(crowd cheering and applauding) - [Anna] Coming up next on Impact, the race for Montana's Western House District is filled with accusations.

- [Ryan] It's patently untrue, as you know, but you're used to that, evidently.

- [Monica] That is a flat-out lie.

- [Anna] What Ryan Zinke and Monica Tranel want you to know about those ads and about them before you vote, and Billings is putting new, local tax dollars to work in an effort to shelter more of the city's homeless.

- I'm a firm believer that everybody has value, no matter where they're at.

- I get to help people with this miracle that I've been given.

- [Anna] That's next on Impact.

(upbeat electronic music) - [Male Announcer] Production of Montana PBS Reports' Impact is made possible with support from the Otto Bremer Trust, investing in people, places, and opportunities in the Upper Midwest, on the Web at autobremer.org, the Greater Montana Foundation, encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans and viewers like you, who are friends of Montana PBS.

Thank you.

(upbeat electronic music continues) - Welcome to Impact.

I'm Anna Rau.

Our new series continues to focus on stories and issues important to Montanans.

(upbeat electronic music continues) Our first story tonight, the battle over Montana's new Western House District has grown increasingly acrimonious.

We give Ryan Zinke and Monica Tranel the opportunity to counter some of the most damaging attacks.

(crowd cheering) (triumphant music) ♪ You can feel it It's electric!

There you go, that's it.

(people chattering loudly) - [Anna] In a race that's all about image, the Homecoming Parade in Missoula offered Ryan Zinke- - Go Griz!

- Go Griz!

- And Monica Tranel- - How are you?

I'm Monica, how're you doing?

- [Anna] The perfect opportunity to showcase how Montanan they are.

- [Ryan You know, I grew up in Montana, I love Montana.

You know, I'm gonna die in Montana.

- [Monica] I grew up in Montana.

I've spent my entire professional career here.

Montana is my home.

- [Anna] Zinke and Tranel have spent the better part of the last four months trying to build their respective images while tearing down their opponents.

Things got especially nasty during a live MTN debate.

- But let's finish this point.

- No, are we on, and you don't set the rules for the debate, Ryan.

- Excuse me.

Excuse me, Monica, your time is up.

- [Anna] It shouldn't be a surprise that the race has gotten scrappy because both of these candidates enjoy a good fight.

- Now, I am the third- - What is the question?

- How competitive of a person would you describe yourself as?

How competitive are you?

- I joined the SEALs.

I reached a Commander at SEAL Team Six, the most elite fighting force on the face of the planet.

It is highly, highly competitive.

- Well, I went to two Olympics, and I spent 10 years, you know, competing internationally at the highest level of competition, so I think that kind of speaks for itself, right?

I mean, when I get in a race, I get in it to win.

(slow country music) - [Anna] At an early fundraiser in Missoula, Tranel made it clear that she would be no sacrificial lamb in the race against Zinke.

- Winning doesn't happen by accident.

It doesn't happen by magic.

It doesn't happen by miracles.

You plan, you prepare, and you execute.

- [Anna] But Tranel's plan of attack and campaigning style, like this moment at a candidate forum- - What, do you want to have a debate?

Let's have a debate.

- All right.

- [Anna] Have led to a potent attack on Tranel's image, with Zinke's camp referring to Tranel as Manic Monica and right-wing media labeling her as unhinged.

- What kind of opponent do you see her as?

- You know, letting anger get the best of you, and this is what we're facing in the country.

America's angry.

Both sides of the equation are angry, and angry, being angry, and anger prevents things from getting done.

- [Anna] Tranel believes there's a difference between being angry and being assertive.

Tranel's staff hints that perhaps a double standard may be at play, even hanging up this cartoon at Tranel's campaign headquarters.

- I didn't put the sign up.

I think that might be people who have a perception of how I'm treated, and like I said, I'm out there on the trail, connecting with people, and, you know, I think, after the Missoula debate, you know, I was called aggressive, and I think Ryan Zinke's campaign called me a bunch of different silly names, but, I mean, sticks and stones, right?

I mean, I'm here to win, I'm here to fight for Montana, I'm here to serve Montana, and that's not something I'm ever gonna back down from.

- Attack Zinke.

Attack him all you want.

- [Anna] One of Tranel's most potent lines of attack on Zinke's image have been the ethics investigations that plagued Zinke's tenure as Secretary of the Interior.

- Ryan Zinke is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department.

- [Ryan] 18 Federal investigations.

- [Anna] The Interior Department's Office of Inspector General released its most recent report on Zinke at the end of August.

Officially, the report found Zinke violated his duty of candor.

News outlets reported that Zinke lied to investigators, but Zinke sees wiggle room in the term "lack of candor".

- What the report says, it doesn't say lie, it says, "lack of candor," whatever that means.

- Lying.

Lack of candor is not being truthful.

- [Anna] So, did Zinke lie?

According to the OIG report, the allegations surround Zinke's contacts with opponents of a proposed tribal casino in Connecticut.

Investigators discovered that Zinke had dinners with lobbyists and a political consultant, who specifically asked him to scuttle the tribal casino.

One text message OIG investigators uncovered shows a lobbyist texted higher-ups, saying, "I'm having dinner with Zinke tonight.

Obviously, Casino matters will be on the menu."

- They lay out very clearly there were text messages.

There was testimony, verbal and emails, from other witnesses who had had conversations with Ryan Zinke.

- [Anna] Here's where the issue of candor comes in.

OIG investigators say when they interviewed Zinke about those detailed advocacy conversations, Zinke denied that they occurred.

- Ryan Zinke said, "Well, we didn't talk about that."

- [Anna] Investigators specifically asked Zinke if he had contact with the lobbyist about the proposed tribal casino.

Investigators say, "Secretary Zinke responded, "I didn't discuss, I was warned.

I was advised about Lobbyist 1's relationship with the Casino, and so I was advised not to talk to him about this specific issue."

The OIG referred the matter to the Department of Justice, but they declined to prosecute.

- After five years and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent, the conclusion was Zinke did not follow the employer's manual and lacked candor.

When you're through it, you go, what is it about?

Where is the wrongdoing in any of it?

Where is the wrongdoing in the other investigations?

And there wasn't any, and that's the point.

There was never any wrongdoing.

- This is the kind of, you know, hair-splitting that I think voters hate.

This is basic common sense stuff, and those reports are really, really clear.

- [Anna] Tranel is quick to add that the latest report is just one in a litany of ethics investigations and accusations, stretching all the way back to Zinke's time as a Navy SEAL.

- There was the SEAL Team Six investigation, there was this investigation, that investigation, that one.

What's a voter to think of that?

- Well, I would say I must be squeaky clean, probably the most squeaky clean candidate ever in sitting congressmen because they've tried so many times to stop me.

- [Anna] Zinke believes he was unfairly targeted by career bureaucrats who didn't want to see their budgets and grants cut.

- When you start draining the swamp, when you start exposing the serpents for what they are, they're gonna attack, but you know you're over the target when you get flack.

- [Anna] Zinke believes he paid a price for doing what he thought was right.

Tranel also believes she's paying a political price for doing what she thought was right.

- Ryan's ad is dishonest.

It's a lie.

- [Female Announcer] Robert Riggs was convicted of repeatedly, viciously raping three little girls in Montana, yet Riggs was able to find one private attorney willing to argue his appeal for a new trial.

She argued to let him out of prison to roam our neighborhood streets.

The attorney?

Monica Tranel.

- In Montana, we throw child rapists that are guilty, convicted, and it was on appeal, convicted of raping four small children, we throw them in jail.

We don't elect lawyers who defend them and want to release them.

- Can you tell people, so they understand, why your law firm got involved in that case?

- When you are charged with a crime and you go to defend yourself, you are afforded a constitutional right to effective counsel during that trial.

- [Anna] According to the case documents, a jury convicted Riggs of raping four young girls in 2005.

Riggs has always claimed he is innocent.

Tranel and her law firm represented Tranel in his appeal before the Montana Supreme Court.

That appeal did not center on the crimes, but on a constitutional question of whether or not Riggs' attorney provided effective counsel.

- So, the challenge was, was there effective assistance of counsel in the underlying trial?

Were witnesses interviewed?

Was evidence gathered?

Those are the kinds of questions you ask.

- [Anna] In his appeal, Riggs claimed the attorney for his criminal trial failed to interview witnesses, failed to object, and failed to prepare witnesses to testify.

Ultimately, he lost the appeal.

- The remedy, had we won, would have been a new trial.

So, under no circumstances, and Ryan Zinke knows this, and his team should know it very well, under no circumstances did I ever argue that a convicted child rapist should roam our neighborhood streets.

Everybody in America is entitled to due process, even Ryan Zinke.

- [Anna] Zinke and Tranel are two candidates who know the power of an image, the Navy SEAL, the Olympian, the crusader for Montana, but campaigns focused on image don't have much time for substantive exchanges on actual policy, and now, they have precious little time left before voters head to the polls.

Will they use that time to further tarnish their opponents' image or, like they did in this parade, will they use the time to burnish their own?

- [Ryan] It's time for resolve, commitment, to return to the values that have made this country great.

- [Monica] I think restoring dignity and trust to the office of Representative.

I promise that I will make you proud.

- [Ryan] I'm not doing it for me, I'm doing it for my kids and my grandchildren.

- [Monica] This is not about me, this is about us.

- Tranel has pushed media organizations to include the third party candidate, John Lamb, in all of the debates.

While that didn't happen, Lamb knows he's going to steal some votes, probably from Zinke, and raise his political profile in the process.

Lamb believes the government should ban all abortions, lift all gun restrictions, end the war on drugs, and defund the police.

That combination of beliefs doesn't fit neatly into either major party, so he's found his home with the Libertarians.

He believes there are many more like-minded Montanans who are tired of two-party politics and will vote for him instead.

- This impact here, probably gonna hurt the Republicans more than it will the Democrats.

I look it at the lesser of two evils.

(chuckles) So, I don't have nothing against Tranel or Zinke, technically, so I don't think, I don't think she would do a worse job than Zinke.

I would do a better job than both, I believe, (laughs) but neither one of 'em, they're the lesser of two evils.

- Lamb says he has the potential to be a factor in the race, pointing out that as a Libertarian, he garnered 20% of the vote two years ago in a bid for a State Senate seat against an incumbent.

(upbeat electronic music) As the cold winter months approach, concern for the homeless increases.

This winter, the city of Billings is pledging public safety tax dollars to provide shelter.

It's all linked to a wider collaborative effort by various groups to get help to the homeless any way they can.

Correspondent Stan Parker reports.

- Where everybody likes to hang out at.

- [Stan] Randy Bear Don't Walk has been out on the streets of Billings now for about a year and a half.

- Hey, you all right?

- [Stan] He works for Rimrock, a big, regional addiction treatment center, as part of its Homeless Outreach Team.

- Oh, I got your name.

- Yeah.

- When was that, last fall?

- Yeah.

- [Stan] As a Peer Support Specialist, he knows what people have been through because he's been there himself.

- Peer Support Specialists are people that have overcome the struggle of addiction.

By our story, we share our hope and experience with the people that we run into on a daily basis.

- [Stan] Randy and his colleagues meet weekly at the Downtown Billings Alliance office to coordinate with police and a resource outreach coordinator that works for the business district.

- A lot of our clients have a lot of run-ins with the police, and rather than them going to jail, we try to find a place for them to go, like whether it be treatment, sober living, things of that nature.

- [Stan] His co-worker, Kally, says recovery is a gift.

- I get to help people with this miracle that I've been given and try to give them the same kind of hope 'cause I'm not so different than the people that I'm serving downtown right now.

- [Stan] The team has seen its fair share of both heartache and success, but its scope is limited to just those that need and want treatment, yet the groups at this table are also partners of a bigger coalition, called the Yellowstone County Continuum of Care.

It's the local embodiment of a federal program, and it's a framework that encourages civic entities, nonprofits, business groups, and emergency responders to get out of their silos, share information, and work together.

There are COCs in several Montana communities and one for the state.

A big goal is that there's no wrong door.

Anyone in crisis can show up anywhere in the network, get the same assessment, and get routed to the place that could best help them.

It's called a coordinated entry system.

- So, for example, we're here at the Crisis Center, which is one of the 17 service providers in our coordinated entry system here in Yellowstone County, and anyone who comes to this service provider can get access to the coordinated entry system by virtue of having an assessment, and from there, we work together to prioritize those clients and then refer them out to the most appropriate partners available.

- [Stan] These efforts also reflect an understanding that crisis care can also prevent expensive, repeat interactions with the emergency room and the law.

Last year, the Billings Police estimated that just 93 individuals cost emergency services more than $10 million.

With this math in mind, the city is taking its first steps towards spending public safety dollars on shelter this winter, using taxes from a recent mill levy and expected marijuana tax revenue.

The City Council will fund low-barrier emergency shelter for those that would otherwise be left out in the cold.

- So, low-barrier really just means removing all the barriers that prevent people from getting into shelter.

Primarily in this community, those barriers are sobriety.

So, for folks who are non-sober, they have a hard time finding shelter.

For folks who are disabled, it's hard to find an ADA-accessible facility when you're using walkers, wheelchairs, carrying an oxygen tank.

Another big barrier is people who are in and out of crisis.

So, when they're in crisis, this facility is a perfect place for them to be, but it's rather small, and it only has 16 beds, and it's really geared for people in crisis actively, not to be a shelter, which is what it's become in an overflow capacity.

- [Stan] At a September meeting, the Billing City Council weighed proposals to operate such a shelter.

They allocated money for the Yellowstone County Continuum of Care Coalition to run a low-barrier shelter at First Congregational Church, and the Montana Rescue Mission, which has historically offered seasonal emergency shelter, and plans to do so again with or without city money, may get some funds to help with participating in the coordinated entry system, but the Mission is waiting to see exactly what the city has in mind before making a deal, having expressed misgivings about an assessment being a barrier to entry and privacy concerns about the data sharing.

There are no easy solutions here.

These are lofty goals, with harsh reality checks around every corner.

- [Randy] And when you come to know these people, a lot of times, the end result isn't good.

We've had our share of horrific end results to their story.

- [Stan] His own story almost ended that way.

- About seven, eight years ago, I had just gotten out of jail about a week before, wasn't living a very good life and was trying to keep up with the big boys, if you will.

I was using meth at the time, and, man, I did so much that I began to overdose.

In my overdose, I left my hospital bed, and all of a sudden, the scene changes from the hospital room and this roof just kinda opens up.

I can't explain it, it just opened up, and I saw my daughter, who had turned one a month before, and I prayed for the first time, and I'm like, "God, give me another chance to be her father.

Don't let my daughter grow up without me."

Long story short, came back into my daughter's life that July, and I've been raising her ever since.

It's awesome to do the things that I've been involved in, but my best duty and the best name that I have ever been called on this earth is Dad by my beautiful, little, young girl, who is a National Champion in the Silver Gloves, and I realized, like, what I don't battle is what she inherits.

If I don't battle addiction, then my daughter will face that.

If I don't battle, you know, unforgiveness, my daughter will face that.

And I think, like, for me, the goal in my life is to make it as high as I can so that my daughter doesn't have to start where I started, but she begins where I end.

My ceiling becomes her floor.

And so, we ride through Downtown, and she's like, at first, she was kind of scared of the people, and I'm like, man, I go, "Baby, somebody loves and values these people out here.

I come out here and I deal with them every day.

They're not as scary as you think, you know?

We just have to take the time to get to know who they are, and rather than ask them, like, "Why are you like this," we can ask the question, like, "What happened to you, and how can we help you?""

- So, when clients come back with a successful update, it's all that much more of a lift.

- And he was like, "Hey, I'm looking at an apartment, can you keep your eye out," and then he goes, "Randy, I got this place, and it's a little bit outta town, it's away from everybody, but you know I like my privacy."

I'm like, "Man, that's cool, dude, like, I'm proud of you," and he was like, "Man, thank you."

- [Stan] For Impact, I'm Stan Parker.

- The Billings Coalition is hoping low-barrier shelter is a step toward the long-term goal of offering what's called permanent supportive housing, a place for people to call their own paired with voluntary services.

The church-run shelter receiving those city tax dollars has served as an overflow shelter in the past.

Stan Parker sat down with Pastor Lisa Harmon, who says the new money will make them a first destination.

- Comparing last year to this year, you know, how will this look different?

- Yeah, well, it will look different just because we're planning on a different space, utilizing a different space, and it actually will be partly in the sanctuary and in our chapel.

- What are the biggest challenges you expect to face this year?

- That's really hard to answer, and I have to tell you why, because last year, it went so well.

So, what do I anticipate?

Since we're doing the intake here, I think that that's gonna be new for us.

So, the Crisis Center will have a team, and we'll have a team here, but moving the intake here, meaning that people come here first and present themselves, and they are assessed to see if this is the right shelter solution for them for the night.

- That intake part of this in concert with the rest of the Continuum of Care principles, this idea of coordinated entry into this network- - Right, right.

- Of providers, can you speak a little bit about how your intake here is also intake into other services in the community?

- Well, for sure, I mean, and that's the beauty of a continuum, right, when all people are kind of having their eyes on all those that are seeking shelter or unhoused, precariously housed, episodically housed, and that's really where the solutions lie.

It is not with one provider that can do everything for everyone.

I think that's really hard and can be very costly.

So, the beauty of the Crisis Center, you know, having their finger on the pulse of the Continuum, and all those social providers in our city as well as faith leaders and whatever city services are out there, I think it makes for a really strong team.

- You know, talking about these partnerships between organization- - Yeah.

- You know, historically, what do you think some of the barriers have been that have prevented that in the past?

- Yeah, I think it's not uncommon for partners (chuckles) to kind of close in on themselves, and people say, you know, the cliché, create silos, and it's especially hard, but also understandable in a world where there aren't a lot of resources.

And these organizations and nonprofits, and even churches, are trying to stay open, trying to do their missions, and trying to do the best that they can, and so I think sometimes we can get prickly with each other because there aren't enough resources and we are scrapping, all, for the same resources, and I think maybe there can be, you know, ego involved in those things for all of us.

You know, we are the answer.

You know, I kind of touched on that earlier, and at the end of the day, I don't think that that advances us as a community.

- This could be considered kind of a cynical question here, but I'm hoping you'll entertain it.

- Oh, yeah.

- You know, while there's a lot of humanitarian goals associated with a lot of these projects, you know, in a lot of the public conversations that you hear, you hear a lot of language, sometimes it's veiled, sometimes it's not, that reflects this idea that, you know, even though these are public spaces we're talking about, that there are some people who just aren't considered welcome here.

- Right.

- And as a community leader who's been swimming in these waters for a long time, I'm curious if there's any, you know, wise words that you can offer on this tangled web of competing priorities.

- That's a big one.

(chuckles) That's a good one.

I think it's tangled, like you said.

It's complicated because so many of us, in fact, I don't know a lot of people in my life that aren't compassionate, and yet, having said that, they're frightened at the same time of what they're seeing.

When people are living their addiction and when they are living their trauma out in the street, it can be very frightening.

Again, it is not illegal to be homeless.

We shouldn't criminalize it.

A lot of folks are experiencing life on the street and unsheltered because of poverty, but when it has those co-occurring things present in them, it frightens people.

It frightens people even from coming close to a doorway that might be the entrance of a business, of a small business person, and that is frightening for not only someone who wants to visit that business, but for that business owner that has put everything that they have into opening a business.

So, there's a lot of competing interests there, and I know it can sound callous, but again, I think if we bring that compassionate heart to the solutions, I think we can all get something that we want.

At the end of the day, for a faith leader, for me, it's about healing for people and wholeness, and I think that's where, I think that's where the answers are for us as a community.

- Well, thank you.

That's everything that I wanted to get through.

Is there anything else that's on your heart right now that you'd like to add?

- No, I think that's it.

- Cool, thank you so much.

- It's my pleasure, yeah.

- Reverend Harmon says the church will shelter 40 to 60 people every night.

That's all the time we have for in this episode.

Next time on Impact, we'll examine a normally non-partisan State Supreme Court race that has turned decidedly partisan, and a truck driver shortage has driven up wages in Montana and led to more students looking to get their commercial driver's license.

Thanks for joining us.

I'm Anna Rau.

(upbeat electronic music) (upbeat electronic music continues) (upbeat electronic music continues) - [Male Announcer] Production of Montana PBS Reports' Impact is made possible with support from the Otto Bremer Trust, investing in people, places, and opportunities in the Upper Midwest, on the Web at autobremer.org, the Greater Montana Foundation, encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans and viewers like you, who are friends of Montana PBS.

Thank you.

(bubbly synth music)