Holston says the difference is style, leadership, honesty

By RICHARD HANNERS / Whitefish Pilot

Mark Holston, the Demo-cratic candidate for Senate District 3, has an eclectic resume — journalist, musician, photographer and community volunteer.

A third-generation Montan-an who attended a one-room schoolhouse in Rollins as a child, Holston volunteered for the Air Force during the Vietnam War era. He's been married for 30 years and lives in the Helena Flats area.

Holston's public service record includes three terms on the Flathead Valley Community College board, where he's also been a substitute teacher; campaign chairman for United Way; chairman of the Hockaday Museum of Art; and chairman of the Flathead County Local Emergency Planning Committee. The latter operated under a Homeland Security grant to study communications networks and the need for a consolidated 911 dispatch center in the valley.

For 14 years, Holston was the news director at KCFW-TV. He says people recognize him and think he still works for the TV station. He wrote articles on international relations for the "Washington Times" for 20 years, and recently returned from a trip to Brazil.

He also served 18 years as project coordinator and public information officer for the Flathead Basin Commission. That position posed a potential conflict of interest if he wanted to run for local office, he said, but now that he's with commission on a part-time basis only, "this was the year to step up to the plate."

"My opponent and I have lots of name recognition, but mine is for good things," he said about Republican candidate Bruce Tutvedt.

Holston said he decided to run because he's concerned about the level of partisanship in Helena. Flathead's Republican legislators "ostracized" Bill Jones after the legislator from Bigfork didn't vote along party lines, Holston said, and it wouldn't be in the public interest to let Tutvedt run unopposed.

"Are we electing people in Flathead County to represent legitimate needs of the constituents or to promote the agenda of the Republican Party?" Holston asked.

Holston said he would look for common ground between the parties for the best interests of the public.

"It's got to be a two-way street," he said.

Holston says voters should focus more on the "style and leadership" differences between the two SD3 candidates. He said he has no self-interests, while Tutvedt's are "obvious."

"My opponent wants new legislation for extraction of natural resources," Holston said. "People need to look very carefully at this. You don't want a fox in the chicken coop."

In addition to an interest in gravel mining, Holston said, his opponent also received significant farm subsidies, which flies in the face of his claims to want to reduce government and taxes.

"This is incredibly hypocritical and intellectually dishonest," Holston said. "Republican presidential candidates John McCain and Ron Paul called this 'corporate welfare.'"

According to Environmental Working Group's online farm subsidy database, Tutvedt received $565,688 in federal subsidies from 1995 through 2006. This included $117,660 in 1999.

"That year, he was taking in three times what the typical local wage-earner makes in a year," Holston said.

Holston expects next year's legislature to be focused on the budget, with "a lot of painful choices over priorities.

"Don't expect a lot of new legislation," he said.

There will be a surplus, but he said he won't compile a list of items to spend it on. Holston likes the idea of the state issuing small grants that can be leveraged, especially with volunteers helping out. He finds it "sometimes distressing" to see important things left up to voters — such as levies for local school needs.

Funding education is a "basic obligation" of state government, he said, especially in light of "unacceptably high drop-out rates."

"We know the result of that — people won't be economically successful, they'll be a burden on society," Holston said. "On the other hand, we can't keep throwing money at things."

Holston also wants to seek bi-partisan and innovative solutions to Montana's "out-of-balance" tax system; protect constitutional freedoms — including gun ownership rights; work to develop the state's natural resources in an environmentally-friendly way; and "bring civility back to the state legislature."