Lorena Hillis wants the federal government out of her living room - but she wouldn't mind if a presidential candidate showed up at the door.
In fact, when Lorena and husband Mike started brainstorming questions they'd ask would-be commanders-in-chief last week, there was no stopping them.
"How would you restructure the election process so that well-qualified, but non-wealthy people could run for office?"
"How would you restructure the pharmaceutical program so Americans don't pay an inflated price for medications?"
"What is the government's appropriate role in personal decisions? Abortion? Assisted suicide? Same-sex marriage?"
"We could've gone on for hours," said Hillis, one of 34 Missoulian readers who answered an e-mail survey of newspaper readers nationwide.
"If you could have an informal chat in your living room with each of the presidential candidates, which issues would you discuss with them as being most important to you?" asked the first of six questions about national, state and local campaign issues - and the media's coverage of them.
The survey was part of the Associated Press Managing Editors National Credibility Roundtables Project, an effort to encourage a wider public discussion of news coverage and journalistic issues.
"The idea is to hear more voices inside newsrooms when editors are planning coverage, to get messages with personality and passion," said Carol Nunnelley, director of the Roundtables Project.
Nationally, 1,750 newspaper and online news readers responded to last week's Q&A.
Missoulian readers who replied suggested dozens of questions they'd like politicians to answer during the 2004 elections.
In the presidential race, the war in Iraq, health care, natural resource issues and the economy dominated their concerns.
In state and local races, the focus was more tightly on the economy - and, loudly, on growth and development.
"Why is this state so welcoming to big-box retail, yet thwarts every attempt by big manufacturing to do business?" asked Kevin Rocek of Lolo.
And what's with the "BANANA Republic mentality" of Missoula County? he asked. As in "Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything."
Boulder resident Paul Richards said he'd spend his living-room time with state and local candidate talking about education and social services.
"Everyone who wants to attend a college or university should be able to - free of charge," he wrote. "The state should pay for the public education of all its citizens.
"No one should go to bed hungry. Food stamps or food credits should be easy to obtain. Paperwork should be minimal. People should get as much food as they need to be nourished and healthy."
Hillis, a community health educator and 26-year resident of Missoula, said she'd start with growth issues, quizzing candidates about their approach to zoning and growth management.
"Do we need more open space?"
"What are your views on oil and gas exploration in sensitive ecosystems?"
"Overdevelopment in other states has rendered many of them too costly and too developed to have any quality of life. How would you protect Montana from that?"
Hillis and her husband talk about politics all the time, but aren't inclined to be politically active in more public ways.
"You go to these candidate forums and it's almost like a boxing match or a shouting match," she said in a telephone interview. "That has really turned me off from participating that way."
Still, she envies voters in Iowa - who, by virtue of their presidential caucuses - actually get one-on-one time with candidates.
"It frustrates me that Iowa got to vote and kick several guys out of the primaries," she said. "It's like the rest of us are chopped liver."
Raised a Republican, Hillis said she increasingly votes Democratic.
"The major thing that turned me off to the Republican Party is their attempt to bring government into my living room," she said. "They seem anti-government, yet they want to tell me when I can have children, who I can marry, who I can have sex with, and - as Jeb Bush has illustrated - when I can die."
In Rollins, Shirley Harrison said she'd welcome presidential candidates into her living room, but would demand honesty and sincerity.
"When can we start to have roundtable discussions about solving problems instead of all the implied rhetoric coming out of papers and radios?" she asked. "When will we have a free press - more than we have since Sept. 11?"
The war in Iraq dominated many readers' questions for would-be presidents.
Writing from Polson, Anna Lonnevik said she'd ask:
"What would you change about the restructuring in Iraq, if anything? What about the financing of post-war problems there?"
"I want to know how they would end the disaster in Iraq and bin Laden," said Diane Klein of Kalispell.
"I'd also like to cut, cut, cut spending for welfare recipients unless they are unable to work," she wrote. "So many times, I have seen strong, healthy men and women standing in line with their beer, cigarettes and T-bone steaks, using their play money from Medicaid."
Said Missoula's Dana Boruch: "I'd ask George Bush what he's been doing to find Osama and why more soldiers have died since the war was declared over and how he can afford to subsidize a war at $4 billion a month. What would that equate to in national health care?"
Presidential candidates dropping into living rooms in western Montana would almost certainly be peppered with questions about the cost of prescription drugs, insurance and medical care.
More than half of the Missoulian readers who joined the online survey suggested a health care question or two:
"I'm amazed at how many of our friends and neighbors have no health care coverage because they can't afford it," said Missoula's Judy Wright. "I have never been sick and just recently was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease. It would have bankrupted us had we not had health insurance. I am especially concerned with the children who are unable to receive medical attention."
Health care and medication are simply too expensive, said Dagny Krigbaum of Missoula. "I would like candidates to concentrate on lowering costs for ALL people, not just children and the elderly. If people in their prime aren't healthy, they can't take care of their parents or their children."
SuzAnne Anderson of Missoula said she'd hit candidates with questions about welfare reform, Social Security and prescription drugs for under-insured or uninsured Americans - and also about "the rudeness of government workers to the poor."
"The issue most important to all future generations is the connection between global warming, the collapse of ocean ecosystems and serious health issues," wrote Judy Hoy of Stevensville.
In fact, environmental issues were also high on western Montanans "must-answer" issues: national forest management, wildfire costs and risks, oil and gas drilling, Americans' reliance on fossil fuels.
So how could the media do a better job of covering the 2004 elections?
In the national survey, newspaper readers said they'd get political reporters out of New York City and into Omaha, Denver and the West.
"Like the reality series, pick a Joe Schmoe to go on the campaign trail to ask the kinds of questions we would ask on the campaign trail and keep a journal," suggested Michael Lenninger of Jacksonville, Fla.
"Ask my questions of the candidates," pleaded Melissa English of Cincinnati. "Be my surrogate."
"More issues, less horse race," said Carter Camp of Rosebud, S.D.
Missoulian readers wanted political coverage that's fair, balanced and meaty enough to be meaningful.
"Just be balanced," wrote Bill Barber of Missoula. "Leave the opinions for the editorial pages and report the news as straight as possible. We can think for ourselves."
"Cover every candidate and their statements on issues," said Missoula's Jennifer Keith. "No one cares about who spent X amount on an attack ad that only 0.05 percent of the population will ever see. What I care about is WHO is running, WHAT they are running on, and WHY they feel that they need to run."
Ben Longbottom of Stevensville agreed: "Too much of the time, I feel the campaign itself is the main point of news coverage. Issues are important. 'Course, I know it is hard to pin a politician down to real words and issues."
"The media coverage of the election season is shallow and uninformed," complained Mark Hull of Missoula. "It would improve things if reporters had autonomy and time to do the difficult, expensive and time-consuming research necessary to actually present issues and positions clearly."
When it comes time, will the candidates and political coverage have worn down western Montanans? Come November, will they vote?
On that question, every Missoulian reader responded with the same, emphatic answer:
"Yes."
"Yes. Democracy is not a spectator sport."
"Yes, I am an optimist."
"Absolutely. I've been doing so since Eisenhower and am not going to stop now."
"ABSOLUTELY!!!!!"
Reporter Sherry Devlin can be reached at 523-5268 or at sdevlin@missoulian.com
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