Gianforte Running for Governor, Wants to ‘Roundup Excessive Regulations’

Greg Gianforte officially announced his run to be the next Governor of Montana this morning, January 20, and says the top issue he plans on taking on this election cycle is a lack of high-wage jobs in Montana.

"The thing I've heard over and over again, is that we just don't have enough high wage jobs," said Gianforte. "That is my background, people that know me know that I started a small business at our home, created 1,100 jobs in the Bozeman area, with the average wage almost $90,000 a year. Unfortunately, today, we are 49th in the country in wages... that is the primary issue."

When asked how he would manage things differently than Government Steve Bullock, Gianforte said his belief in small business and the private sector would set him apart. Gianforte recommended appointing someone to the Department of Labor that "had actually employed someone." The current Department of Labor Commissioner Pam Bucy, has a background in law and politics.
"We are going to start a regulation roundup," said Gianforte, describing what he calls his first initiative. "We are going to visit with small business owners all over the state, find out what regulations are getting in the way of them thriving. then we will sort through them, figure out which ones are excessive. We'll round them up, and send the excessive ones out to pasture."

Even before his official announcement, Bullock's fundraising team sent out a letter on behalf of Team Bullock and the very first sentence described Gianforte as a "New Jersey multimillionaire." When asked to respond to the charge, Gianforte brushed it off.

"A lot of this stuff is so shrill... Montanans are smarter than that. I first came to Montana 40 years ago, we've been climbing in the back country, my wife and I raised our four kids in Bozeman, we started a business in our home, it's the same home we still live in... I think Montanan's are smarter than that."

Gianforte began his announcement tour in Billings and will travel through Missoula on Thursday for an event at Advanced Technology Group, 216 W. Main Street Ste. 110 at 2:30 p.m.