Two Montana Candidates Already Running for State Auditor

The 2016 elections may feel like they are a long way away, but some Montana candidates have already filed paperwork to begin raising funds for their campaigns.

In early April, Republican Champ Edmunds and Democrat Jesse Laslovich both declared that they were running to be Montana’s next State Auditor. Laslovich currently works as deputy state auditor and will be highlighting that fact as evidence of his preparation for the job. Laslovich says he believes the rate review process for health insurance will be a major campaign theme.

"I think a struggle with the administration, if I'm elected, will be that rate review process, and trying to get control of the skyrocketing health insurance premiums that people are experiencing across the state," Laslovich said. "From my perspective, the major driver of health insurance premiums is the rising cost of healthcare."

Edmunds will be running on his background in finance and his past service in both the Navy and the Montana Legislature. Edmunds says he will add a conservative voice to the state land board.

"What a lot of people don't realize or understand is that the State Auditor is a land board seat," Edmunds said. "There are only five of those seats in the state and they meet monthly and they make decisions on what's going to happen to our state lands and how we're going to utilize our state lands and the resources that are in those state lands for the good of the state. Right now, only one of those five is a conservative, the rest are liberal democrats, so it would be nice to have more conservatives on that very important land board."

Neither Laslovich or Edmunds raised any criticism of current state auditor Democrat Monica Lindeen who will be termed out in 2016 after serving two terms.