Keenan runs for lieutenant governor

Ducks in the oven, the fire place blazing, and the tables are set at the Bigfork Inn. Owner Bob Keenan has a lot of plates spinning at once, and on Feb. 8 he added one more when he announced his candidacy as lieutenant governor with Republican gubernatorial candidate Corey Stapleton.

Keenan's last political endeavor occurred in 2006 when he lost the primary to Republican Sen. Conrad Burns, who was later defeated by Democrat Jon Tester.

Stapleton originally asked Keenan to be his running mate nearly a year ago, but Keenan was initially hesitant to accept. Keenan sited one of his reasons for agreeing to Stapleton's yearlong request to be his running mate was due to concerns about the electability of the other Republican candidates.

Keenan and Stapleton worked closely together in the Legislature.

“Upon meeting Stapleton, I knew he was 24 karat gold, he has no skeletons in his background,” Keenan said. “It's going to be a difficult race for Republicans to win if anyone but Stapleton wins the primary.”

Keenan also stated that Stapleton hopes to see him run for senate again.

“We got a lot of pages on the calendar to turn and I don't know if that fits my personal life,” Keenan said as he added another log to the fire.

The Decision

Though Keenan was “honored” by Stapleton's request, his biggest concern is time limitations.  Keenan is currently limited in his availability due to responsibilities with the storm water committee, running the Bigfork Inn and raising his children.

“He (Stapleton) would like me to be the budget director, that's a big job with long hours and a tremendous salary,” Keenan said. “I don't know that I can do that, so I said I would do the lieutenant governor job for free, it's about problems and solutions and I will be right there working with the budget director.”

Stapleton is understanding of Keenan's limited availability. Keenan says he plans on helping as much as possible when he can.

The Plan

Despite his busy schedule, Keenan plans on supporting Stapleton's initiatives with restructuring schools and reducing property taxes 20 percent with the elimination of the 95 mill tax levy and supplanting it with oil, natural gas and coal in eastern Montana.

“I truly believe the government has a role in caring for people who can't care for themselves,” Keenan said. “But, I want there to be accountability, not just writing blank checks.”

Should Stapleton and Keenan win the primary and general elections, their first task will be the legislative session. Keenan hopes to get through the budget with common ground with the legislators.

Keenan also stated that Stapleton is “very interested” in encouraging cooperation between the private sector and government for job creation.

One of their plans is to freeze or lower the number of Montana state employees, which grew by 1,000 in the last eight years. It's their intention to re-train government employees to be more flexible in the services they provide to help facilitate private enterprise.

Industry and Environment

Keenan believes the biggest issues at hand for Montana are unemployment and balancing environmental protection concerns while utilizing natural resources.

“People comfortable in their position and income want it to be a national park…everybody's always predicting Montana will be ruined, but it's still pristine,” Keenan said. “Tourism is a big and good industry, but we're impacted by the price of fuel.”

Keenan stated that enabling small business and fostering manufacturing plays together through education by helping vocational schools train engineers. By backing vocational schools, Keenan hopes to supply Montana with locally trained workers who have the skills needed to make Montana prosperous without sacrificing its natural resources.

“Montana is a great place to live, we need to make sure it's a great place to do business too,” Keenan said.

Keenan expects the debate between maintaining Montana's environment and fostering industrial growth will be “at the forefront all the time with fear mongering on both sides.”

“Like everyone else, I think it (the Keystone Pipeline) needs to be a go,” Keenan said. “We have enough environmental safeguards, people stopping it don't have a handle on it.”

Keenan also stated that wind energy has been a positive process for Montana's work with alternative energy.

Regarding Governor Schweitzer

“Governor Schweitzer has benefited from budget changes we did in 2002 and 2003, he didn't have the challenges others had,” Keenan said.

Keenan's concern with Schweitzer's performance as governor since 2005 is that he appoints people with views in opposition to his stated intentions.

“He appoints environmentalists that block the claims he supports,” Keenan said. “It's disingenuous.”