Another Democrat has jumped into the growing field of candidates vying to challenge Republican Representative Greg Gianforte for Montana’s at-large U.S. House seat.
Whitefish attorney Jared Pettinato says he wants to spur Montana’s economy by expanding its wind energy capacity in the east and allow more logging in the west.
"We spent 80 years taking out the largest trees in the forest and suppressing all of the wildfires. That changed the conditions of our forests in a general way," he said. "Humans have created this system of extreme wildfires. We hold the responsibility to try to fix it. Some of that means thinking in places that are too dense and cleaning a lot of the other places.”
Pettinato worked for the past decade as a natural resources lawyer for the U.S. Department of Justice. Other Democrats in the race include state Representative Tom Woods and former state Representative Kathleen Williams, Billings attorney John Heenan and former land-trust director Grant Kier of Missoula.
