We will be catching up with all of the legislative candidates in the coming weeks, but following the flurry of filings in the closing hours leading up to the March 15 deadline I wanted to highlight a few local races.
• In House District 3, there are six candidates from four different parties running for the open seat in Columbia Falls. Jerry O’Neil, Harm Toren and Sandy Welch are running as Republicans. Shawn Bailey is running as a Constitutional Party candidate. Shawn Guymon is running as an Independent. And Zac Perry is running as a Democrat.
• Unbeknownst to me, incumbent Democratic Rep. Mike Jopek withdrew from the race for House District 4 in Whitefish. Democrats Will Hammerquist and Trevor Caudill will challenge each other in the primary and face the winner of the Republican primary among Damon Pace, Derek Skees and Bill Geisse.
• Former Kalispell Fire Chief Randy Brodehl will face Steven Thompson, the grandson of Semitool founder Ray Thompson, in the Republican primary for House District 7 in Kalispell. The winner will face Democrat Karen Reeves.
• And in House District 8 in Kalispell, a seat vacated by Democrat Cheryl Steenson, there are five candidates, including Bill Jones who previously held Bigfork’s H.D. 9 seat as a Republican but is now running as an Independent. He will face the winner of the Republican primary between Carl Glimm and Steve Lavin. Bryan Schutt and Dane Clark are running as Democrats.
This should be an interesting election season. For a complete list of all the legislative candidates, visit the secretary of state’s Web site.
UPDATE: This post has been changed to fix inaccuracies and include updates from the secretary of state’s office.