Bushman enters U.S. Senate race

By JODI HAUSEN Chronicle Staff Writer

A Billings engineer stopped in Bozeman on Wednesday as he made the rounds of Montana cities to announce his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Democrat Max Baucus.

Republican Kirk Bushman addressed a group of about 35 people in the lobby of the Holiday Inn, at Baxter Lane and North Seventh. Many were members of the Gallatin County Republican Women who had gathered there for a meeting.

Bushman told the group he is the eighth of 12 children whose father died when Bushman was 16, leaving his mother to raise her brood solo.

“She started working at a department store and with the assistance from Social Security, she was able to make ends meet,” Bushman said. “At the age of 74, my mother still works at that same department store and is still paying into the entitlement programs. There is no way I would take the benefits away from my mother or other seniors like her.”

Holding small American flags and red, white and blue pompoms, the crowd cheered on cue as Bushman outlined the remainder of his platform.

“Who here would like illegal immigration stopped?” he asked, to which the crowd responded with applause, cheering, flag waving and pompom shaking.

He attributed Congress' low approval rating to the electorate's lack of trust in the governing body's ability to secure the nation's borders.

Though he believes the military needs to be properly funded, he called into question the accounting practices of the Department of Defense.

Bushman also wants to balance the budget.

The national debt is over $9 trillion with the nation's fiscal exposure at over $50 trillion, he said, citing statistics from the Government Accountability Office. Due to poor spending practices, many potentially federally funded Montana projects will have to compete with Social Security and Medicare.

“Deficit spending needs to be stopped,” he said. “This is absolutely necessary in order to begin addressing the challenges we face with the entitlement programs.”

A Montana State University graduate, Bushman is a mechanical engineer who has managed projects in several countries as a field engineer. He believes his international experience will serve him well having worked with people of diverse financial and cultural backgrounds.

Eric Ohs, son of the late former Lt. Gov. Karl Ohs, introduced Bushman to the crowd.

“(Lt. Gov. Ohs) wanted to support Kirk so I'm more than willing to do it,” he said of his father after the announcement.

In his introduction, Ohs said Bushman was “willing to stick his neck out” when “the Senate has made it clear that they're going to stick their heads in the mud.”

“Karl was one of the first people I spoke with regarding a run for the U.S. Senate,” Bushman said during his address. “The first question he asked me was ‘Do you have the fire in the belly?'”

“My concerns regarding issues such as illegal immigration, budget deficits, national security and a growing national debt have left me no longer willing to leave the future to career politicians more worried about re-election than the future of this country. As for the fire in the belly, I have it,” he said.

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