MONTANA HOUSE DISTRICT 12
State House Representative – the office of state representative serves in the Montana legislature’s lower house. There are 100 representatives who are elected from districts. Representatives are elected to 2-year terms. Representatives propose and vote on proposed laws during the legislative sessions that meet for 90 days in odd-numbered years, and provide oversight of state agencies and study issues through interim committees that meet between sessions. Representatives are limited to four consecutive 2-year terms.
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CINDY L BRUCKNER
(Dem)
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TRACY A SHARP
(Rep)
Q1. Please briefly provide the following information: place (town or county and state) of birth, age as of election day 2026, place (town or county) of permanent residency, occupation/employer, and education. How do these and your other life experiences qualify you to be an effective Legislator?
Q2. What are the most important issues you expect to face if elected to the Montana Legislature, and what are your positions on those issues? How would you prioritize each of the issues you have identified?
Q3. What economic policies will you pursue to help Americans who are concerned about their economic prospects in the coming years, including the cost of medical insurance and care?
Q4. What measures do you support to ensure Montana elections are secure while facilitating the ability of all eligible voters to cast their ballots? What, if anything, should the state government do to reduce the role of money in American elections?
I was born in Los Angeles in 1963 (I'll be 63 on election day 2026) and lived in So Cal through college at Art Center College of Design from which I graduated in 1987 with a BFA in Advertising. Spent my career in NYC and Chicago.
Bought property in Bigfork, MT in 1988 and have spent every vacation here until moving here full-time in 2017. Since then I've worked as a freelance graphic designer, while earning an MFA in Applied Psychology.
I'm a lifelong democrat with a strong ideological foundation based on fairness, justice, and equality. Being a woman in advertising through the 90's and 00's, while raising a daughter, heightened my passion for the absolute rights of women (I cannot believe we are still talking about this!)
The average age in my district is 50.2, with a median HH income of $60.5k. The key issues (and my position) in my district are: 1) Affordable and available housing (I propose offering incentives to landlords and sellers to give priority to locals); 2) Property tax relief (I support a cap based on income rather than market value); 3) Affordable healthcare (I think the state should offer stipends/tax credits for those in the grey area between qualifying for Medicaid and being able to afford private insurance); and 4) The cost of caring for the aging population (Medicare/Medicaid does not cover the cost of in-home dementia care -- we need to help offset the cost with stipends/tax credits).
See Q2
In a smaller district like mine, even a relatively modest amount of outside spending can quickly dominate the conversation. When PACs step in with large independent expenditures, they can overwhelm local voices and reshape a race in ways that don’t always reflect the priorities of the people on the ground.
To be clear, Montana has taken meaningful steps to improve transparency,(i.e. The Disclose Montana Act.) Voters should absolutely know who is trying to influence their decisions. But transparency alone doesn’t solve the deeper issue. Even when we can see where the money is coming from, the sheer scale and coordination of outside spending can still drown out the kind of grassroots engagement that makes our democracy strong.
I will be 68 at the time of the next election. I was born in Wisconsin. I have lived in Montana since 1966. I was in the military from 1975 until 2007 and then served as a Strategist at US Africa Command until I retired in 2012. I was a pilot, served in numerous staff tours in NATO, European Command, Africa Command, and Multi-National Forces, Iraq. I was a Deputy Group Commander in Kuwait in the 1990s. I have worked extensively in embassies around the globe on complicated treaty issues and was attached to the Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). All of these experiences taught me negotiations and international law and legal proceedings. All of these were good preparation for being a legislator.
Property Taxes and illegal immigration would be the top issues I expect to face in the next legislature. I support the eventual elimination of all property taxes since I believe it is the most immoral tax of all. It takes money people may not have as opposed to taxing as a percentile what people actually possess and can afford to pay. Illegal immigration has been a major problem in the United States for decades and it is rising to a boiling point. It warps our electoral process and even our allotment of Congressional seats. Illegal immigration also impacts our schools and medical services--probably medical services the most. Property Taxes clearly will be the number one issue with immigration following closely behind.
We need to deregulate and get out of the way of the innovation of the American people. Our citizens now cannot afford to buy their first home until they are nearly 40 years old. We have to make housing more affordable and that will not occur as long as government believes it must direct each and every activity of the market. This is particularly true in the medical profession where the Affordable Care Act has proven to be a disaster. Absent major regulatory changes as opposed to tweeking around the edges of a failed system, medical costs will continue to rise. There needs to be more options for the citizen and those options should take into account the general health of the individual as opposed to a one-size-fits-all approach.
I support strict voter identification measures and the elimination of mail-in ballots except for certain circumstances. Absentee ballots should go out to military people and other people who have unique circumstances where the voter can't get to the polls either early or on election day. It must be required that you prove identity as an American citizen to register to vote. As for too much money in politics, the federal and state governments must eliminate all participation in politics by NGOs and 501(c) organizations. The 501(c)3 groups in particular are not supposed to be partisan but clearly are. Their participation in the election process must be eliminated.
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