Attorney General Tim Fox, thanks Tom Berry’s success in fighting illegal drugs

Tim Fox Attorney GeneralThree-term legislator Tom Berry brings a wealth of experience as a small businessman to the Legislature, and is widely regarded as invaluable in insurance law related discussions due to his experience on the issue. This extraordinary man also turned the loss of his beloved son 14 years ago into a powerful voice at the Legislature for important criminal justice issues.   As the scourge of designer drugs like bath salts and spice hit Montana, we were reminded of just how twisted the criminal mind can be. Using chemistry to change the characteristics of substances to mimic dangerous drugs, criminals thrust upon us seemingly innocuous products marketed in tempting packages and sold in convenience stores, head shops, and other stores. The results are devastating, as these substances ruined, and even ended, the lives of countless thousands of young Montanans.

“With Tom’s help, we can now protect our kids from these designer drugs.”

tom-berry-cares-for-kidsObviously these dangerous designer drugs needed to be outlawed, but that wouldn’t be easy. You see, to make a substance illegal, you must first define that substance chemically in a way that can be tested and analyzed to confirm that it is illegal. Once you’ve done that, the criminal chemists just change the chemical properties of the substance by cooking it longer, or adding something to the recipe, thereby making it slightly different than what we’ve made illegal in the law. Working with our State’s Forensic Crime Lab professionals and with Representative Tom Berry, my office was able to define in the law the basic chemical building blocks of these substances in a way that, no matter how the criminal chemists cook them up, they will still be illegal. With Tom’s help, we can now protect our kids from these designer drugs. Thank you Tom for turning your loss and grief into a life-long mission to protect our Montana kids. I am blessed to call you my friend, and Montana is blessed to have you as one of our leaders.

—Tim Fox, Attorney General, Montana
Commencement Speech at Yellowstone Christian College
May 10, 2014

Tom Berry Supports Parental Consent for minors

tom-berry-parental-consentI fully support our female minors to require parental consent prior to an abortion. Our children need our guidance. My vote on Bill 521 was a technical error—I’m human and made a mistake during that session’s intense work on over 1,500 bills. My opponent criticizes my votes, yet still offers no solution.
Our community needs a problem-solver,
not a hobby critic.”    —Tom Berry

Roundup Storm damage criples small business, Tom Berry Stepped in

tom-berry-ad-Busy-Bee5-6-2014

Dear Editor,

During the flood of 2011, our Busy Bee Cafe was full of water we had to shut down, layoff all of our employees and rebuild our restaurant. As a result, our employees filed for unemployment insurance (and rightly so). With most of the employees filing for unemployment, the cost of our unemployment insurance skyrocketed, costing our Busy Bee Cafe business thousands of dollars in an increased premium. We asked Representative Tom Berry for help and he personally crafted legislation which stated if a small business has to shut down as the result of a federally-declared disaster and layoff their employees, the cost of the unemployment insurance will not go up. Tom Berry got this legislation through the legislature and it was signed by the Governor. This action saved our business and many other businesses thousands of dollars. Tom Berry is a good man and the kind of legislator we need in Helena, someone who lives here and will stand up for his constituents. We can’t trust some out-of-towner who bashes his opponent and misleads our community. We are supporting and voting for Tom Berry, and hope you do too.

Very Sincerely

tom-berry-letter-signature-busy-bee

 

Mark Petrie
Maryann Petrie
Busy Bee Cafe

Level With Us, Ray Gorham!

J.K. Kuzara, Roundup News May 9 2014

Just once during an election campaign it would be nice to have candidates really and truly Level With Us! Just this past Wednesday evening Mr. Ray Gorham telephoned our home seeking support of his primary election challenge to Tom Berry for District 40 State Representative. We hate to appear like we are picking on Mr. Gorham but his advertising and statements are prime examples of typical political strategy: Attack your opponent with half truths, exaggerations, phony statistics, and over-simplifications. Mr. Gorham sounded like a very nice, well read, articulate fellow. He sounded passionate about his candidacy and we had a pleasant conversation. We wished him luck, yet we were sadly disappointed in him. We fear he has fallen victim to forces bordering on the dishonest when both he and we voters would be better served if he would simply Level with Us!

“If Mr. Gorham can’t Level with us and tell us where he really stands – left, moderate, right, or at the extremes- he can’t be proud of himself and he doesn’t deserve our vote.”

We told Mr. Gorham that we had studied his ads and read his endorsement by long-time acquaintance Vera Beth Johnson. We asked him on what he based his statement that Berry only has a 10°/o/F Conservative Rating. That comes from the Montana Conservative Alliance (MCA), he said. We Googled MCA and found no mention of Tom Berry or his conservative rating. Instead we found that MCA appears to be a far right outfit that exists primarily to replace moderate legislators with extremist ones. Obviously, if one cares to cherry-pick the legislative measures on which one wants to base a “rating” of a candidate; one can derive just about any number one wants – either good or bad. And that’s a common tactic of special interest groups. We asked Mr. Gorham about his statement that Berry has only a 42% rating with the National Rifle Association (NRA). He said that might be an “old rating” and maybe Berry now has a “B” rating. We went to the NRA website. Guess what? No mention at all of Tom Berry. Mr. Gorham said he favors lowering taxes and reducing the size of government. No surprise there, but when we asked him specifically how he might achieve those goals he was somewhat evasive. It’s all very complicated, he said, and people can’t or won’t take the time to study and understand the intricacies of these issues. In addition, there isn’t enough time to explain things to the folks.

Looking at Tom Berry’s voting record, or at least as much of it as we could reasonably examine, we didn’t see anything way out of whack. Some of Mr. Gorham’s criticisms of Berry’s record, however, are. State spending, support of “Obamacare”, pro-life issues, etc. appear to have been part of the state budget bill that establishes revenue and expenditures for two years. That measure was unanimously approved by both houses and signed by the governor- which means that even the extreme elements of both parties voted for it. So why crucify Berry over it? Again, please understand that Mr. Gorham isn’t alone in employing these kinds of distortions. Many, many office-seekers, all the way from the state house to the courthouse, to the school house do likewise. Forget about the unfairness to guys like Tom Berry. He’s a big boy and is entirely capable of defending his record and offering reasonable explanations for how he voted on different matters. What really concerns us is that the failure of fellows like Mr. Gorham to Level with Us is patently unfair to voters. It is also overwhelmingly insulting to the intelligence of every reasonable thinker!

Hopefully Mr. Gorham isn’t one of those far out kooks who would support weird, idiotic legislation that serves only to bring ridicule and mockery down on the Republican Party. And hope­ fully he isn’t of the ilk that refuses to compromise or seek consensus and instead favors gridlock, inaction, and waste of valuable legislative time. We asked him about that. His answer? He stands up for his beliefs. And that is great! We do too. So do legions of other folks. But that isn’t an answer.

If Mr. Gorham can’t Level with us and tell us where he really stands – left, moderate, right, or at the extremes- he can’t be proud of himself and he doesn’t deserve our vote.

Busy Bee Cafe in Roundup thanks Tom Berry’s Legislation for Montanas small businesses

Tom Berry comes to the aid of Small Businesses dealing with Federally-declared Disasters.

Tom Berry comes to the aid of Small Businesses dealing with Federally-declared Disasters.



Busy Bee Cafe
317 1st Ave W, Roundup, Mt 59072
(406) 323-2204

5-6-2014

Dear Editor,

During the flood of 2011, our Busy Bee Cafe was full of water we had to shut down, layoff all of our employees and rebuild our restaurant. As a result, our employees filed for unemployment insurance (and rightly so). With most of the employees filing for unemployment, the cost of our un-employment insurance skyrocketed, costing our Busy Bee Cafe business thousands of dollars in an increased premium. We asked Representative Tom Berry for help and he personally crafted legislation which stated if a small business has to shut down as the result of a federally-declared disaster and layoff their employees, the cost of the unemployment insurance will not go up. Tom Berry got this legislation through the legislature and it was signed by the Governor. This action saved our business and many other businesses thousands of dollars. Tom Berry is a good man and the kind of legislator we need in Helena, someone who lives here and will stand up for his constituents. We can’t trust some out-of-towner who bashes his opponent and misleads our community. We are supporting and voting for Tom Berry, and hope you do too.

Very Sincerely

Mark Petrie, Maryann Petrie
Busy Bee Cafe

Tom Berry, the Clear Choice for Montana’s HD-40

Tom Berry, the clear choiceTom Berry continues to be the Clear Choice for our Montana House District 40.

Native Montanan Tom Berry:

  • Was born and raised in eastern Montana
  • Is a Montana Rancher, owns a ranch that raises registered Angus cattle
  • Lived in Montana his entire life, 64 years
  • Experienced House District representative with three successful terms in the Montana Legislature

 

Outsider Ray Gorham:

  • Was born and raised in Calgary Canada
  • California resident for a decade
  • Outsider to Montana, only a few years of living in our State
  • Is experimenting: No experience, No plan

Tom Berry is Endorsed by Montana businesses

Tom Berry is Endorsed by Montana Businesses

Tom Berry is Endorsed by Montana Businesses



Tom Berry is Endorsed by

  • Montana Stockgrowers Association (MSA)
  • National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB)
  • Montana Contractors Association (MCA)
  • Montana Medical Association (MMA)
  • Montana Petroleum Marketers Association
  • Montana Tavern Association (MTA)
  • Montana Coal Council
  • Montana Bankers Association

Tom Berry voted to hold State Spending to 2.2%

Tom Berry reduced Montana Spending

Tom Berry voted for Appropriation Legislation which held spending to a low 2.2%. Montana’s economy grew by 3% last year?



Tom Berry’s opponent Ray Gorham claims that “Incumbent Tom Berry is a liberal big spender.”

The fact is Tom Berry voted for Appropriation Legislation which held State spending to a low 2.2%. Big spending Ray? Really?

Did you know? Montana’s economy grew by 3% last year?

Canadian globe-trotter and states hopper wants a shot in the last best place

opponent-flagsCanadian-born, globe trotter and U.S. States hopper (lived in California, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Indiana, Iowa, Arkansas) Ray Gorham, currently resides in Shepherd Montana and has filed to run as a Republican candidate for House District 40, challenging successful three-term Republican incumbent and Montana native Tom Berry.

Gorham was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and then crossed over the border (legally) to attend the Brigham Young School in Utah, where he learned accounting. Ray admits that two years of studying accounting was enough for him to know he didn’t want to spend his career keeping up with tax laws and government regulations, so after graduation he found a job at Wal-Mart, then Flying J (living in Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Indiana, Iowa, Arkansas) and eventually attempted an unnamed restaurant in California before his latest venture to Montana. Gorham is a hobby fiction writer when his log business is slow.

The Ray website texts include incorrect paraphrased and misleading statements about incumbent Tom Berry’s voting record. General texts written by Ray are nearly void of the word Montana, and the layouts bear no image or visual element of Montana or the U.S.A., with the exception of lake scene and a picture of Ray Photoshopped (digitally-edited) in the foreground.

 

 

An Introduction to Tom Berry

Tom Berry and IntroductionTom Berry is a Montana native, small business owner, rancher, family man and steward of our communities. He is Proven Success and that’s why Berry is still the first choice Vote for House District 40. Raised on an irrigated farm in Eastern Montana, Berry learned about the importance of family, community, economic decisions and responsible problem-solving. With decades of Montana business experience including the Oil Industry, Construction, Restaurants, Truck Stops, Real Estate and Insurance, Tom Berry continues to make the best choices for a stronger Montana.