Democrat Busse outlines policy priorities in campaign for Montana governor

Ryan Busse, the Kalispell Democrat running for governor this year in Montana, made a series of promises Tuesday about how he would conduct himself in office and the policies he would like to implement should he win the race, including being essentially the opposite of his likely opponent in November, Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte.

The news conference inside the rotunda of the State Capitol was Busse’s first major one in Helena since he declared his run in the Democratic primary in September. But he has already put 13,000 miles on his truck hosting events across the state he said have been well attended by people across the political spectrum.

“I want you to know that as your gubernatorial candidate, and when we’re elected as governor of Montana, you can expect transparency, openness, open events, answering questions – all the things that are diametrically opposed to the current administration’s way of handling the press and the public,” Busse told the press and about three-dozen members of the public who were there to open the news conference.

The commitments Busse made often involved policy decisions that directly contradict moves made by the Gianforte administration. Busse pledged to send any rebate checks directly to homeowners rather than make them apply, to veto any potential sales tax proposals in Montana, to keep Medicaid expansion in place, to end Gianforte’s property tax task force and work on housing and tax solutions, and to stay out of women’s health care decisions.

Busse is currently the only Democratic candidate running for governor of Montana this year. Gianforte announced a week ago he was seeking re-election and has at least one primary challenger in Rep. Tanner Smith, R-Lakeside, but handily won the 2020 General Election and is the clear favorite to be the Republican on the ballot in November.

But Busse made clear he believes the race comes down to him and Gianforte. As he laid out his policy positions, he referenced Gianforte throughout, jabbing the governor for the increase in property taxes seen across Montana this year, the increased NorthWestern Energy rates approved by the Republican-held Public Service Commission, a lack of affordable housing, his administration’s failure to apply for federal grant money to feel schoolchildren last summer, continued efforts to restrict abortion access, and the number of people here kicked off Medicaid while providers still wait to be reimbursed for their services by the Department of Public Health and Human Services.

“This is not your grandfather’s or your father’s, or your mother’s or grandmother’s GOP. This is something very dangerous. It’s critical that we make the changes in the state to get our state back,” he said. “Gianforte’s dangerous agenda — less freedom, weird religious morality, cruel ideas, arrogance, higher taxes, and an overt plan to make this state, sell it to millionaires and billionaires out from underneath the working people in Montana — is something that I will fight with every shred of my being.”

On taxes, Busse said he wants to rebalance the tax system again to put more of the burden on wealthier Montanans and large corporations, perhaps using those changes to help pay for affordable housing for public servants like first responders and teachers.

He said that DPHHS and the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks have been dismantled under the Gianforte administration and that he would like to rebuild the departments to be better public servants for Montanans, providers, and the outdoors due to a host of issues in both realms.

“Right now, I would not trust this administration and this Fish and Wildlife Commission to manage gophers, much less grizzly bears, or wolverines, or wolves,” Busse said. “Those are all important, iconic and difficult issues for our state and I think we need to make them on science, biological, and common-sense grounds.”

Busse said he was OK with the new public-school charters like the 19 approved to operate last week through public school districts, but vehemently opposed to another bill signed by Gianforte this past year that allows public money to go toward private charter schools without any public oversight. And he said the current Montana public education landscape is a “five-alarm fire” due to the number of teacher openings, particularly in rural Montana, and among the lowest starting salaries for teachers in the country.

Busse called Gianforte’s stance on abortion “creepy” and “un-American” and said he would on his first day in office roll back any restrictions that Gianforte has put in place that are still part of Montana law.

In what he said would be “low bars” to meet, Busse said that white supremacy and extremism would be met head on and counterattacked and that public records and meetings would be public. He also hit on Gianforte’s recent purchase of a historic mansion in Helena to be the new governor’s mansion: “If, by chance, I decide to donate some multimillion structure to the state, I pledge to you that it will not cost the state anything. There will also be a foundation to cover all the maintenance and the property taxes and anything else.”

Perhaps one of the biggest questions is how Democrats in Montana will fare in this upcoming election. Republicans won a supermajority in the legislature in 2022, and U.S. Sen. Jon Tester is the lone statewide elected Democrat. Gianforte also won the 2020 governor’s race by nearly 80,000 votes.

Busse said in the dozens of events he’s held and attended so far, there have been “a lot of Republicans in the room” he said are upset with Gianforte and the supermajority and that he feels like 2020 was an aberration in Montana’s political landscape.

“I don’t think it’s right to take from that that there’s some kind of permanent change in Montana. I don’t feel it. When I go across the state, and the values that I’m running on and the stuff that I’ve talked about here today, people of all stripes and ages and genders shake their head in agreement, and that gives me a lot of hope,” he said.

Multiple times, he described some of Gianforte’s policies as “fascist” in nature. When asked how that rhetoric might affect the number of independents and Republicans who might vote for a Democrat, he said he believes there are plenty of people in those groups that do not see eye-to-eye with Gianforte’s brand of Republicanism.

“There are thousands and thousands of Republicans who agree with that; I meet them all the time. So my answer is yes,” he said. “And I think some of the things that Gianforte is doing, administering, and wants to, I think they are fascist. Yes, they’re dangerous.”

But Busse said he doesn’t worry about being able to work with Republicans in the event he wins the primary and general elections, and said he knows he would have to reach those outside what he called “a loud radicalized minority.”

“There are good Republican legislators that know what’s going on, and I think we need a Democratic governor, someone who will stand up and partner with us on decency and common sense, and we can form a coalition there,” Busse said. “…We may not agree on everything, but we agree on feeding hungry kids. We can agree covering needy kids and people with health care, and we can dang sure agree on providing basic services through DPHHS.”

Blair Miller is a Helena-based reporter. The Daily Montanan is a nonprofit newsroom. To read the article as originally published, click here.