Public Service Commissioner Doug Mood on Monday filed to run for re-election to a second term in his western Montana district, saying he’s done a good job helping stabilize rates for electric and natural gas utility customers.

Mood, 64, also pointed to his business expertise, which he said helped persuade other commissioners last year to reject the proposed purchase of Montana’s largest electric-and-gas utility by Australian investment bank.

“It was due to my understanding and business background that other (commissioners) understood the harm that (purchase) would do to NorthWestern Energy, and the danger that represented to ratepayers,” he said.

The commission voted 5-0 to reject the proposed purchase of NorthWestern by Babcock and Brown Infrastructure.

The five-member commission regulates utilities in Montana, including telephone, electric and natural gas utilities.

Mood, a Republican from Seeley Lake, is running for re-election in PSC District 4, which includes Missoula, Ravalli, Granite, Sanders, Mineral, Lincoln and Powell counties.

His opponent is former Rep. Gail Gutsche, D-Missoula, who announced her candidacy last month but has yet to pay the $813 filing fee that makes her an official candidate. Mood paid his fee at the secretary of state’s office on Monday.

Mood, a former state legislator and speaker of the Montana House, won election to the PSC in 2004 and is seeking a second four-year term. He retired nearly seven years ago from Pyramid Mountain Lumber Co. and sold his interest in the firm, a family owned sawmill in Seeley Lake.

Mood won the 2004 race against Geoff Badenoch with 52 percent of the vote and another close race is possible this year.

Mood said it’s tough to campaign for public service commissioner, because many people don’t know what the agency does and explaining its job isn’t something easily done.

“It’s impossible to do it in 20-second sound bites,” he said.

Mood said when he ran in 2004, he promised ratepayers he would work to stabilize their rates, and that he’s delivered on that promise. He and other commissioners pushed NorthWestern to adopt a natural gas “procurement plan” that helped take dramatic swings out of the price of natural gas, he said.

In the several months prior to the plan, the price of natural gas for NorthWestern customers had monthly increases of 27 percent and decreases of 12 percent. In the first 16 months after the plan, most monthly changes were in the single-digit range, and many were declines, Mood said.

Mood said his background in business accounting helped him dissect Babcock and Brown’s proposal to buy NorthWestern, and see that the proposal could drain funds from the utility and make it financially shaky.

Gutsche has criticized Mood for his 1997 vote as a legislator in favor of the electric utility deregulation bill, which, in part, led to the breakup of Montana Power Co. and higher electricity rates.

Mood said Monday the race isn’t about a single vote taken 11 years ago.

“This campaign is not about what happened in the past; it’s about who can make the best decisions in the future,” he said.

Candidate bio

Name: Doug Mood

Political party: Republican

Office sought: Public Service Commission, District 4 (western Montana)

Office salary: $81,299

Age: 64

Birthdate and place: Nov. 3, 1943, Grand Rapids, Minn.

Home: Seeley Lake

Occupation: Public service commissioner

Family: Wife, Marion, and four grown sons

Education: Graduate of Missoula County High School, 1961; attended University of Montana, majoring in English literature.

Past employment: 2005-present, public service commissioner; 1968-2001, vice president and partner in Pyramid Mountain Lumber Co., a Seeley Lake sawmill, where he worked as forklift operator, saw filer and sales manager.

Military: None

Political experience: Public service commissioner representing District 4, 2005-present; state representative from Seeley Lake, 1997-2004; served as speaker of the Montana House in 2003 Legislature.