Zinke’s absence at Whitefish forum shows he isn’t interested in representing the people
I organized a candidate’s forum for our new Western District Congressional Representative in Whitefish in September. I invited all three candidates within days of each other in early July before their calendars had commitments.
Monica Tranel, Democrat, and John Lamb, Libertarian, said yes immediately. I went to the Republican candidate’s listed field office when I got no response from an email only to find that there was no Zinke office - the address of the local UPS office had been used instead. I found this misleading. So I wrote out a handwritten invite with the date/place/time and drove over to Ryan Zinke’s home to deliver it in person. He was gracious in receiving me (I had interrupted brunch) but his campaign would not commit. I left two more letters since I had not received confirmation and finally the week before the event got a no.
This event was 1/2 mile from Ryan Zinke’s home and only 1 1/2 hours of his time and yet he chose to attend a football game instead. At first, I thought it was the Whitefish homecoming game, but no he’d driven to Bozeman instead of meeting his constituents in his hometown of Whitefish. Monica Tranel drove three hours, and John Lamb five hours (with his kids and wife) to be with us in Whitefish.
It was a good event with all of the seats taken and an attentive audience. Midway through I had to stop the questions because I was informed that people were filming the event and I had set up rules ahead of time concerning this. Three people sat together with their phones trained on the speakers — one on Monica Tranel, one on John Lamb, one on both. I asked why they were filming and one man answered, “my parents couldn’t make it so I am filming this for them.” Another woman answered, “My father lives in Eureka and loves Mr. Lamb so I am filming this for him.” We proceeded and the candidates grew uncomfortable.
Afterward, the male admitted that they were Zinke campaign staff members. The third person filming is active in the local Republican Party. Why did they lie? Why did Ryan Zinke send these “spies” versus just walking the 1/2 mile to attend in person? I found out within 24 hours, it was to use clips from the event to disparage Zinke’s opponents and to misrepresent what occurred on social media platforms. This is disgusting behavior to me, and for these reasons, and many other reasons I would urge each of you to vote for either Monica Tranel or John Lamb.
Both have shown up repeatedly to meet with constituents in public forums and both are appropriate and able to discuss their ideas and solutions for our collective problems. Neither has a history of ethical investigations like Ryan Zinke now does, from his time in the military to his recent civil servant position. Both Monica Tranel and John Lamb are running to serve us for all of the right reasons. They are bright, warm, smart and thoughtful, and will be appropriate stewards of the public trust if elected.
John Lamb is the most conservative of the three candidates and believes in minimal governmental interference and building community. Monica Tranel is an attorney with a strong background in land use, energy and water rights as well as human rights. Your vote matters in sending an honest and engaged Representative to Congress for the next two years. Please vote for Tranel or Lamb and let Zinke sit this one out. If he’s not showing up before he’s elected, he won’t show up for you in office. We deserve better.
Rebecca Norton, Whitefish