Challenger wants less ideology

Martin City Democrat Zac Perry is hoping the third time’s a charm in his run for House District 3.

When he first challenged Republican Jerry O’Neil in 2010, Perry lost by 439 votes. O’Neil’s margin of victory fell to 337 votes in 2012, a presidential election year in which the number of House District 3 voters increased by 36 percent.

“I’m getting closer,” he said.

Perry, who graduated at the top of his class from Columbia Falls High School in 1999 and got his bachelor’s in political science from the University of Notre Dame in 2001, faces O’Neil and Libertarian candidate Chris Colvin on Nov. 4.

A substitute teacher at Columbia Falls High School, Perry helps manage his family’s vacation rental business and clerks at O’Brien’s Liquor and Wine. He also volunteers with Habitat For Humanity, the Gateway to Glacier bike path group and the Hockaday Museum of Art.

A member of the North Valley Sportsmen Club and an avid fisherman, hunter and target shooter, Perry supports gun ownership rights.

“Our constitutional right to bear arms will not be undermined as long as I’m in the Montana Legislature,” he said.

Perry draws sharp contrasts between himself and his Republican opponent. He says O’Neil wasted time on arcane bills such as demanding his legislative pay be in gold and substituting caning for jail or prison in criminal cases.

“He has never passed any legislation while in the House,” Perry said. “He’s working for his own personal agenda.”

Based on what he’s been hearing during his door-to-door campaigning, Perry said some of the state’s estimated $400 million surplus should go back to the taxpayers. He also wants the legislature to reverse last year’s vote and expand Medicaid coverage under Obamacare.

“We lost out on getting federal money purely for ideological reasons,” he said. “Medicaid is especially important here in the Flathead, where the suicide rate is twice the national rate and we need more mental health care.”

Perry says the legislature should approve a water compact with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in 2015. The legislature turned down two bills last year that would have ratified the historic water compact.

“The last thing we need is an unnecessary and drawn out court battle that would negatively impact our state economy and destabilize our current water rights as Montanans,” he said. “We need to focus on negotiation rather than litigation.”

Perry believes Montana has a good education system, and he doesn’t want to see it undermined by charter schools or providing public money to private schools. The state’s formula for funding public schools, however, needs to be simplified and made more fair. He also thinks more oil and gas tax revenue needs to come to Western Montana.

“The Eastern schools need to be reminded of when the timber industry was strong in Western Montana and money went their direction,” he said.

The idea of Western states taking over federal lands might sound good on the surface, he said, but there could be costs to state taxpayers.

“A big fire season like we had in 2003 could bankrupt us,” he said. “I’d hate to see these lands sold off piecemeal to pay for management. Federal lands belong to all of us, all U.S. citizens, and we all have the right to access those lands for hunting, fishing and recreation.”

Perry said he’d like to see the Environmental Protection Agency take the lead in the cleanup of the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. plant.

“We need to take advantage of the federal hammer to come down on Glencore to get it cleaned up,” he said. “It’s a viable property for another industry to set up shop, which could provide more living-wage jobs.”

Perry is dismayed by how much political ideology exists in government today.

“We need to get away from it, from the divisiveness, particularly in House District 3,” he said. “And it’s not just party politics. We need to focus on the needs of our community instead of personal agendas.”

Perry will hold a meet and greet event with barbecue and music at U.S. 2 and First Avenue West on Saturday, Oct. 18, at 5 p.m.