5 December 2017 — 1616 mdt

Fuller seeks GOP nomination for House District 8

John C. Fuller, a former teacher at Flathead High School who lives near Whitefish, is seeking the Republican nomination for HD-8 (map), an open seat due to its current representative, Steve Lavin (R-Kalispell), being termed out. At the beginning of December, Fuller filed a C-1 form, which allows him to begin raising money, with the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices.

Fuller, a deeply conservative man of Medicare age, worked for U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, and ran unsuccessful campaigns for FVCC trustee, for state representative in Whitefish, and (if memory serves me correctly) for Montana’s superintendent of schools. In recent years he’s accompanied Ryan Zinke’s contingent in local parades, sometimes traveling by horseback (he’s an expert rider; his email handle is apacherider), other times by shanks mare.

Fuller is the first candidate to emerge in HD-8, but he may not be the last. The district is solidly Republican, and thus an attractive district for Republicans with political ambitions.

Fuller, at left, marches with Rep. Ryan Zinke’s dog walkers in the 2016 Independence Day parade in Kalispell.