14 October 2022 — 1835 mdt

Reliable John Repke is a far better choice for Montana’s Public Service Commission than Loose Cannon Annie Bukacek

Guest essay by Bob Brown

PSC District 5 encompasses Flathead, Lake, Lewis and Clark, and Teton Counties. Commissioners serve four-year terms. The PSC regulates investor owned utilities, such as Northwestern Energy.

Both candidates for the Public Service Commission are from the Flathead Valley and are probably better known there than in other parts of the PSC district.

The candidates, John Repke and Dr. Annie Bukacek, couldn’t be more opposite in qualifications or temperament.

Calm, competent John Repke has a deep business background. He has the financial management skills to readily analyze a utility rate request. He thoroughly understands the PSC’s purpose to keep utility services affordable, reliable and sustainable. Most importantly he has a clear concept of how to implement that responsibility. Repke has the skills and experience to do the job.

Bukacek has no background, experience or education to decide complex regulatory issues. She is best known for her strident anti-choice beliefs on abortion and her opposition to common sense measures to combat Covid.

As a member of the Flathead County Board of Health, she wasn’t simply outspoken, she was down right disruptive in asserting her nonnegotiable demands on the board until her abrupt departure only two years into her term.

Incredibly, Bukacek has made it clear that if she is elected, she will continue her medical practice as owner of Hosanna Healthcare in Kalispell, while pocketing her full taxpayer-funded salary of $112,000 a year.

“Dr. Annie” is not only NOT a fit for the PSC, but by her past record, she would make the Montana PSC more dysfunctional than it already is. Reliable Repke is a far better choice than Loose Cannon Annie.

Former Montana Secretary of State, and former state senator, Bob Brown lives in Whitefish. Flathead Memo endorsed Repke on 18 April.