By Pat Earnest, Hamilton
I first met Sharon in Nashville, TN. Yes, that’s right, we were both there, from Montana, being trained to be group leaders for Women of Faith. We had agreed to do our best to bring at least 50 women to the next event in Spokane, WA. Taking care of all of their tickets and travel arrangements. That was 10 years ago and since then I have had the pleasure of getting to know Sharon in many ways. More recently, we have both been serving the public as much as we can with Conservative issues. Sharon has been employed at the Capitol during the last two Legislature sessions, in 2015 and 2017, while her husband, Ed was a Representative from the Florence area where they have resided for 32 years. I am now applying to do the same kind of work. This means moving away to Helena, living in a one room rental, coming back home on the weekends. That really disrupts your normal life, church, friends, etc., but we find it worth it, because we care about the direction that our state and country is going.
I have been observing Sharon’s opponent, Margaret Gorski, who I did not even know the first time I saw her, at our Congressman’s hearing in Hamilton recently. It was interesting watching her work the room. I love to sit back and watch people. It was evident that she was grandstanding, wanting to be the main attention in the room. I saw this again while we were in line for the Fair parade. I was standing next to one of our floats, with a young boy who was just sitting on a hay bale. Gorski was next to us and started to taunt him. I wanted to come to his defense, but another man asked me to be silent. I’ll be darned if that young boy didn’t hold his own with Gorski, giving her a comeback for each and every attack! The sad part was that this grown up would do this to a little boy. Gorski had a bullhorn and was talking into it, telling everyone where to find her after the parade. Boy, was I glad when we finally started moving! I guess that is one of the main differences I see between these two women. Greef is soft spoken, kind, considerate, well versed, conservative and definitely ready to represent us where governmental bills are brought before the House and Senate, discussed, sometimes long into the night, then voted into law. Gorski, well, she is very liberal, being a Democrat, and she can sure say a lot and likes to get a lot of attention. But is that what it takes to get the job done? I don’t think so. Neither are in my district, nor are they in a lot of the people that are writing these letters. I hope I have given you something to think about.