Would you vote for Nancy Pelosi?
With the most important election of our time coming up in November, would you vote for Nancy Pelosi if she were on your ballot! Hopefully you would say – of course not!
Well, friends, a vote for Monica Tranel is a vote for Nancy Pelosi! That’s just the way our Congress works! Party line votes are common place. Monica will vote with Nancy on all Democratic Party platform issues!
So I ask you to think about that for many reasons! If you are tired of high gas prices, high food prices, open borders and (illegal immigration), human trafficing, misinformation campaigns, boys competing in girls sports, gender nuetral discussion progression, media censorship of conservative thoughts, continuous attacks on gun ownership and the 2nd amendment, the critical race theory in our schools, the defunding and dishonor of law enforcement, federal agency corruption, loss of financial security as our stock market tanks and recession builds, the fentanyl explosion in our country, etc! etc! etc!, then you don’t want to vote for Monica Tranel for your representative!
We need to take our Country back!! If Republicans do not take the House, Senate or both houses of Congress there will be no stopping the continued march toward socialism, immorality, and eventual bankruptcy.
Please vote like your freedom depends on it! Because it does!
Submitted by Greg Larson
Ryan Zinke Earned My Vote
With personal knowledge of candidates running for Congress from Western Montana, Ryan Zinke is hands down the best choice. Al Olszewski and Mary Todd, who ran against him in the Republican primary, have publicly endorsed Ryan Zinke!
Liberal opposition throws mud at him. They fear the power his voice holds for natural resources, military affairs, and commonsense spending.
When I chaired Legislature’s Administrative Committee for Montana Consumer Counsel, I came to know Monica Tranel. I met her in meetings and received feedback from legislators and Public Service Commissioners about her, some good, some not so good. The negative was mostly on her style and personality. Before I checked, she resigned as staff attorney for Montana Consumer Counsel.
Today Tranel is hellbent on trashing the reputation of the man who dodged bullets and bombs to defend her right to free speech. She relishes nasty, sleazy, snakey words and exaggerated claims. That says more about her than him.
She has a lot to learn about the public’s tolerance for ugly ads. If she gets to DC, she will wander in as a green rookie with a nasty vocabulary, a background in power rates and courtrooms, and nine months experience of saying she approves snakey commercials. She would vote ditto with Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden every time.
Ryan Zinke drained the DC swamp by moving land and water managers west, where they should be. His actions as Secretary of Interior had America energy independent. He managed huge tracts of public land for public use and benefit, including hiking, camping, hunting, fishing, mining, grazing, drilling and forestry. Zinke had the courage to challenge extreme and frivolous enviro positions. He gained funding for National Park maintenance.
Ryan Zinke served honorably as a Commander of elite US Navy Seals, 23 year veteran, Montana state senator, US Congressman, and member of Donald Trump’s Cabinet. He shoots straight, talks square, and understands Western Montana. He will re-enter Congress as a third term, seasoned professional.
When Zinke was promoted to Secretary of Interior, liberal DC insiders and Democrats targeted him with all sorts of allegations. Lots of mud throwing and wasted effort. Eighteen investigations but never found guilty of crime. He’s pretty clean.
I served with Ryan Zinke in the 2011 Montana Legislature and worked with him in DC and Montana.
Submitted by Senator Mike Cuffe
Elections Are Like Ripples in The Water
The time of the vote may make a big splash, but the effects may radiate for many years. This year for the first time in many years Western Montana will elect a member to the House of Representatives, and there is a clear choice between the major candidates on what I view as the major issue of our times, the Environment..
For Mr. Zinke the answer seems simple. It’s Two Bucks a Gallon. We only need to produce more hydrocarbons, bring down the price of gas, and we will go back to the old times, cut spending on technology, and prices will fall.
Ms. Tranel’s answer was to continue to add to sources of renewable energy and invest in future energy development.
The last 9 years have been in the top hottest years on record. Parts of our state have had drought for years along with other parts of the country while floods and hurricanes like Ian destroy other parts. Ian is not an only child.
When I vote, I am not only voting for the now but for the future generations. I owe them beautiful spacious skies and amber waves of grain like earlier generations gave to me. I hope many will do the same.
Submitted by James Mee
Dirty tricks from a former justice
Dirty tricks from a former justice
Lawyers and judges are in positions of great power and responsibility when it comes to our justice system. For that reason, they must abide by strict but sensible codes of conduct to ensure their behavior is ethical.
Unfortunately, a former justice of the Montana Supreme Court, one who as a retired judge can still be called upon to hear cases, has flagrantly broken those codes of conduct.
Justice James Nelson recently wrote a widely-distributed email attacking a candidate for the Supreme Court with falsehoods and asked recipients to forward on his slander. In the email, Nelson accused Public Service Commission Chairman and current Supreme Court candidate Jim Brown of being responsible for “screwed up” financial records that interfered with an audit and for a wrongful termination settlement that cost taxpayers $175,000.
Justice Nelson knows full well that those things happened before Jim Brown was elected to the Public Service Commission. As a close watcher of the Montana Legislature (based on his frequent newspaper columns), Justice Nelson also knows that Jim Brown has in fact received strong bipartisan praise from legislators and other officials for his successful efforts to clean up problems at the PSC that predated his tenure there.
In simple terms, Justice Nelson knowingly lied about Jim Brown to try to hurt his campaign. At this point, the reader may be thinking “dirty tricks and lies during election season, what’s new here?” The difference is that given his position, Justice Nelson should be subject to sanction for violation of judicial ethics rules.
Rule 4.1 (A) (10) of the Montana Code of Judicial Conduct requires that a judge shall not “knowingly, or with reckless disregard for the truth, make any false or misleading statement.”
Rule 8.2 of the Montana Rules of Professional Conduct states that “A lawyer shall not make a statement that the lawyer knows to be false or with reckless disregard as to its truth or falsity concerning the qualifications or integrity…of a candidate for election or appointment to judicial or legal office.”
Notably, Rule 4.1 of the Code of Judicial Conduct also explains that “when an independent third party has made false attacks on a candidate’s opponent, the candidate should disavow the attacks, and request the third party to cease and desist.” Jim Brown’s opponent, Ingrid Gustafson, has not disavowed Nelson’s false attacks or to my knowledge requested him to cease his slandering. Unsurprisingly, given her record, Gustafson is therefore also violating judicial ethics every day she doesn’t address Nelson’s lies.
These violations merit complaints to the Judicial Standards Commission, the entity charged with investigating judges for misconduct, against both Nelson and Gustafson. But the JSC moves too slowly and opaquely to address this matter before the election.
These unethical dirty tricks are unbecoming of a judge, even a retired one like Nelson who doesn’t know where his personal opinion ends and the law begins. If you want strong ethical standards at the Montana Supreme Court, Jim Brown is the only candidate who deserves your support.
Submitted by Rep. Barry Usher Chair House Judiciary Committee