Gianforte meets with Kalispell Chamber

Montana’s Republican candidate for the state’s sole U.S. House seat repeated his campaign themes in Kalispell on Thursday afternoon, promising to keep Montana first and to “drain the swamp” in Washington.

Greg Gianforte met with a handful of city business owners and leaders in the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce on April 13. He said as a member of Congress, he would advocate for less federal regulation, lower tax rates and affordable health care.

The event was invitation-only.

Gianforte said that as a businessman and electrical engineer by trade, he’s spent his career balancing budgets and solving complex problems.

“We haven’t had a lot of fiscal discipline back in Washington, that’s why I feel strongly that if we can’t balance the budget, I don’t think Congressional members should get paid,” he said.

Gianforte is challenging Democrat Rob Quist, a musician from Creston, and Libertarian Mark Wicks to fill the vacancy created by Republican Ryan Zinke, who resigned March 1 to become U.S. Interior secretary.

The special election to fill the vacant seat is May 25.

DURING THURSDAY’S event, Kalispell leaders questioned how Gianforte would work within what some described as a “fractious” Congress.

“I’ll work with Democrats, Republicans and independents if it’s in Montana’s interests,” he said.

He said Montanans are impacted by too much federal overreach in forest-management policy, labor rules and health care.

Jeff Claridge, a contractor and vice president with LHC Inc., said if there isn’t a revision of the Affordable Care Act, he’s nervous about what health insurance could cost the company in 2018.

“You’ve hit on every prong that stifles us throughout a 12-month period,” Claridge said. “The one that comes up toward the end of the year is our health-care premiums … in the last five years they’ve gone up by 15 to 18 percent each year.”

Gianforte said the Affordable Care Act was in a death spiral. He said he wanted more consumer choice and the ability to purchase insurance across state boundaries.

When the GOP introduced an initial plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, Gianforte said he did not support the legislation. Thursday he said he felt the plan had been rushed and was too incomplete.

He said to support any plan replacing the Affordable Care Act, he would need it to include two things: “It must reduce premiums and it must preserve rural access to health care in Montana.”

GIANFORTE ALSO said Thursday he believes one of the primary roles of federal government is a strong national defense.

“My opponent’s calling for massive cuts in military spending at a time when we’re at war with ISIS,” he said.

Hours before Gianforte arrived in Kalispell, news broke that the U.S. dropped America’s most powerful non-nuclear bomb on IS targets in Afghanistan. The action followed U.S. airstrikes in Syria last week.

Some have said the military action is a flip in President Donald Trump’s non-interventionist policy in foreign conflict.

In an interview after Thursday’s roundtable, Gianforte said it was “a consequence of not having an effective foreign policy over the last eight years.”

“Chemical weapons are not OK, and I support the action that President Trump took in Syria,” he said. “Going forward, we need to have an open discussion with Congress and the Administration on what’s our policy going to be in Syria. There are situations where unilateral action on behalf of the president is OK, but we’re better off as a country having a considered policy.”

While Gianforte has had a calendar booked with roundtables throughout Montana in recent weeks, Quist has been touring the state holding a variety of public events.

As of April 13, Quist had seven public events lined up from Thursday through April 27. In contrast, Gianforte doesn’t have any free, public events advertised — some critics have pointed to that as Gianforte creating distance from the public.

Gianforte said that in the last 18 months, during his unsuccessful campaign for governor, he’s traveled roughly 75,000 miles to meet with Montanans.

“I’ve been in every cafe in the state almost, I did the telecommunity tour, I did the regulation roundup, I’ve done hundreds of town-hall meetings all over the state,” he said. “And I’ve been on radio call-in shows. I’m not hiding.”

This week, Gianforte’s campaign invited the public to meet Donald Trump Jr. in Kalispell, Hamilton, Billings and Bozeman on April 21 and 22. Tickets for the events start at $35 each.

For updates on Gianforte’s campaign, visit https://gregformontana.com/about/.

Reporter Katheryn Houghton may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at khoughton@dailyinterlake.com.