The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

Dana Darlington, a neighbor of mine, sent a press release saying he is running for House District 26. "It consists of all of Chouteau County and about a third, maybe a little more of Cascade County. It's a whole new district." I'm interested in why he decided to run for office. I asked him who was going to be doing his calving for him. Dana said, "My lovely bride!" The event started all this-"for the past 25 years, ever since President Clinton signed the National Monument that moved right through the middle of our river property. I have been pretty involved. I've been on several different boards from the Soil Conservation, Missouri River Council, BLM RAC, and the last one I just got off of the Montana Stockman Board. I guess this is the next step. It's not something I really planned on. I got asked about a year ago in April if I would be interested in representing this new house district for Chouteau County and Cascade County, and I thought about it for a little bit and with the shape that the country is in, the turmoil on the news that we read about every day and listen to, I thought, you know, I still got a little fight left in me. I'll give this a whirl and see where I end up."

How are you coming in with funds to run a campaign? "I guess, fortunately, I've got friends and family. Right now, we're just getting started into this thing." If someone wants to donate money, mail it to him at 16493 Judith Landing.

It is a primary race. So this will be decided by June 4." He has an incumbent out of Great Falls, Russ Miner. "It's unfortunate that we ended up in the same district. But that's just the way with the redistricting; that's how things fell into line."

"My biggest priority has always been representing agriculture and small businesses in rural communities. You know, keeping our main streets open, and that, in turn, keeps our schools going. And you know, without agriculture in these rural communities, there's no money to support the businesses in town, and pretty quickly, we're driving. Instead of driving 20 miles for groceries, we're driving 50 to 100. So that's my basic thing. I want to keep doing what I've been doing. I've done a good job over the last 25 years of telling rural, telling the world, or telling people who don't understand rural Montana, just telling them our story. I'm fourth generation, Colter's home; he is the fifth generation, and the sixth generation is starting to arrive."

Dana continued, "It's just important for me to see my grandkids graduate from high school. I want to see them grow up here. And if they want to take over the family farm or ranch, I want to make sure they can do that and still get groceries in Big Sandy 25 years from now. I want to keep telling our story out there because many people out there have a lot of crazy ideas. They're anti-farming, and they're anti-energy, and they're an anti-community. They want to have this as their own personal vacation spot, and they don't want to see people here. I want to remind them that we're here. We've been here for over 100 years. And we'd like to stay here, and we're going to put up a fight."

"I will have to campaign and get down into the Great Falls, where people don't know me. A few things are planned. We haven't gotten anything cemented in concrete yet about dates and stuff, but unfortunately, it's got to happen soon before we start calving."