Political newcomers contend for open SD6 seat

The race for Montana’s Senate District 6, which hugs most of the shore of Flathead Lake and extends from Polson through the Lower Valley, offers a choice between two relative newcomers to state politics.

Kalispell Republican Al Olszewski, an orthopedic surgeon and first-term House representative, is running for the open seat against Polson Democrat Rolf Harmsen, the owner of an insurance company who is making his first foray into electoral politics.

In separate interviews last week, the two candidates often differed philosophically, but agreed on the need to address several issues important to Montanans in the district, notably the rise in lakeshore property taxes.

Olszewski said his decision to vacate his current House seat for a spot in the Senate was based in part on the endorsements of other Republican senators, along with his attraction to the more staid atmosphere of the Legislature’s upper house.

“I’m an active listener, and part of what I do as a physician is to deal with problems, whether simple or complex,” he said, adding that floor debates in the House are more like “playing hockey.”

“A lot of times you can’t do that in a three-minute debate.”

Harmsen said his decision to seek public office grew in part from his enthusiasm for the presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-VT. He draws his political passions from personal experience, especially the lessons he’s learned raising a daughter who is developmentally disabled and requires constant care as an adult.

“I would be an absolute champion for special-needs people,” he said. “That kind of thinking, that kind of mentality, that kind of compassion is what I bring to the table.”

Specifically, he said state assistance to special-needs people has been diminished by repeated budget cuts to the Department of Public Health and Human Services.

“It’s always going to come out of the hide of people who can’t help themselves,” he said, adding later, “One of the things I would love to do is just be available to help people when they have problems.”

Having never held state office, Harmsen admitted he still has to study some of the major initiatives from the 2015 session, such as the infrastructure appropriations bills, but having worked as a roads inspector he agrees it needs to be a high priority for the state.

Olszewski described himself as one of the “die-hards” that opposed the final infrastructure bill in the House, where it ultimately died before the Legislature adjourned last year. He said he had supported an earlier version of the spending bill, but became discouraged by amendments that used bonding to pay for added building projects. He said he isn’t opposed to all bonding, but believes the inclusion of bonds became a “workaround” to satisfy the state’s constitutional requirement for a balanced budget on a technicality.

Despite his fiscal conservatism, however, Olszewski believes there is one area that the state needs to spend significantly more: Child and Family Services.

“The big banner I’m really going to be pushing for next session is modernizing our child protective services,” he said. “Every session it becomes a little more of a crisis.”

Olszewski said he worked with Republican leadership to secure temporary funding for the department to hire more workers to ease the difficulties faced within the agency, but said the money was ultimately diverted elsewhere.

“Unless there’s a really good cooperative agreement between the legislative branch and the executive branch about what we’re going to do and how we’re going to fund it, we’re always going to have this fight about, ‘You give us the money and don’t worry about what we do with it,’” he said.

The Republican legislator hopes a position in the Senate will enable him to find a long-term solution to fix an overburdened agency.

Harmsen’s specific priorities include returning authority over municipal water systems to the Montana Public Service Commission, as opposed to the current system that delegates that power to towns and cities. As the owner of several rental properties, he said he’s had a front-row seat to the problems created when cities like Polson are able to shut off water services to delinquent customers.

Despite admittedly long odds for a Democrat running in a deeply conservative district, Harmsen said he will continue to run a low-key campaign from his Polson office.

“He’s not my opponent, he’s not my enemy,” he said, referring to Olszewski. “I don’t care what he says, I don’t care what he thinks. This is what I think, and if that has value to you, vote for me.”

ABSENTEE BALLOTS will be mailed Oct. 14 and must be returned by Election Day on Nov. 8.

Information about voter registration, absentee ballot applications and a sample ballot are available on the Flathead County Election Department website at flathead.mt.gov/election.

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