Flathead legislators selected for leadership positions

Several legislators from Northwest Montana have been tapped for leadership and committee chair positions in the 2017 Montana Legislature, following the Republican and Democratic caucuses last week.

Veteran Sen. Bob Keenan, R-Bigfork, won a coin flip after a tie vote for the No. 2 Republican spot in the state Senate, where he will replace Sen. Eric Moore, R-Miles City, as the president pro tem. Keenan and Sen. Llew Jones, R-Conrad, received 16 votes each from the upper house’s GOP caucus.

The Bigfork senator returned to the Legislature in 2015 after the mandatory eight-year wait following his first two Senate terms. He previously served as the Senate president in 2003 and Senate minority leader in 2005.

“We worked together well and extensively (last session), so we both would have been comfortable with any result of that,” Keenan said. “The pro tem position is very much an administrative position. It’s not a political position but it does put me in the strategy meetings for the politics of the session.”

That strategizing will principally consist of outlining priority legislation and the timing of bill consideration during the 90-day session, he said. Keenan added that he expects the 2017 Legislature to focus more on spending and taxation, compared to the handful of major, controversial bills that came to characterize the 2015 session.

Sen. Mark Blasdel, R-Kalispell, will also occupy a leadership role as one of the two Senate majority whips. He also chairs the Senate Taxation Committee.

Current House Majority Leader Rep. Keith Regier, another Kalispell Republican, will head the Senate Judiciary Committee after being elected to his term in the upper house last week. Regier was a member of the House Judiciary Committee during his four terms as a Representative.

Sen. Dee Brown, R-Hungry Horse, won re-election last week after running unopposed. She chaired the Committee on Committees and will chair the State Administration Committee.

In the House, Rep. Mike Cuffe, R-Eureka, was selected to head the long-range House Appropriations Committee, and Rep. Carl Glimm will serve as chair of the Natural Resources Subcommittee on House Appropriations.

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.