Few surprises in local House, Senate elections
Despite several hotly contested races in Northwest Montana’s House and Senate districts, the 2016 elections wound to a close Tuesday night with the political makeup of the region’s legislators likely unchanged.
Based on available vote totals by press time early Wednesday morning, Republicans appeared to have swept the four GOP-held Senate seats up for election, while Democrats hung on to their two state House seats in the otherwise Republican corner of the state.
Rep. Keith Regier, the current House Majority Leader from Kalispell, kept Senate District 3 in Republican hands after a highly contested race against Whitefish Democrat Melissa Hartman that saw the heaviest campaign spending in the region.
While absentee ballot returns shortly after the polls closed gave him less than a 2 percent lead over Hartman, Regier quickly broke away and finished the night with a preliminary vote total of 6,232 to 4,701.
“I just want to thank the voters in Senate District 3 — they did a great job and I was really impressed with the turnout,” Regier said after the last of Flathead County’s 42 precincts had been counted Tuesday night.
Preliminary results showed just shy of 11,000 votes cast between the two candidates. That was significantly higher than any other legislative race in Flathead County, but was down slightly from the 12,371 cast when outgoing Sen. Bruce Tutvedt, R-Kalispell, won reelection to the seat in 2012.
“I think maybe my experience that I can get things done ... probably played into that, and the values that I share with Senate District 3,” Regier said, adding that he hopes to take up property tax reform and an infrastructure spending bill during the 2017 Legislature.
Incumbent Republican Sen. Dee Brown of Hungry Horse also won a second four-year term in the Senate, and preliminary results from Senate District 7 showed incumbent Sen. Jennifer Fielder with a wide lead over Democratic Thompson Falls Mayor Mark Sheets. Rep. Al Olszewski, R-Kalispell, also enjoyed a four-to-one advantage over Democrat Rolf Harmsen in his bid for Senate District 6, although results from the portion of the district that lies in Lake County were not yet available.
In the House, incumbent Republicans won seven of the 11 seats in Flathead and Lincoln counties, while wins by Republicans Derek Skees and Matt Regier kept all nine Republican House seats in GOP hands.
Incumbent Rep. Zac Perry, D-Columbia Falls, won his House District 3 reelection bid by 5 percent over Republican Taylor Rose, 2,354 to 2,122.
In left-leaning House District 5, Democrat Dave Fern easily defeated Republican Chet Billi, capturing 56.6 percent of the vote to Billi’s 43.3 percent. Both candidates were relative newcomers to state politics, although Fern noted his position on the Whitefish School Board and his prior bid for a state Senate seat likely boosted his name recognition in the House race.
“I think that people knew my name and hopefully trusted it, and were reasonably confident in me as a candidate,” Fern said after the county released its preliminary vote totals.
He also congratulated his opponent on running a strong race and said he also looks forward to working on property tax reform while addressing the state’s high populations of foster children and issues facing elderly residents.
“I’m especially grateful to the team we had,” he added. “We ran a really strong ground game, you’d say, with a lot of volunteers that stepped up. They would go the extra mile for me.”
Election totals in Flathead County were not final as of press time early Monday morning. Preliminary tallies had all 42 precincts reporting, with some absentee ballots yet to be finalized, according to county election officials.
Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.