Two PSC races touch Great Falls, plus Trump's Montana 'super range'

If you pay a power bill, you have a stake in the Public Service Commission. The PSC regulates monopoly companies such as water, telecommunications, gas and electric utilities, including NorthWestern Energy, Montana's largest utility. It also does railroad and pipeline inspections and regulates garbage hauling. It's an office you may not think about until the bill shows up, and two of its five seats are on the ballot this year.

District 1 covers much of eastern Montana and, as Daily Montanan deputy editor Keila Szpaller explained to MTPR, reaches parts of Great Falls and Cascade County. Commissioner Randy Pinocci is termed out. Republican Jeff Pattison of Glasgow, a third-generation farmer and rancher who served in the Montana House in 2001 and 2003, faces Democrat Angeline Cheek of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, who has spent 18 years in Indigenous advocacy and community organizing.

Both talk about affordability and data centers. Pattison wants data centers to "pay to play," and Cheek wants rules in place before any are approved. Szpaller called it an uphill battle for Cheek in a Republican district: Cheek won 12,000 votes in an uncontested primary, and Pattison alone won more than 22,000 of the 33,000 Republican primary votes.

District 5 covers portions of the Flathead Valley, east to the edge of Great Falls and south to Helena. Republican Annie Bukacek, who has served since 2022, faces Helena Democrat Kevin Hamm. Hamm told Montana Free Press the PSC "has been failing the people of Montana for two decades." Bukacek didn't respond to the outlet's interview requests.

Big decisions are coming. The PSC has an open case on data centers and is considering a proposal to let NorthWestern Energy merge with Black Hills Corporation, a utility with customers in eight states. Some Republican lawmakers and Gov. Greg Gianforte have also expressed interest in having the governor appoint commissioners, so this election could be the commission's last.