Students running for Legislature

Three University of Montana students are running to become Montana state representatives in Helena and will be on Missoula ballots in November. All three are members of the College Republicans and are running in Democrat-dominated districts in Missoula.

They are not swayed by the odds, though, and all said they have a good chance of winning. Jedediah Cox is running in House District 99 against incumbent Betsy Hands; Steve Dogiakos is running in House District 93 (which includes UM) against retired economics professor Richard Barrett; and Dan Stusek is running in House District 92 against incumbent Robin Hamilton.

Scott Martin, the president of the College Democrats had a less rosy view of their chances. He said the only reason they are running is to fill vacant positions that the Montana Republican Party couldn’t fill. Though he said that their candidacies should be taken seriously and it is great to see students running for political office.

“They’re all great guys, they’re all nice guys, but their views don’t walk in step with the students on this campus,” Martin said. “They don’t have the progressive stance of most of the voters of Missoula.”

These seats have been held by Democrats for a very long time, Martin said.

“They don’t have a chance,” he said.

The Missoula Republican party disagrees with this characterization of the three students as “sacrificial lambs.” Will Deschamps, the chairman of the Republican Central Committee for Missoula County said these students have as good a chance as anyone of taking these seats. He meets with all Republican candidates from Missoula County every Monday to offer guidance in running campaigns.

“We talk about getting young people involved, and what better way,” Deschamps said. “I think to say that we’re throwing them to the wolves is wrong.”

Deschamps did admit, though, that these seats haven’t been occupied by Republicans in many years and any Republican would start with a serious handicap. He didn’t blame anybody for this except his own party.“I think a lot of it has to do with that we haven’t worked hard enough,” he said. “A Republican in Missoula probably starts out, oh, 10 to 15 points behind as soon as they put their name on the ticket.”

Cox gave himself about a 50 percent chance of winning his district. The 23-year-old Cox is a native of Forsyth and has been involved with students and local politics for three years. He is currently serving as an ASUM senator and is a senior in business management.

The defining issue for Cox, and where he wants to make his impact, is in refocusing government spending, particularly in education. He said that the State Legislature has tied up too much money in bureaucracy, and he wants to free some of this money up to go directly to schoolteachers and schoolbooks.

“All the increase in money we’ve gotten for K-12 education has gone to administrators,” Cox said. “I went to school in eastern Montana, we had a bunch of books with stuff crossed out cause it was wrong. We’re using books from the 1980s.”

Cox’s criticism of big government does not stop at education. He said he wants to shrink the state government payroll by eliminating some of the 1,000 recently created government jobs. He also wants to address legal reform for the health care system to decrease the pressure rural hospitals face from potential malpractice suits.

Betsy Hands, the incumbent Democrat for Cox’s district, said that it is interesting the Republican candidates named this as an issue, since it was while the Republicans were in control of the Legislature that all this government growth occurred.

Along with Cox, she named education and health care as her top priorities, the issues most often brought up to her by her constituents.

“The last legislative session we made great strides to try to bring money to education. It was really clearly coming from our (Democrats’) side,” Hands said. “Having education for your child is one of the most important things you can do for their development.”

Hands will be finishing her first term as a state representative. While the Legislature is not in session she works as executive director of the nonprofit housing organization HomeWORD. She graduated from the University of Montana with a master’s degree in environmental studies.

Both Cox and Hands want to find ways to maintain tuition freezes and reduce costs for students.

Stusek, a 21-year-old Billings native and senior in political science, said the problem lies with the power given to the executive branch by the Legislature to oversee the government bureaucracy in Montana.

He also said that freeing up money by reducing bureaucracy could create the potential for tuition breaks in higher education.

“The government’s going to be very strapped for money this semester,” Stusek said. “There were tons of new government jobs added in sectors that I just don’t see needed them.”

Stusek said he is qualified for the job after interning for then-Sen. Conrad Burns in Washington, D.C., and working for Rep. Denny Rehberg in Missoula. He is also the executive secretary for the Montana College Republican Federation.

Dogiakos is the only non-Montanan in the group, but the 23-year-old freshman political science major from the Chicago suburbs wants to do some good for a state he wants to stay in after college.

Though Dogiakos too is concerned with limiting the size of Montana’s bureaucracy, he is also interested in encouraging small businesses in the state to create private-sector jobs for educated Montanans.

“There is no reason we can’t have much lower unemployment, much higher wages,” he said. “There is no reason we have so many University of Montana graduates leaving the state.”

Dogiakos said he is qualified for the job, because as a student he can represent students’ needs in the University District. He also worked in administration at Northwestern University. If elected, he said he would attend classes in the fall, but not in the spring while the Legislature is in session.

All three candidates are looking to the end of the semester to get their campaigns into full gear and raise some cash. So far, Cox has raised $1,500, Dogiakos has raised $400 and Stusek has raised $250. In comparison, Hands has $1,500 for her re-election, but said that is only a starting point. She expects much more money to be coming in the summer and fall.

Hands said she takes these candidacies very seriously, and said having young people in the Legislature is encouraging.

“I think there are a lot of young people in the Legislature that are showing great promise,” Hands said. “I respect that kind of diversity.”