Saco's Stahl announces run for MT Senate

Wayne Stahl, a resident of Saco, has a long career in public office, and if the votes go his way at the Republican Primary the first week of June, he said he hopes to use that experience for the betterment of Montana as a whole.

“I always intended to run,” said Stahl. “My terms didn’t work out and I termed out in the (Montana House of Representatives) and it was four years until I could run for the house…I always had the intent to do it though.”

Stahl’s history of politics, finished when he termed out of the House of Representatives and had to wait until now to re-run for office.

Stahl has served on the Saco Town Council as both an alderman and the town’s mayor before being elected as a Phillips County Commissioner from 1990 to 1996. From 2005-2011 he was in the Montana House of Representatives and was an aide to the speaker of the House in 2013.

Stahl said he sees the Department of Revenue’s reappraisals of agriculture, based on Olympic Averages and these have hurt Ag commodity prices, needed work on local highways, coal and getting the cheapest form of energy as possible to Montanans are among some of the bigger issues facing the state of Montana. Stahl added that with the connections he has made with people over his years in office, it would help him in protecting the concerns of constituents he would represent.

“Mostly what you are going to do when you get to Helena is read every bill, understand what they say, which is not easy,” he said. “You read every bill and try to find things that are going to hurt your communities …that is usually the most you can do. As a county commissioner, and even as a town councilor, I got to know a lot of legislators and learned how to change the language in bills so that it wasn’t killing our rural people.”

Senate District 17 spans the north central and eastern portions of Montana and includes constituents in Hill, Blaine, Phillips, Valley, Daniels, Roosevelt and Sheridan counties. In the June 7 Republican primary, Stahl will face Mike Lang of Malta. The two – along with Democrat Douglas Adolphson who is running unopposed – are vying for the Montana District 17 seat that will soon be left empty as long-time Senator John Brenden has termed out and unable to run for the position again.

Stahl said that if he doesn’t win the Republican Primary in June that Lang would also be a good choice for the SD 17 seat.

“Mike and I get along fairly well, though we disagree on some issues,” said Stahl. “If he is elected he will do a good job. I think my experience makes a big difference though. I don’t know if I would be any better at a being legislator than Mike would be, but I have a lot more contacts and people I know and that is how you protect the people of Northeast Montana.”