A political maverick

George Culpepper Jr. burst onto the local political scene two years ago as the government affairs director for the Northwest Montana Association of Realtors.

"Who is this guy?" some asked as he addressed the Whitefish City Council time and time again as the association questioned city officials about the controversial critical-areas ordinance and later demanded the city turn over related correspondence.

It was Culpepper's relentless persistence that had prompted the Realtors to woo him for the job. He already had a proven track record in campaign management, legislative affairs and political fundraising.

One of his stints was as campaign manager for the Committee for a Vibrant Aberdeen in South Dakota, where he pushed through approval of a Wal-Mart Supercenter.

"NMAR was looking for someone to make a difference," Culpepper said. "People see me in the spotlight, but they [the association] set the tone. I was asked to do a job and I did it."

Earlier this year Culpepper switched jobs and became the government affairs director for the Flathead Building Association. Once again he set out to dog local, state and national issues of the building industry.

He was appointed to the Flathead County Planning Board a few months ago and quickly emerged as a conservative voice on the board.

Now, after his meteoric political blitz through the Flathead, Culpepper is on the move again, this time back home to Colorado where he'll head a statewide political campaign. He's leaving in August.

"I enjoy the passion of being in the trenches," Culpepper said. "Elections are like battle plans. It's an adrenaline rush.

"My future aspirations will always be in politics, whether [running for] office or campaigning."

CULPEPPER keeps two books within grasp at his desk: Thomas Paine's "The Rights of Man" and "Democracy in America" by Alexis deTocqueville.

"I truly care about what government does to impact peoples' lives," he said, "and if there's too much intrusion, it's a step away from what those two guys [Paine and deTocqueville] wrote about. We expect government to be held accountable."

Culpepper, who calls himself "just a regular guy," has gravitated to leadership roles since high school. As a student journalist during his senior year he and a student from India co-wrote an article on racism that won a national Quill & Scroll award.

He's never shied away from standing up for what he believes in.

While Culpepper was finishing his political science degree at Metropolitan State College of Denver, he butted heads with a liberal professor and filed a grievance against her. The trouble began when Culpepper formed an organization of college Republicans and the professor accused the group of working with a conservative think tank to get her and other liberal professors fired.

The falling out continued when Culpepper complained about a film the professor showed in class that he believed was insulting to the military. He later testified at a legislative hearing in support of the Academic Bill of Rights and wrote an article for FrontPageMagazine.com called "How a Leftist Professor Violated My Rights."

"I knew what she was telling students was inappropriate," he said. "I was standing up for other students. We can't spend money [on tuition] to be indoctrinated on political beliefs."

When the professor told a local newspaper that Culpepper had failed her class (he dropped it but had maintained a B average) she was reprimanded for breaking a federal law that forbids teachers from discussing their students' grades and educational progress in public.

"It was a proud moment in my college life," Culpepper recalled.

CULPEPPER wasn't always a Republican, even though his Georgia upbringing tended to land him on the conservative side of life.

As a young adult, he considered himself a Southern Democrat and was registered as a Democrat.

"I was a Zell Miller Democrat," he said, referring to the former Georgia governor and U.S. senator who backed Republican President George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election.

By the time Culpepper got to college, he realized his beliefs just didn't fit into the Democratic philosophy that had been part of his childhood.

His parents divorced when he was 5 and he and his two older sisters moved with their mother to Georgia, where his paternal grandparents helped raise the family.

"My mom struggled," he recalled. "We grew up in the projects, on food stamps. I remember standing in line for peanut butter and cheese."

During those years, his mother moved the family from one low-income tenant building to another.

"In my seventh-grade year, Mom got a better job and we moved to a house," he said.

Even though he was raised with government assistance, Culpepper isn't benevolent when it comes to prolonged welfare.

"I take issue with those in subsidized housing who complain that they need a handout," he said. "If my mom could do it [get off assistance] with three kids, anyone can do it. I have no sympathy for those who feel the government should give them [money] when they don't work."

As a teenager, Culpepper moved to Anchorage, Alaska, to live with his father and finish high school. He played the tuba, sang in the school choir and was active in the Junior Reserve Office Training Corps. His father had served in the military and at one point was stationed at the Panama Canal.

"The military was always part of my life," he recalled.

It was natural, then, for Culpepper to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1995. But during jungle survival training in Malaysia, his knee gave out. Surgery helped but prevented him from doing the required physical training. He was medically discharged in 2001, two years short of his scheduled discharge.

After military life, Culpepper considered himself lucky to get a job in Washington, D.C., as a lobbyist for the Fleet Reserve Association, a nonprofit group of enlisted personnel of the Navy, Marines and Coast Guard.

The job whetted Culpepper's appetite for politics, but an Illinois congressman and fellow Marine urged Culpepper to finish college, and so he did. He had started classes at the University of Alaska-Anchorage, but chose Denver to finish because his sister lived there.

While in Colorado, Culpepper worked on the 2004 Pete Coors for U.S. Senate campaign and served as a legislative aide in the Colorado House of Representatives. He was geared to run for a House seat when his father was stricken with lung cancer and had a heart attack.

Culpepper abandoned his political plans and returned to Alaska to care for his father, who's "doing well now."

But even in Alaska, politics found Culpepper.

He became president of Alaska's Future, a nonprofit formed to counterattack efforts of those promoting an all-Alaska natural gas pipeline. The group was a front for three major oil producers that wanted a pipeline to extend beyond Alaska and through Canada.

Culpepper said he was told to publicly state the organization wasn't a front for the oil companies, and he did so. But he quickly came to realize the "Big Three" were using him.

"In reality [the organization] was there to protect the pockets' of the oil companies, Culpepper said. He later disclosed that information in an Associated Press article.

OUTSIDE all of his political wrangling, Culpepper is a family man. He and his wife, Nicole, have a young son, Noah, and are expecting a second child later this summer.

And he insists he's a 'regular guy" who likes to hunt, fish and ride horses.

He's passionate about wild horses, and making sure they remain wild and free. True to form, Culpepper penned a guest editorial last fall, calling for public intervention to the government's consideration of euthanizing wild mustangs.

Politics and Culpepper, it seems, are never very far apart.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com