O'Neil hopes to retake seat he once held for House District 3

A familiar face in Republican party politics will once again seek the House District 3 seat this November. Jerry O’Neil served eight years in the Senate and four years in House District 3 before losing to Democrat Zac Perry in 2014.

O’Neil didn’t run in 2016.

This time around, O’Neil said he’s running for a simple reason.

“I believe in the Republican platform of limited government and of freedom,” he said.

O’Neil, 75, is an independent paralegal and an advocate counsel on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. He grew up in the valley and is a graduate of what was then Flathead County High School. He’s had an interesting political life over the years, including running for clerk of the Supreme Court in 1996 as a Libertarian. In 2012, when he was a state representative, he asked to be paid in gold and silver coins because he was worried about the U.S. debt at the time and the value of the U.S. dollar.

He’s also an avid skier. About 20 years ago he was the president of the DREAM adaptive ski program, which helps developmentally disabled youth and adults learn to ski.

He considers himself pro life and pro gun and he has an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association.

As for guns in schools, he said teachers should be allowed to carry a concealed weapon if it’s OK with the superintendent and school principal. But the public shouldn’t know who is armed, he said. That way, an potential assailant wouldn’t know who and who isn’t armed, either.

On mining, he suggested more could be done by the state legislature to make them more environmentally friendly, perhaps a requirement that the tailings be put back in the mine. On Medicaid expansion, he said one way to bring down medical costs is to create more competition in the healthcare field. One way to do that is through practical experience, rather than years of college.

For example, a person who is a caregiver could, after a certain amount of time with practical experience as a sort of apprentice could take a test and become a certified nursing assistant and slowly work up through the ranks of the medical profession.

He also said that some alternative healthcare providers, such as naturopaths, should be eligible for Medicaid and Medicare payments.

He’d also like to see a provision in state law that requires a certificate of need to build healthcare facility abolished.

That would allow for more competition among hospitals, he claimed.

He said he opposed a statewide sales tax, noting that a lot of Canadians shop in Kalispell to avoid taxes in their province.

“We should be known as a place that’s friendly to tourists,” he said.

He also said if he’s elected he wants to carry a resolution that would ask Congress to repeal the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force Act. The Act, in part, allowed the president “to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.”

O’Neil claimed the act is unconstitutional.

He said he believes a marriage is defined “throughout history and by present Montana statute as ... a union between one man and one woman.”

O’Neil has been a long-time member of Montanans for Multiple Use. He is married. O’Neil and his wife Jeanne have five children and 14 grandchildren.