On Friday, Roosevelt County Attorney and former Montana Speaker of the House Austin Knudsen will officially file to run as a Republican for the office of Montana Attorney General.
KGVO spoke with Knudsen as he was taking a break on the road driving from his home in Wolf Point to Helena to file with the Secretary of State and explained what led to his decision to run for Attorney General.
“Mostly my experience in being County Attorney here in Roosevelt County,” began Knudsen. “I’ve really gotten a handle on the drug problems, specifically methamphetamine, how severe it is, and frankly how much it’s not being dealt with at the state level. That’s the biggest thing driving me to do this. I’ve been dealing with the meth problem over here for over a year and I think I understand it better than any of the other candidates. I’ve been very aggressive in prosecuting and dealing with it and I think that’s important when you’ve got a situation where violent crime has increased by 30 percent in the last five years.”