Alme is silent

by Star Jameson, Hamilton

When a friend asked me what I thought of Republican Kurt Alme’s chances for winning a seat in the U. S. Senate, I had to stop and think. With all the hubbub of Bodner-Bankhead, Alme hasn’t worked too hard to clarify his viewpoints.

His website doesn’t list any public appearances. The Montana Free Press has called him repeatedly for an interview, but he remains an enigma. Of course, he’s running on law and order and cleaning up the drugs that flow like a river into Montana. But so far I can’t find any mention of specifically Montana issues though he was born and raised here.

We are facing an agricultural crisis between Trump economics, state water issues and ecological matters arising from the threat of the Sheep Creek Mine which could bring serious contamination to the Bitterroot and Clark Fork Rivers. Other Republicans have raised questions about how this project earned the FAST-41 Transparency Project. Our County Commissioners oppose it. They are all Republicans. But Alme is mum.

Does he carry Montana values first and foremost? His forte seems to be bean counting. What can we really depend on if he is our Senator? Does he grasp climate change which is having its inroads in Montana already? Does he understand the disaster Sheep Creek Mine could be for our County? Does he feel the devastation of missing and murdered indigenous women here in Montana?

I guess his campaign strategy is to lay low and assume Republicans will vote for him because of the R, but will they get what they’re hoping for?