Rehberg campaign stops in Superior to outline positions

United States Senatorial candidate Denny Rehberg made a stop in Superior Thursday as part of his “Liberate Main Street Tour.”

Rehberg spoke at the Superior Fairgrounds to a large crowd of supporters. After his speech, he touched on what he would do for communities in Mineral County if elected.

“I want to open up the forest and give an opportunity for multiple use management,” Rehberg said. “That means getting back to the forest with the purpose of cleaning out the dead and dying trees. There is commercial value and the jobs are necessary. I want to get people back to work.” 

Rehberg added that he wants to go into the forest because it is better for the environment and gives “us the opportunity to use our brains to manage the forest.” 

“I want to look for every opportunity within these smaller communities that have a high concentration of federal properties, of ways to encourage the federal government to be more amenable to business creation in the forest,” Rehberg said.   

During his speech at the fairgrounds, Rehberg said that he has been visiting Superior since he was a child and would ride the train up to spend his summers. 

“I have a fond spot in my heart for Superior and you have always been kind,” Rehberg said. 

Rehberg said that his campaign is based on addressing the problems with the economy and boosting small businesses.

“The biggest problem right now with business is uncertainty,” Rehberg said. “As I travel around, the one thing I hear more than anything else is that ‘we don’t know what our taxes are going to be in January so why would we expand our business.’ That’s why we don’t need to be talking about a temporary (tax) extension – it needs to be permanent.” 

Rehberg also mentioned the “death tax” and said that it did not make sense to tax a family for the death of a loved one because the government would get taxes from the income of the inheritance. 

Supporting small business was the cornerstone of Rehberg’s speech on Thursday and he mentioned that with the current economy uncertainty is creating a questionable future for America. 

“Everybody is afraid of the uncertainty of the direction we are heading,” Rehberg said. 

Rehberg said that he has been asked why he is giving up a “safe” seat in the House of Representatives to run for the senate and responded that he has never viewed it as safe. 

“I always want to earn your respect, I always want to earn your vote,” Rehberg said. “The day I think it is a safe seat is the day I ought to quit because the day I get that comfortable is the day it is time to move on.” 

The candidate added that he would rather not be serving in congress than not to try to “change the direction the country is taking.” 

“We can’t afford these people,” Rehberg said. “It is going to destroy America as we know it. We are less free today - our liberties are being lost on a daily basis. Enough is enough.” 

At the end of his speech, Rehberg answered several questions from the audience about issues like the Federal Reserve and foreign aid.