The Bigfork Area Democrats hosted a meet and greet session with House District 9 candidate Rodrik Brosten and Flathead County commissioner candidate Gil Jordan at the Swan River Community Center on Sept 6.

When Brosten took to the podium, he discussed his background and the platform of his campaign. He was born and raised in the valley, graduated from Montana State University with a mechanical engineering degree and worked as a carpenter, machinist and engineer. He is currently a member of the Bigfork Area Democrats.

“In my wildest dreams I never expected to run for political office,” Brosten said. “But in 2011 the republican legislature presented a blueprint for Montana to secede from the United States and now they want charter schools which will make education cost more and they want right to work laws, so working people will make less.”

He went on to say he wants to see more products made in Montana, more women in politics, increased emphasis on education, and that he supports creating a state-run bank similar to North Dakota’s.

“We need a society of fairness and compassion, where government is made of ordinary citizens and not the one percent,” Brosten said. “Corporations are not people.”

Among the crowd of about 30-40 Bigfork area residents were Cindy and Bart Lander. This was their first time attending a meet and greet. They said they were there to meet fellow Democrats and to bring their concerns to the attention of the candidates.

One of those concerns was regarding the price of natural gas prices, which they would like to see controlled by the state and kept at a lower price.

“We’ve only been residents of the state for a couple of years, but haven’t seen the state legislature do anything,” Bart said. “They’re more concerned with the cowboy code and imposing the gold standard and Arizona laws for immigrants when there are only a dozen.”

JoLynn Yenne kicked off the meet and greet by asking for a show of hands from the attendees that showed just a few were born and raised in the area without leaving, nearly half were new and permanent residents, and the majority of the attendees were born in the area and then returned.

Following Yenne’s introduction was Dick Siderius, the son of former state senator George Siderius. Siderius spoke about his involvement with local nonprofits such as the Rails to Trails program and how the political landscape in the valley has changed since his youth in the 1950s.

“You know what one of the biggest issues were then? Territory. You heard nothing about gay marriage, abortion, or this or that,” Siderius said. “It is so much different now, Flathead County was probably fifty-fifty, they weren’t flaming liberals, they knew about jobs and expected state workers to earn their pay. They did an honest job.”

“It’s a difficult and hard choice to step forward and put yourself out there as a candidate, especially in the Flathead as a democrat,” Bigfork Area Democrats volunteer, Edd Blackler, said. “You saw last time in the session, you saw people sent there to make more jobs and you know what happened. Where are the jobs?”

See related article for details about Jordan’s portion of the meet and greet. For more information about the Bigfork Area Democrats or to subscribe to their email list, contact Edd Blackler at black [email protected].