A self-employed mason and ironworker with a love for philosophy and the great outdoors is challenging the establishment as the Libertarian candidate for House District 3.

“As a Libertarian, you’re free to think how you want,” Chris Colvin said, conceding that he doesn’t come across as a typical Libertarian. “While Republicans and Democrats fight over guns, abortion and religion, the Libertarians focus on the real issue — money. If you want to know what’s going on, follow the money.”

Colvin graduated from Haverford College with a bachelor’s in philosophy and religion in 1970. He moved to Columbia Falls in 1976 and worked for a short time at the Anaconda Aluminum Co. smelter rebuilding pots before starting his own masonry business. He owned a granite countertop business in the former movie theater in Martin City for several years.

“Forty years self-employed, never rich,” he said. “I know what it’s like to be poor, injured, sick near death with no insurance. I cut firewood, eat wild, fight winter. I know the life and understand the needs of House District 3.”

Colvin ran for the legislature as a Democrat in 1976 while living in Boulder. Growing up in New York state, his parents were “Roosevelt Democrats” — his father a psychologist, his mother a history teacher. But he’s a Libertarian now.

“I believe today the same ‘big money’ interests own and corrupt both the Democratic and Republican parties,” Colvin said. “In my view, it’s impossible to be free if you suffer from poverty, ignorance and disease, so the Libertarian goal should be to promote economic justice — jobs, public education and public health.”

Colvin supports gun ownership rights.

“I own more than 60 guns, belong to three gun clubs, have been shooting Winter League for 15 years, was top gun on the AA winning team twice, reload six shotgun gauges and more than 15 metallic calibers, have more than 25 books in my gun library, took the ‘carry’ course, won a rendezvous shoot and several sporting clays shoots, have more than 30 sets of deer and elk antlers, a bear rug, a goat mount and an antelope mount, and raise and hunt bird dogs,” he said.

Colvin believes education should be the No. 1 priority for the legislature — “more important than fish and game.”

“Government should stay in the education business,” he said. “If locals completely controlled the schools, we wouldn’t learn the things we need to know. Locals have knee-jerk responses to change.”

While some content in the new Common Core public schools curriculum might be questionable and need investigating, such as preaching of “communistic propaganda,” the basic concept of standards is good, he said. He’s a big supporter of Flathead Valley Community College.

“I’m glad to see FVCC is expanding,” he said. “That’s where the rubber meets the road.”

Colvin also supports expanding Medicaid to cover those who fall into an uninsured “doughnut” under Obamacare. The Montana Legislature last year did not pass two bills that would have expanded Medicaid to cover this gap.

“These are the people who get charged the most by providers,” he said, because they don’t have the benefits of belonging to a pool, like insured government workers. “I’d like to see everyone pay the exact same price for healthcare, and I want to see the prices made public. We need more transparency and more fairness.”

Colvin said any state budget surplus money should be reinvested in Montana as loans for local infrastructure projects, not given to taxpayers who’ll “just blow it.” He also opposes handing over federal lands to the states because “state government is more corruptible than federal government.”

His biggest interest is cleaning up the aluminum smelter outside Columbia Falls. He thinks steps could be taken to expedite the process and that the smelter’s owner, Glencore, is “putting off the battle as long as possible.”

“I want the Montana political system to get more radical and corner them and force a cleanup,” he said, noting that things will just cost more as time goes by.