UPDATE: See Video of Gunnar Malm’s KGAB Interview

Local realtor Gunnar Malm says he is a fiscal conservative who's background in real estate will help him be an effective Laramie County Commissioner if he is elected.

Malm, a Republican, appeared on KGAB AM on Monday to talk about his campaign. He said he is a sixth-generation Laramie County resident who has ''an immense sense of pride in what this county has given my family for so long."

Malm said some of the key issues in his campaign include fighting for private property rights and against taxes such as transfer taxes and sales taxes on services. He said the fact that he is a Cheyenne resident and business owner help make him ''uniquely qualified to represent the entire county" on the county commission.

He said his background in real estate would be useful in dealing with land-use and economic development issues. In general, Malm said he "sees some areas where we could spend more wisely."

During his Monday morning appearance on KGAB, Malm came under questioning from some callers about his vocal opposition on social media to the 2016  commission campaign of former Laramie County Commissioner M. Lee Hasenauer, with one caller calling some of his posts "pretty nasty."

Malm responded that Hasenauer was a candidate "that I really disagreed with. I disagreed with his vision for the county, I disagreed with the way he treated people. And I expressed myself as I felt was a constitutional right." But he added that going forward "that's not something that I would necessarily do again, or do in the way that I did."

But he added that his posts only consisted of screenshots of posts that Hasenauer himself had put up on social media.

Hasenauer, who is well-known as a Laramie County Tea Party activist, was attempting what would prove to be an unsuccessful comeback after losing a re-election bid to the commission in 2014. He has not announced any plans to run for office so far in 2018.

In terms of his qualifications as a fiscal conservative, Malm says he has fought long and hard for the residents of Laramie County and against new taxes, adding he hoped to do the same if he is elected to the commission.