Candidates vow to push for states' rights

Gubernatorial candidate Bob Fanning announced in Kalispell Wednesday that Flathead resident Chuck Baldwin will be his running mate, and the two made it clear that states’ rights will be the major theme of their campaign.

“It’s going to be all about the 10th Amendment,” Fanning told media and a group of about 40 supporters at the Red Lion Hotel Kalispell.

The federal government is explicitly limited in its powers by the U.S. Constitution, and there has been a continuous failure of states to enforce the 10th Amendment’s provisions protecting state powers from federal encroachment, Fanning said.

“We will draw a line in the sand. The federal encroachment into our daily lives is over,” he said, adding that he regards the 2012 election as being the most important for the country since 1860 when Abraham Lincoln was elected president.

A retired businessman who moved from Illinois to Pray in the Paradise Valley north of Yellowstone National Park about 16 years ago, Fanning became active in resisting the federal reintroduction of wolves in the Northern Rockies.

He and Baldwin said they consider wolf reintroduction to be just a symptom of how the federal government has relentlessly exceeded its Constitutional boundaries and infringed on state sovereignty.

Baldwin is a columnist, radio broadcaster, author and Baptist pastor who moved to the Flathead in 2010 from Pensacola, Fla., and now leads a congregation on Sundays at the Red Lion.

He was a Constitution Party candidate for president in 2008, but his name was not on the ballot in Montana because state party officials selected Texas Congressman Ron Paul.

Baldwin said he is honored to be selected as Fanning’s running mate.

“Bob is the one candidate in this race that I can fully and wholeheartedly support,” he said, adding that Fanning-Baldwin ticket will differ from eight other Republican candidates because of its emphasis on state sovereignty and a return to a federal form of government that the country has strayed from.

“The United States does not have a national government. We have a federal government,” Baldwin said.

“The land in this state belongs to the people of Montana, not the federal government,” he said, adding that he and Fanning would pursue policies asserting state sovereignty in a way “that hasn’t been done in many, many years.”

Asked by an audience member if the federal government owns land in Montana, Fanning said the state entered a contract with the federal government when the state was established in 1889 that ensured public lands would be managed for logging, mining and other forms of resource development. Since then, the Forest Service and other agencies have not lived up to the terms of that contract, he said.

He said the state needs to develop its natural resources “on a rocket docket, on a greased skid,” to generate jobs and wealth. And he said he would like to see the establishment of a state banking system to harness the benefits of the resulting economic development.

In campaign materials distributed at the meeting, Baldwin makes clear the Fanning-Baldwin political strategy in a field of nine gubernatorial candidates.

“The pie is going to be sliced mighty thin, and in Montana, there is no run-off in the primaries. That means, whoever gets the most votes — no matter what the percentage — wins,” Baldwin wrote. “It is very conceivable, therefore, that the winner will receive far less than 30 percent of the votes. Do you see the opportunity Bob and I have in this election?”

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by email at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.