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| February 9, 2005 10:00 PM

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New governor armed with fresh ideas

Posted: Thursday, Feb 03, 2005 - 11:27:16 am PST

By PAUL PETERS

Whitefish Pilot

Whitefish area insider undaunted as a Helena outsider

The front door to the governor's mansion was open Friday, Jan. 14, and when the door bell rang, Brian Schweitzer himself answered.

He wore jeans and cowboy boots. The only other person at the mansion was the cook. There were no aides, no secretary and no security.

The house itself seemed bare, and the few decorations appeared to come with the house.

Schweitzer had described his first two weeks in office as "busy," and the emptiness of the house reflected it. The only thing that clearly belonged to Schweitzer was his hunting rifle, which leaned against the wall, two feet from his bed.

"That's all the security I need," Schweitzer said, pointing to the rifle.

Schweitzer is the first Montana governor to have never served as an elected official before taking office. And after assuming his first elected position, he is trying to remain the Whitefish businessman he was just a few weeks ago.

This includes running his own errands. As people see him around town, Schweitzer noted that they always ask, "What are you doing in the grocery store?"

"Buying groceries," he answers.

You might say that buying his own groceries is part of his open-door policy for his new office, and to let Montana know that "the governor is available to all the people of Montana, from the biggest and most to the last and least."

As part of this philosophy, he has started www.ideas.gov, a Web site where citizens can submit their ideas for how Montana could be better governed. It is an idea that the Bush administration used in the days following Sept. 11.

That fresh perspective helped win the election, but it makes him a bit of an outsider in Helena. And that outsider persona made its way into his state of the state address two days before. He eschewed the TelePrompTer used by past governors and delivered his speech with out any backup notes, saving the government $3,500.

Schweitzer said he delivered his 40-minute speech "From the heart."

"When you speak from the heart," he said, "you don't have to worry. I'm know what I'm for and against."

Schweitzer clarified some of the ideas he presented in his address.

One of the focuses of it was energy. At the mansion, he wasn't shy about saying how far he wants to go with the development of energy resources in Montana.

"Montana could be the center of energy development for the country," Schweitzer explained.

He hopes that the winds blowing across the Montana plains will carry him part of the way there. His vision is that wind energy will eventually account for 10 percent of the energy in the state.

Schweitzer said that while campaigning he kept a map of Montana in his car, overlaid with Montana's high-power transmission lines, and areas that receive wind levels needed for power production.

"We've got all the pieces," Schweitzer said.

Ethanol production is another energy source Schweitzer said he is interested in tapping.

"All the other states in this region are doing it," he said. "This could create sustainable jobs in rural areas."

Schweitzer said that during his speech, he noticed that the Republican leadership sat with their arms crossed, looking skeptical of his ideas, while the rank and file Democrats "were leaning forward in their seats, nodding their heads in affirmation."

"While their party leadership is clipping newspaper articles, their legislators are doing their work," Schweitzer said.

He asserted that he is undaunted by Sen. Bob Keenan (R-Bigfork), the senate minority leader who has created a scrapbook of Schweitzer's promises in an effort to hold him to his word.

According to Schweitzer, he only made one promise during his campaign.

"I promised the people of Scoby I'd come to their parade on June 22," he said. During a campaign stop in Scoby last summer, Schweitzer entered a raffle for an antique tractor. To his surprise, he won. Later he was asked if he would ride the tractor through town during this summer's Pioneer Days parade, which led him to make his first and only campaign promise.

Despite Schweitzer's lack of political experience, he said that the transition from Whitefish rancher and businessman to governor has not been that difficult, in part, because he had worked hard studying the transition with his staff while campaigning.

"We hit the ground with more organization than most other governors," he said. "That's my management style. You've got to have a plan."

As Schweitzer points out, while political outsiders may be new to Montana, it follows a trend in the country.

Arnold Schwartzenegger, Ronald Reagan, Mitt Romney and George Bush all became governors of their states without having held prior political office.

"This model's been set of people coming from business to government with new, fresh ideas," Schweitzer said.

Ideas, he said, are what the Schweitzer administration is all about.

"That's the stuff that affects lives."

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The Whitefish Pilot

P.O. Box 488 / Whitefish, MT 59937 / (406) 862-3505