House candidate wants U.S. to embrace change

Whitefish businesswoman Diane Smith is a big proponent of high-tech, particularly in communications, where she worked with successful start-ups Sprint and Alltel before creating her own business here in the Flathead.

One of seven Democratic contenders in the race for Montana’s lone U.S. House seat, Smith co-founded Avail-TVN in Kalispell in 2004. The company quickly grew from nothing to a $30 million business with more than 100 people before she left in 2008. Now she’d like to put that kind of experience to work in Washington, D.C.

“Congress is broken, and I have new ideas on how that can be fixed,” she said. “This election will be about jobs and the economy — and the role of government after the technology revolution.”

Most governments are not built for speed, said Smith, who got her law degree from George Mason University. But better use of technology can make government move faster and be more transparent at the same time.

“Government should take the long view, not the long time,” she said.

Smith would like to see members of Congress spend three weeks of each month in their home states with their constituents continuing their legislative work over the Internet via programs like Skype. More of government needs to be done online to improve speed and transparency, she said.

A prime example of government not keeping up can be found in the growing oil industry in Eastern Montana. Smith said she would like to see impact fees placed on oil companies in the Bakken to help pay for strained infrastructure there.

“It’s absolutely a tragedy what’s happening there,” she said. “Corporations with billions of dollars in potential profits won’t go away. They’ll pay what’s needed to stay in business there.”

Smith sees a lot of potential for small businesses in a rural state like Montana, and she wrote a book about it, “TheNewRural.com.”

“The vast number of businesses in Montana have less than four employees,” she said. “Net job creation occurs primarily with businesses that are less than five years old.”

Smith said she’d like to see changes in federal funding and policies that will encourage more rural entrepreneurs. For example, the Small Business Administration works with large banks that only support businesses with a good track record. She’d like to see the SBA work with smaller local banks that will support new businesses without a track record.

She’s also like to streamline the patent process and provide way to increase access for small and sole-proprietor businesses to health insurance and retirement plans, which are too complicated and expensive for most small businesses.

Smith said she’d like to rein in military expenses “with the utmost gratitude to our veterans who served.” She sees a need to curtail global efforts and focus our energies at home.

Like many candidates, education looms large in Smith’s campaign platform. The “one size fits all” approach rarely works for states like Montana, she said. She’d like to see more emphasis on 21st century learning created by the technology revolution.

“Kids learn very differently than when I grew up,” she said. “Memorizing information when kids can look it up on the Internet doesn’t make sense.”

Smith wants government to provide “the best education we can afford” and make sure it stays public. She said she doesn’t support providing tax credits for children who attend private schools. Innovative uses of technology, such as providing wireless Internet on school buses, will help public schools, she said.

“As a nation, we need to get more comfortable with change,” she said. “We innovate every day, but we have trouble adopting our system to those changes.”