved, he said, “we need to speed up the process to get things done.”
Sharp agreed that cutting back on barriers for builders is a key way to address the nationwide housing problem and that it’s not an issue that will be solved overnight. “The best thing government can do is get out of the way,” Sharp said.
Azzopardi said she’d like to see coal tax funds used to build affordable housing and provide for low-interest loans for affordable housing.
Cutting regulations and streamlining permitting processes to make it easier for builders to build is how Reksten said the government can help with the housing crisis. The $100 million set aside as a loan program for water and sewer will also help developers she said. Allowing accessory dwelling units was something else she said she supported last session.
Prefacing that though much was accomplished by the governor’s housing task force, Reksten said, “There’s a lot more that needs to be done.”
Crowe said she and her husband were lucky to have built their home in 2018, prior to the post pandemic cost increase in building materials. Having sat in on meetings of the governor’s housing task force, Crowe said that minorities were not represented and believes this needs to change.
Fyant said the limited amount of tax credits available for housing don’t stretch far enough to help Montanans. Federal dollars are left on the table she said because the state doesn’t have matching funds. She’d like to see expanded tax credits and more infrastructure developed for affordable housing.
Passieri said what’s really needed and rarely discussed is innovation. He advocates for thinking outside the box to address issues like affordable housing. “Innovation is what our focus really needs to be,” he said.
The final question Spencer asked candidates was about education. “What are your views on our state of education?” he asked, and “What can we do to improve?”
Hertz responded that the United States is falling behind other countries in regards to education and that a lot of people say we just need more money. But teachers, he said, are dealing with kids that don’t have support at home. He said he thinks more educational options – such as charter schools, homeschooling and private schools – will provide better outcomes.
Sharp said he thinks there needs to be more competition in education. He said that the United States spends more money on education than other countries but are falling behind in results. He said he thinks less money should be spent on education so that schools do better with the money they have.
Azzopardi maintains that educating all children is important. “It is our responsibility as a society to take good care of all of our children,” she said. “If we privatize our public schools there are kids who will be left out – most likely low income and children with special needs.”
Referencing her work on the education committee, Reksten said the passage of proficiency based learning – which determines whether a student has the skills and abilities needed to move forward (rather than being determined by “seat time”) is a step in the right direction. Targeted intervention to ensure children are proficient in reading by the end of the third grade was another measure Reksten said she helped to pass. “There’s a lot more to do but we’re on the road to getting it fixed,” she said.
Crowe said that after looking at the state budget, “In 2025, it looks like there’s going to be a decrease in education funding.” She said she’d like to see budget surplus monies “reinvested for the future of our state.”
Fyant noted that Montana ranks 50th in the nation when it comes to starting salaries for teachers. Building a pipeline of teachers, lifting the 3% cap on school funding and allowing quality educator payments to schools are ways she’d like to improve the state’s education system.
Passieri said he thinks that education is adequately funded and that the system is broken. The public school system, he said, should be seen as a privilege. Low test scores, he added, aren’t about funding.
Candidates next answered a question submitted by the audience regarding the separation of church and state and if it has been taken too far.
Hertz said he thinks the separation has gone too far when you can’t have a copy of the 10 commandments posted in a courtroom. He also said he thinks there needs to be a check on the power of the judicial branch.
Sharp responded that “without a common framework of morality, we’d have anarchy.” He expressed concern over the post-constitution period he believes our country is in “both at the federal and state level.”
People being unified by a document – a constitution – isn’t the normal way people are ruled, he said. Taken too far, separation of church and state puts the country at risk of the more common rule by man.
Azzopardi said she supports the separation of church and state as well as checks and balances in government.
Reksten expressed concern with the number of bills that have been stayed by the judiciary. She indicated that the judiciary is usurping the power of the legislative branch.
Crowe said she agrees with the separation of church and state and that she believes checks and balances are important.
Fyant said she believes in the separation of church and state and that she is from a generation of people whose family members were removed by the Catholic church – sent away with some never seen again.
Passieri said he believes in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness under one God. He noted that the first congressional meeting started with a prayer. “There is no separation,” he said. “There absolutely should not be.”
Nowhere in nature he argued, does any plant or animal borrow sunshine from tomorrow for the sake of today. “We are borrowing from tomorrow’s future,” he said.
Voters will select their candidate for these as well as state and national offices during the Nov. 5 general election. Citizens can check their voter registration status at their local election office or by visiting vote.org.
