Meet HD6 candidate Dave Fischlowitz

Dave Fischlowitz is running to represent District 6 in Montana’s House of Representatives because he wants to get corporate influence out of politics.

“There is a corporate elite that has hijacked our democracy under the shield of the First Amendment,” he said. “It’s an abuse and there are enough other voices saying the same. Unlimited contributions by corporations to political campaigns is privatizing our democracy.”

The Democrat is a Whitefish resident and small business owner. He says there is a disconnect between the one-person one-vote philosophy.

“To me, this is the galvanizing issue of our time,” he said. “Ninety percent of people want corporate money out of politics and I want to be part of that movement.”

District 6 covers the northeastern section of Flathead County, up the U.S. 93 corridor north of Kalispell and south of Whitefish. It covers West Valley and as far north as Olney.

Fischlowitz, 46, operates two small businesses and graduated from Lewis and Clark College with a degree in English.

He was a substitute teacher for five years. He works with young athletes as a ski racing coach with the Flathead Valley Ski Education Foundation. He has a girlfriend, Krista Marshall, and three dogs.

Fischlowitz points to his campaign T-shirt as outlining what he feels is most important — public schools, public lands and corporate personhood.

Fischlowitz said he would support a revamp of how education is funded. He said more money isn’t needed, but how money is spent needs to change. He advocates for professional development for teachers and less time spent on testing students.

“We have an economy and a military that is absolutely dependent upon the human resources we create from our public schools,” he said. “If we gave teachers more time to teach and less time administering tests, we could end up with high school graduates who have understandings of fundamental knowledge and not just having gone through exercises of regurgitating information.”

On the transfer of federal lands to state management, Fischlowitz said those who want the transfer to happen are basing this on outdated speculation of the possible extraction of natural resources from those lands. He says he hasn’t seen any way financially the state can manage those lands.

“These are just surreptitious efforts to privatize lands to benefit rich people,” he said. “We’ve got to be able to work through our senatorial and congressional representation to more effectively manage Montana’s federal lands.”

On Medicaid expansion, Fischlowitz said he has spoken with the CEOs of North Valley Hospital and Kalispell Regional Medical Center to inform himself on the issue.

“I support access to health care,” he said. “I believe it’s going to save taxpayers money in the long run.”

On a statewide sales tax, Fischlowitz said he defers to the business owners who say that a 4 percent sales tax would be a good idea.

“That would put us on more equal footing on tax-base revenue,” he said. “And to capture our greatest resource in Montana — visitation.”

If the state has a budget surplus, Fischlowitz said he would like to see the money go to three areas.

“I would like to see that money first go to a rainy day fund, to infrastructure and to improve education,” he said. “I think our money can always be spent more wisely.”

His two businesses, Fishworks, sells natural wood finish oil and soapstone wood heaters, and Flathead Recon, which focuses on the reclamation of building materials.

Fischlowitz said he would like to see a timber industry task force talking about the issues related to the timber industry.

“I have a passion for wood — everything from trees and timber harvesting, to reclamation of wood resource through deconstruction,” he said. “This has moved me toward this political process. I’m looking at representatives and economic developers to step up their game and make Montana a real central force in advanced wood processing.”

Montana is a big fan of market-driven solutions, he said, and products need to be constructed with wood and then exported from the state.