Informed voters out numbered the straight ticket punchers. Meanwhile back in D.C., the Democrats have a laser focus on the Washington Redskins football team as offensive and racist.
Via Billings Gazette
G. Bruce Meyers says growing up on Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation in north-central Montana, he was taught not to trust anything “white, rich or Republican,” and never questioned it.
Yet three weeks ago, Meyers won an upset victory as state representative for the House district including the reservation — running as a Republican.
“Nobody thought that I had a chance of winning; I myself didn’t even think I had a chance,” he says. “It was a shock.”
Meyers, who lives on the reservation east of Box Elder and is a member of the Chippewa-Cree Tribe, defeated Democratic state Rep. Clarena Brockie of Harlem by 172 votes. He won 54 percent of the 2,254 votes cast in House District 32. When the 2015 Legislature convenes in January, he’ll be the only Native American legislator who also is a Republican.
Meyers says he used to be a Democrat, but that Native Americans “are more conservative than people realize,” and many things that Republicans represent — strong family values, respect for life, responsibly developing natural resources and the economy — are things most Indians value as well.[…]
“After talking with a number of tribal leaders and elders statewide, I asked them if they were better off with 40 years of Democratic rule and social-welfare policies, and they said, honestly, no.”
Meyers, 66, says his father owned the first gas station on the Rocky Boy’s Reservation and that he was the first member of his family to attend and graduate from college. He has a master’s degree in education administration from Montana State University, has taken graduate courses in public and health administration, and works now as a consultant. His current contract is to help the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services improve services at the tribal health clinic in Rocky Boy.
During his career, Meyer says he’s worked with members from as many as 150 tribal nations across the country and in Canada, on a variety of education and management issues. Also, in 2001 and 2002, he was Montana’s Indian affairs coordinator under then-Gov. Judy Martz.
As a Native American Republican, Meyers says he wants to start a discussion about how Indian reservations and people can become less reliant on government programs and start developing more local businesses.
“Some reservations, they don’t even have a barber shop, or basic services,” he says. “I’m not saying get rid of (these programs) overnight. I’m saying we need to wean ourselves off them, and use those programs to help us move toward self-sufficiency.”
This fall, Meyers noticed that philanthropist Greg Gianforte, a co-founder of the wildly successful software firm RightNow Technologies in Bozeman, had spoken to Carroll College students in Helena about how to start a business.
Meyers called up Gianforte and invited him to Rocky Boy, telling him that speaking at Carroll was “like preaching to the choir.”
“Those kids pay $30,000 a year to go to college,” he said. “I told him those kids already have had all the advantages.”
Gianforte, a frequent supporter of Republican candidates and causes, accepted the invitation and on Nov. 5 met with two dozen people at Stone Child College in Rocky Boy.
Gianforte says he spoke about how a community with local businesses recirculates local money within that community to help everyone. He also gave attendees a copy of his book about financing a startup business and told them starting a business wasn’t complicated, but required plenty of persistent, hard work.