The Missoulian - "Lovaas sets sights on Baucus' Senate seat"

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The Missoulian - "Lovaas sets sights on Baucus' Senate seat"

Missoula accountant and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Patty Lovaas believes she has an ace in the hole that could defeat Democrat Max Baucus this fall: She can hold her own against Baucus in the Democratic areas of western Montana.

"If Max Baucus and his political machine are to be defeated, I believe the election will be decided in the liberal strongholds," she says. "But it will not be easy. It will take some help. It will take a herd of elephants."
Lovaas, 56, is one of five Republicans in the June 3 primary election vying for the nomination to challenge the veteran Baucus, who's running for a sixth consecutive term.

The other Republican hopefuls are Kirk Bushman, an industrial facilities designer from Billings; attorney Bob Kelleher of Butte; state Rep. Michael Lange of Billings; and trucker-rancher Anton Pearson of St. Regis.

While Lovaas has never run for office before in Montana, she says her contacts in the western Montana business community give her a chance to win the primary and lead a charge of Republican "elephants" this fall in the quest to unseat Baucus.

She says she can appeal not only to Republicans but also to middle-of-the-road voters fed up with what she calls "public policy being dictated by the highest bidder."

"Max Baucus is an absolute example of that," she says. "We need new people in Congress."

Lovaas owns Lovaas and Associates, an accounting firm whose clients are primarily small businesses.

Her campaign pitch often focuses on these small businesses, saying the federal tax code puts them at a disadvantage - and that if the U.S. economy is to flourish, small business can help lead the way.

Lovaas says she'd like to give small businesses a tax credit for their first half-dozen employees, freeing up money that could raise salaries or be invested in the business.

"The payroll taxes absolutely kill these businesses," she says. "If you give them a tax credit absolutely it would stimulate the economy and create more revenue."

Her belief in the resiliency and importance of small business is rooted in her personal political philosophy, which she describes as "less government control, and power to the people."

"Government does not have the answer; the people have the answers," she says. "If you give them the freedom to display their talents and not be taxed to death, I think you'll see a much happier society and more productive society."

Lovaas, whose father was in the Navy, grew up around the country and graduated from high school in Onamia, Minn., a small town 100 miles north of Minneapolis. In 1981, when her husband Orville's labor union in Minneapolis went on strike, they decided to move to Missoula.

"We picked it out on a map," she recalls, although they had visited Montana before on vacations.

Lovaas worked for a big accounting firm while she got an accounting degree from the University of Montana, and she and her husband bought the Elkhorn Hot Springs Resort north of Dillon 12 years ago.

She's had her own accounting firm since 1985 and has been involved locally as a Little League coach, housing board member and vo-tech teacher, among other things.

Lovaas also helped organize the Beaverhead County Public Lands Management Trust in 2006, a nonprofit group that logs diseased or dying trees, sells them and donates its leftover funds to charity.

"I drive through the Bitterroot every week, and it just shames me to see all the dead trees (from fires and disease)," she says. "I thought, how can we do something to help, and generate revenue rather than letting it all die?"

Lovaas says she decided to get into the U.S. Senate race because she's distressed about how the country is sinking into debt, and thought the other Republicans weren't strong candidates.

Lovaas has been attending Republican Party dinners across the state when she can, but has raised only about $1,000 in campaign funds and doesn't plan to buy any advertising. She's done some direct mail to her client list and others in western Montana.

She says she's counting on primary voters to be "educated voters" who have followed the campaigns via the Internet and other sources and hopes they'll recognize that she's the best candidate to challenge Baucus this fall.

"I feel that the primary is composed of pretty educated voters who absolutely take the time and everything to look at all of the candidates," she says. "I think they are going to look at all the candidates and pick the best-qualified one."

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