Lange feels he has chance to unseat Baucus

By SCOTT McMILLION Chronicle Staff Writer

Mike Lange is the best known of Sen. Max Baucus’ Republican challengers. But it wasn’t his six years in the Montana Legislature that put him in the public eye. It was three minutes on YouTube.com

During the last session of the Montana Legislature, Lange, then the House Majority Leader, launched a profanity-laden tirade against Gov. Brian Schweitzer. It was captured on a television camera, later landed on YouTube and Lange gained a reputation as an angry ranter.

Lange, 47, says there’s a lot more to him than his moment of YouTube fame, which he maintains arose because he was defending a colleague from “intimidation” and “threats” by the governor.

He’s apologized for his salty language, and says Schweitzer has apologized if he did anything to ignite fury.

“We dealt with it and we went on,” he said.

Now Lange is running for the U.S. Senate, and says he wants to put the incident behind him and concentrate on issues.

A union pipefitter from Billings, Lange is a fiery populist who describes himself politically as a “very conservative, blue collar guy.”

He’s laid out what he calls “four cornerstones” of his campaign.

The first is protecting private property rights, which he maintains have been “trampled by the federal agencies” like the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. As examples, he said the Forest Service should have acted years ago to reduce pine beetle infestations and should recognize that grizzly bears and careful logging can coexist.

The second is fiscal responsibility. He advocates cutting general budget spending in all areas except federal highways, veterans’ benefits, social security and border security. He also advocates hiring private companies to round up illegal aliens and a combination of fences and better patrols on the Mexican border.

The third is protecting individual and states’ rights. He opposes No Child Left Behind, the Real ID program, the Patriot Act, and putting Social Security numbers on document like fishing licenses.

The fourth is protecting national sovereignty and security. He opposes NAFTA and other free trade agreements and said the occupation of Iraq was a mistake. If the country is going to war, Congress should declare a war so that there’s a foreseeable end to hostilities. Still, a hasty withdrawal now would be a bad idea, he said.

Lange said he knows he’s facing an uphill battle. He’s raised only about $25,000, compared to the $6.1 million Baucus has in the bank, but he promises to bring oversight and openness to Washington.

“I don’t trust big corporations any more than I trust big government,” he said. “I will look at everybody and anybody.”

And he expects criticism and name calling to be directed his way.

“I’m going to brush aside any criticism of me as a candidate,” he said. “I’m going to run a hard campaign based on issues.”

Married and the father of four children, Lange has lived in Billings all of his life, except for a few years in Colstrip. He ran for the state Senate in 1996 but later switched to the Republican Party, and served three terms in the Montana House of Representatives. He became House Majority Leader in the last session, but was unseated after the outburst directed at Schweitzer.

Lange said he would have left the position anyway, as he was already planning the Senate run.

His Web site is at www.langeforussenate.com

Scott McMillion can be reached at scottm@dailychronicle.com

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