Clancy Republican Scott Mendenhall will seek a fourth term representing House District 77 by maintaining the same values he's run on in the past -- by advocating responsible fiscal policy, working to position Montana competitively in a global business climate, and by creating a firm-yet-streamlined regulatory process to govern businesses that extract the state's natural resources.

Montana's term-limit law would make this Mendenhall's last bid for the HD 77 seat. He believes his experience is an asset to his constituents, who live north of Interstate 90 in Jefferson County and in southwestern Lewis and Clark County.

"I feel like I have experience to offer and can contribute," he said. "I still believe in the things that I've ran on before," he added, such as the importance of creating new jobs and strengthening families. He also wants to continue reforming the state's workers' compensation laws and work toward solutions to reduce the cost of health insurance.

Mendenhall chaired the House Business and Labor Committee last session, a body which saw about 200 bills. He said if elected he'd like to continue heading the group.

"I feel like it's important that I continue to work with those issues," he said. "I feel like I come at that from an objective perspective and work to get some things accomplished. I'd like to continue in that vein."

Mendenhall said he believes the rules governing natural resource businesses must be strict but easy to navigate, and he thinks mineral extraction is one key to expanding the state's economy.

He pointed to the proposed expansion of the Montana Tunnels mine, and said the state Department of Environmental Quality hasn't stuck to timelines it set to process the permit.

"I believe that we need to look at our God-given natural resources here ... and how do we go about using those resources responsibly -- but using them," Mendenhall said.

"We need to have high standards, but we need to have a reasonable timeframe," he added. "We need to have the buzz happening around venture-capitalist boardrooms across the U.S., and we need the buzz to be: 'You know, Montana's pretty good. They have strict standards, but they're not unreasonable.' "

Workers' compensation insurance, Mendenhall said, is an off-the-top cost for any entrepreneur eyeing Montana as a place to do business.

In the 2007 Legislature, Mendenhall sponsored a bill to standardize the medical fee structure for workers' compensation claims -- legislation he said is expected to save $10.5 million in costs this year alone.

Another cost of doing business is providing health-care insurance, and Mendenhall said many businesses and their employees have been hamstrung by a series of regulations mandating each insurance policy to cover several dozen situations.

By removing those mandates, insurance can be made more affordable to all, he said.

"Every time you do that, yes you take care of certain circumstances -- but for everybody else, their costs go up," he said.

Mendenhall also is considering sponsoring legislation that would limit the number of checks casinos could accept from one patron per day.

He said he's not trying to restrict the establishments' ability to do business but wants to limit residents' ability to "put themselves in financial ruin in a few days."

While much of the media attention last session focused on negative exchanges between Republicans and Democrats, Mendenhall said he saw a lot more positive debates than negative ones.

"There was some black-eye moments in that session, and I feel badly about some of those, but overall we're talking about a very small percentage of the time," he said.

He also said the Executive Branch should be "more of a supporter and a little less of a bully," and said more respect is due the Legislature, where representatives are closest to their constituents.

"I have a lot of admiration for people on both sides of the aisle," Mendenhall added. "They're doing good work."

Reporter Larry Kline: 447-4075 or larry.kline@helenair.com