By Cinda Holt, Stevensville
I believe Steve Bullock is the man for us. He is not going to answer to party bosses in DC, and he is going to make Washington look a little more like Montana.
Gov. Bullock believes in the importance of finding common ground. His leadership on Montana’s healthcare/Medicaid expansion resulted in a Republican carrying the bill. (Don’t forget that Sen. Daines was a full-on opponent of the Affordable Care Act.)
The Governor’s work to reduce the impact of “dark money” goes back to the first time he challenged Citizens United when he was our Attorney General. Like most Montanans, I value the Sunshine Law and hate seeing the volume of attack ads saturating, and skewing, our election processes. I personally know many moderate Republicans who feel the same.
When Gov. Bullock took office, a balanced budget was the top polling issue for both Republicans and Democrats. He succeeded in achieving that goal, and even topped it with a rainy day fund.
Our protection of public lands is central to Montanan’s way of life. In this, the Governor has been an incredible champion. By contrast, Sen. Daines has gone on record in opposition to protecting public lands. In fact, public lands sell-off is in the platform of both the national and state Republican parties.
Lastly, Gov. Bullock stood up against President Obama’s clean power plan that had a target goal he felt was not achievable in Montana. From his perspective, the stated brutal reduction percentage, especially in a short term, moved the goalposts and was not fair.
I want someone in that important Montana senate seat who will stick up for Montana and have a real chance to break through this damaging partisan divide we are experiencing – that person is Steve Bullock.
Cindy S Smith-Putnam says
Agree 100 percent. Bullock can bring a pragmatic can-do attitude that brings people together in search of better policy for all of us. He has my vote.