Ellie Hill

Ellie Boldman Hill (Ellie Hill Smith) (born June 30, 1975) is an American attorney, social justice activist, and politician in the U.S. state of Montana. Ellie was named by Time Magazine as one of the "40 Under 40 Political Rising Stars in the Nation." [1] She is a member of the Democratic Party of Montana, founder of the New Leaders Council, Montana Chapter, and served in the Montana House of Representatives, representing District 90 in central Missoula, from 2011 to 2019. She was unable to run again because of term limits and she has filed to run in Senate Seat 45 in 2020.

Ellie Hill Smith
Member of the Montana House of Representatives
from the 90th district
In office
2011-2019
Preceded byDave McAlpin
Succeeded byMarilyn Marler
Personal details
Born (1975-06-30) June 30, 1975
Phoenix, Arizona
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse(s)Tyler Smith
ResidenceMissoula, Montana
Alma materUniversity of Idaho College of Law, Boise State University
ProfessionLawyer

In November 2010, Ellie won a hotly contested election and was elected to the Montana House of Representatives, where she has been re-elected for four terms. Since roaming the halls of the Montana Capitol, Ellie has traveled to Jordan with the American Council of Young Political Leaders, visited President Barack Obama in the White House with the Young Elected Officials Network, elected national Vice President for the Young Democrats of America, and spoken for thousands as a keynote or panelist for the Aspen Institute, Conference on World Affairs, Netroots Nation, Center for American Women in Politics, amongst many others.

Ellie has served in leadership positions in the Montana Capitol as Co-chair of the House Human Services Committee, in 2015, overseeing Medicaid Expansion, opening the door to health insurance for 70,000 Montanans.[2]

She serves on the national Executive Board of the National Council of State Legislatures, the bipartisan organization representing all fifty states, and on the national board of directors of the American Association of University Women a leading voice for equity and education for women and girls, representing 170,000 members, and 800 colleges and universities.

The Washington Post named Ellie one of the state's “Best Political Tweeters”[3]

Ellie lives in the University District of Missoula, Montana with her husband, Tyler Smith, PhD, three boys, and a cat named Gary.

Private life and education

Ellen "Ellie" Marie Boldman was born in Phoenix in 1975 to a telephone lineman and Vietnam veteran Michael Francis Boldman and telephone company operator, Peggy Lynn Young Boldman. Both worked for the Mountain Bell Telephone Company. Her brother, Christopher Michael Boldman, was born 13 months later, and was often referred to as her "Irish twin". They were raised Roman Catholic.

As Mike Boldman was transferred often with Mountain Bell, Ellie and her younger brother, Chris, grew up in different states throughout the Rocky Mountain West.  She attended Kindergarten in Twin Falls Idaho, attended 1st through 3rd grades at St. Anthony Catholic Grade School[4] in Casper, Wyoming, and then the family moved to Boise, Idaho where she was raised. She was childhood best friends with the author and University of Wyoming professor, Nina McConigley.

Upon moving to Boise, Ellie attended St. Mark's Catholic grade school and Bishop Kelly High School, where she served in student government and played varsity soccer and basketball.

Ellie attended the College of Idaho on a soccer scholarship and after suffering a knee injury, transferred to Boise State University, where she graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and a Minor in English in 1997. After college, Ellie worked for a year at REI and Bogus Basin Ski Resort, spent several months traveling throughout Europe, and then enrolled in the University of Idaho, College of Law, where she earned a Juris Doctor in 2001.  In law school, she was the President of the Idaho Trial Lawyers Association, Student Chapter. She also interned for the Nez Perce Tribal Count in Lapwai, Idaho.

Upon graduation, Ellie worked at the Ada County Prosecutor's Office, and the Garden City Attorney's Office, in Boise, Idaho

Ellie is admitted to practice law in both Idaho and Montana.

After graduating from law school, Ellie became active with the Idaho Democratic party, where she worked for the campaigns for Keith Roark for Idaho Attorney General in 2002 and Dave Bieter for Boise Mayor in 2004.

Ellie interned for Mayor Bieter while he served in the Idaho House of Representatives at the law firm Moore, Smith, Buxton, and Turcke.

Political career

In 2011, Ellie was elected to the Montana House of Representatives, after winning a hotly contested primary against former Missoula City Councilwoman, Lou Ann Crowley.[5]

Ellie was endorsed over Crowley by Senator Ron Erickson, Montana Conservation Voters, and Missoula Mayor John Engen. The seat had been vacated by a former staffer for US Senator Max Baucus, Dave McAlpin, who left the position after he was appointed by Attorney General Steve Bullock to run the Montana State Crime Lab.

During her tenure, Ellie was named by Time Magazine as one of the "40 Under 40 Political Rising Stars” in the nation.

Ellie was appointed by Montana House and Senate Democratic leadership to co-chair the Montana Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (“MDLCC”) for the 2012-2014 election cycle.

She was elected to the National Board of Directors of  National Conference of State Legislatures (2016-2018 NCSL) and selected to represent bipartisan delegation on tour of China in 2017. She began leadership with NCSL by being first elected Western Region Democratic Representative on the Executive Board of the Women's Legislative Network of National Conference of State Legislatures in 2014.[6]

From 2012 to 2014 she was elected National Vice President for the Young Democrats of America.

HD 94

During her tenure as a state legislator, she served in national legislative positions, such as the Montana State Director of Young Elected Officials Network (YEO). The YEO Network is a nonpartisan program of People For the American Way Foundation, and is the first and only national initiative to provide a network of support to the newest generation of progressive leaders at every level of elected office.

She served as the Montana State Director of Women's Legislators' Lobby (WiLL/WAND) [7] as well as the Montana State Director of the National Conference of Environmental Legislators (NCEL) 2018.[8]

Ellie is an outspoken advocate for gun violence prevention and she currently serves on the national Board of Directors for American State Legislators for Gun Violence Prevention and is a routine presenter at national gun violence conferences. ASLGVP is an independent nonpartisan coalition of legislators who share a commitment to developing strategies for reducing gun violence that will be most effective in individual districts, states, and the nation as a whole. Colleagues at the ASLGVP include Representative Chris Lee, Senator Brian P. Kavanagh, and Representative Renny Cushing.[9]

Ellie was elected as a Montana state delegate to the Democratic National Convention for both of President Obama nominations in 2008 in Denver, Colorado and 2012 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

In 2013, Ellie sponsored the ultimately unsuccessful House Bill 235, the "corner crossing" bill, a plan that aimed to give hunters and others access at "corner crossings" to public land that is intermingled with private land in a checkerboard pattern. Hunters and advocacy groups packed the chamber in support of the measure, seeking access to patches of government land that meet at corners. Supporters of the bill said denying access at such corners ensures that mega-land owners like Ted Turner lock up blocks of public land.[10]

In 2015, Ellie sponsored House Bill 318, a bill modeled after 2009's "Brandon's Bill" and it will expand mandatory insurance coverage for kids with Down Syndrome in the State of Montana.  The bill passed and was signed by Governor Steve Bullock.

For several sessions, she sponsored a bill that would have required residential adolescent youth programs to be regulated like other schools for vulnerable youth.  Montana currently has an exemption to regulation if the programs are religiously affiliated. There were several schools in Montana with allegations of significant abuse and neglect and the state was limited in its ability to intervene.[11] During the 2015 and 2017 sessions, CNN sent news reporters to the Montana Capitol to cover the efforts.[12] The bills were always killed by the lobbyists from the Montana Family Foundation, which is largely funded by Montana Congressman Greg Gianforte.[13] In 2019, Lee Newspapers published an in-depth series on the abuse and need for legislative action.[14]

Ellie was the driving force behind Senate Bill 396 in 2015, which drastically revised and deregulated motor carrier laws in the state and eliminates the requirement that new taxi services demonstrate public convenience and necessity to acquire a certificate from the Montana Public Service Commission. It created a separate Class E classification for transportation network carrier services like Uber and Lyft. The legislation was an immense work across the aisle; in the Senate it was officially sponsored by Sen. Ed Buttrey, R-Great Falls, and the original legislation in the House was co-sponsored by Ellie, and Speaker of the House Rep. Austin Knudsen, along with a bipartisan coalition of other lawmakers, including Rep. Daniel Zolnikov. Uber made Ellie officially, "Passenger Zero" in Montana for her work to bring Uber to Montana, and she was invited to take Montana's first Uber ride in Missoula.[15]

Ellie is known for her bipartisan work in economic development, including supporting Montana's microbrewery industry. 2017's House Bill 541raised the production cap on Montana's microbreweries from 10,000 barrels annually to 60,000 barrels while still allowing them to sell beer in on-premises taprooms.[16] According to a 2016 report by the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana, the craft brewing industry in the state contributed $103.2 million to the economy in 2015 while employing 702 people and creating a total of 1,044 jobs.[17]

She served as the Minority Chair of the House Human Services Committee, overseeing Medicaid Expansion, opening the door to health insurance for 70,000 Montanans. After a nearly six-and-a-half hour-long hearing, Committee Chair, Republican Art Wittich, killed the bill.[18]

With significant bipartisan support, Ellie sponsored the "revenge porn bill", making it illegal to share non-consensual pornography. Revenge porn, or the distribution of an individual's sexual photos or videos without their consent, victimizes thousands of unsuspecting people across the nation. While more than 30 states have some kind law against "revenge porn" the bill was killed by Conservative lawmaker, Senator Keith Regier

SD 45

Ellie is currently running for Senate District 45, in Missoula, Montana.

Professional and political positions

Hill has held the following professional and political positions:

References
  1. "40 Under 40". Time. 2010-10-14. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  2. "Montana governor signs Medicaid expansion bill". Modern Healthcare. 2015-04-29. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  3. "Twitter – Making the People's House more accessible". Montana Kaimin. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  4. "About". St. Anthony Tri-Parish Catholic School. 2017-05-23. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  5. Missoulian, KIM BRIGGEMAN of the. "Crowley, Hill running for Missoula's House District 94". missoulian.com. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  6. "Women's Legislative Network". www.ncsl.org. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  7. "WiLL | WOMEN'S ACTION FOR NEW DIRECTIONS". wand. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  8. "National Caucus of Environmental Legislators". National Caucus of Environmental Legislators (NCEL). Retrieved 2020-01-13.
  9. "State Lawmakers Announce 30-State Push for Commonsense Laws to Prevent Individuals Likely to Harm Themselves or Others from Accessing Guns". NY State Senate. 2018-03-02. Retrieved 2020-01-13.
  10. "Cornered: Western Sportsmen Trapped by Arcane Regulation Prohibiting Public Access at Corner Crossings". Outdoor Life. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  11. Missoulian, TRISTAN SCOTT. "Eureka ranch at center of debate over adoption of Russian children". The Billings Gazette. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  12. "pinehaven – Search Results – Anderson Cooper 360 - CNN.com Blogs". Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  13. holly.michels@lee.net, HOLLY K. MICHELS. "Greg Gianforte is significant backer of Montana foundation that promotes conservative values". missoulian.com. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  14. lucy.tompkins@gmail.com, LUCY TOMPKINS. "Montana religious programs for troubled teens operate with no oversight". missoulian.com. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  15. "Uber to Launch in August in Montana". ABC FOX Montana. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  16. Erickson, David. "Bill that would allow more craft beer taprooms in Missoula set to become law". missoulian.com. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  17. (PDF) http://www.bber.umt.edu/pubs/econ/BrewersImpact2016.pdf. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  18. Radio, Jackie Yamanaka-Yellowstone Public. "House Blocks Attempts To Revive Bullock's Medicaid Expansion Bill". www.mtpr.org. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  19. "Representative Ellie Hill's Biography". Project Vote Smart. Retrieved 21 September 2012.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.