Longtime Rapid City nurse Bonny Petersen cites health insurance, renewable energy and education funding as reasons she wants to serve as the District 34 representative in the state Legislature.

Petersen is the Democratic candidate seeking the two-year office for the area covering Chapel Valley, Carriage Hills, Canyon Lake, Pinedale, Wildwood, Horace Mann and other neighborhoods in west Rapid City.

Petersen is a registered nurse and diabetes educator who has worked for Regional Health for 13 years. She says her nearly 30 years of health care experience includes working as a registered nurse for the Rapid City schools, as a nurse consultant and as a nationally certified childbirth educator.

Her business experience includes being a past president of the Professional Association for Childbirth Education, a nonprofit association of nurse educators. She also founded and ran an Internet retail business, Black Hills Family Fun, for five years.

Petersen supports creating a statewide health insurance risk pool to cover medical expenses for the uninsured. In a news release, she said the Legislature also should examine state laws "to ferret out unnecessary regulations that add to the cost of health care."

She said the state also can play a role in encouraging energy efficiency and supporting alternative fuels, a combination that will create jobs, reduce pollution and cut oil use. For example, she said legislation for balanced net metering would require electrical utilities to pay their customers for energy they put into the system.

"That would provide incentives for consumers to invest in solar and wind energy, which would in turn create good high-tech jobs," she said.

Improving state funding to education also has multiple benefits, she said. Better schools educate future workers, and help communities attract businesses that provide jobs for young people.

An 18-year resident of District 34, Petersen and her husband, Jim, have three grown children.

To learn more about Petersen, go to www.Bonnyforhouse.com.