Edited news release:

Billings – As candidate filing closed on Monday the Montana Republican Legislative Campaign Committee announced that 174 Republicans had filed to run in 116 legislative districts.

“Republican candidates are fired up and ready to go,” said Sen. Jeff Essmann (Billings) Chairman of the Montana Republican Legislative Campaign Committee. “We’ve had a great recruiting season and we have a tremendous group of candidates that are committed to helping get government out of the way, so we can put Montana back to work. I want to thank the team effort put together by the County Central Committees around the state as well as the members of my committee and the Montana Republican Party that resulted in this great group seeking to serve the people of Montana.”

Essmann noted some of the highlights of the MRLCC are recruiting successes:
- 15 women House candidates
- 5 women Senate candidates
- 174 Total candidates
- Candidates in 91 of 100 House Districts
- Candidates in 25 of 26 Senate Districts
- SD13 (Great Falls) – Ed Buttrey – a small-business entrepreneur, who’s grown his manufacturing business from 2 – 65 employees in 10 years. Buttrey is seeking the seat formerly held by Democrat Joe Tropila.
- SD17 (Havre) – Rowlie Hutton – Originally from an agriculture family near Turner, Montana a community leader in Havre is seeking this open seat against the former Democrat Speaker of the House.
- HD33 (Havre) - Kris Hansen – A deputy Hill County Attorney and Veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, she is seeking the post formerly held by Bob Bergren.
- HD36 (Plentywood) Austin Knudsen – A 5th generation Montana farmer and rancher, and UM law school grad is taking on incumbent Democrat Julie French.
- HD59 (Red Lodge) Joanne Blyton – A small business owner and longtime community leader is running against incumbent Democrat Paul Beck.
- HD41 (Busby) Sterling Small – the former Boise State track star will take on incumbent Democrat David Roundstone.
- HD63 (Bozeman) Tom Burnett – A retired small business owner, Burnett narrowly lost this seat in 2008 and is running in a rematch against JP Pomnichowski.
- HD80 (Helena) Liz Bangerter – An active community volunteer and mother of 3, she is running to fill the seat formerly held by Democrat Mary Caferro.

“Neither the Democrats in Helena who’ve exploded the state budget by adding nearly 1,000 new bureaucrats to the state payroll nor the Democrats in Washington, D.C. who are dragging the country further into debt with every proposal they advance show any sign of stopping. It is clear that fiscal responsibility is not their priority,” Essmann said. “By contrast, Montana Republicans are committed to putting Montana back to work by bringing fiscal responsibility back to Helena and working to get government out of the way. The voters will have a very clear contrast of our philosophies and I’m confident that when given that choice the people of Montana will choose fiscal sanity and send a Republican majority to Helena.”