Senate District 2 race: Brown cites work in the trenches

Dee Brown says she doesn’t like to stand up and give speeches on the Legislature floor. The well-known conservative from Coram prefers to do her talking in committee meetings.

“When I was in the House, I used to tell the freshmen, ‘Shut up and vote,’” she said.

The Republican candidate for Senate District 2, which includes Columbia Falls, Whitefish and surrounding rural areas, acknowledges one big difference between the two chambers.

“In the House, they can vote for cloture and end debate, but in the Senate they can filibuster,” she said. “They can have long sessions.”

A Columbia Falls High School graduate, Brown earned a bachelor’s in elementary education from the University of Montana-Missoula and a master’s in guidance and counseling from Montana State University-Northern.

She started her 26-year long teaching career in Columbia Falls before transferring to Canyon Elementary School in Hungry Horse. She retired in 1998. An outdoor enthusiast, she and her husband Steve now own and operate Canyon RV in Coram.

Brown has served as president of the Columbia Falls Area Chamber of Commerce and the Montana Tourism Coalition. She was last year’s Columbia Falls Lion’s Club Citizen of the Year and has been a member of the Whitefish Chamber of Commerce, North Valley Hospital Foundation Board, Travel Industry Association of Montana, Glacier Country, the Gateway2Glacier business group, National Federation of Independent Businesses and the Flathead Snowmobile Association.

After serving four terms in the Montana House of Representatives, Brown was term-limited out in 2010. Turning to the Senate, she defeated Bill Beck, the House District 6 representative, in this spring’s Republican primary.

Brown has been lobbying for a Montana trade center in Calgary for almost a year now. She says momentum is building in a nonpartisan fashion for the center, which would promote tourism, business, agriculture and mining.

“We need one cohesive voice north of the border,” she said. “Right now, we have Kalispell dollars versus Whitefish dollars versus Great Falls dollars — why not put them all together to benefit all Montana?”

She cites expansion plans at Sportsman & Ski Haus in Kalispell and plans for a new Cabela’s in Kalispell as examples of Canadian money supporting the local economy.

“The friendlier we are to them, the healthier our local business community will be,” she said. “And that means more tax revenue for the public sector.”

Brown said she was glad to see Gov. Brian Schweitzer pull back some of the half million dollars in Montana bed tax revenue that goes to promoting relations with Pacific Rim countries for use instead for a tourism call center.

Brown says she typically doesn’t carry bills to the legislature. With each bill costing $2,000 to draft and with some 2,000 bills making their way to Helena, that can add up to $4 million in legislative services, she notes.

“The grunt work is done in committees,” she said. “If I can amend a bill to make it better for Montana taxpayers, that’s my forte.”

Brown expressed disappointment in State Land Board votes by State School Superintendent Denise Juneau and Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock against developing the state’s Otter Creek coal tracts. She said she wants to see more natural resource development in Montana.

“We need to promote jobs so our kids can stay here where they grew up,” she said. “We need a bipartisan effort. We should no longer be jealous of North Dakota and Wyoming.”