Keep a true conservative representing Lake County

Lake County has continually sent true conservatives to the Montana legislature, people who represented their interests and values. Linda Reksten has been one of them in her three terms in the Montana House.

That tradition is endangered and under attack as outside dark money has been attempting to hijack the Montana Republican Party. Now, authentic Republicans who have gone to Helena to work with all factions to get the job done are getting primaried by radicals who want to ensure every member answers to the party bosses rather than the people who elect them.

There is a growing movement to evolve the Republican Party into an extremist organization, out of touch with ordinary Montanans.

Folks in Lake County have a chance this June to keep this from happening by sending Rep. Reksten back to Helena to represent their values.

She is firmly committed to restoring the Montana Legislature to a civil organization and ridding it of the toxic environment that has turned neighbors against one another over certain issues. Finding common ground was once a hallmark of Montana legislative sessions, and as a result, things got done, and all Montanans benefited.

It was people like Linda who, in the last session, worked for that common ground that accomplished things and prevented some radical policies from being adopted that would have been an embarrassment to the citizens of Lake County and the state as a whole.

Also noteworthy is that Reksten believes state legislators play a major role in preserving the principles embodied in the constitutions of the United States and the state of Montana.

She will keep up her efforts to lower property taxes, the use of federal funds to keep rural hospitals open, reduce regulations that drive up the cost of housing development, and expand vocational education to support creative solutions to strengthen rural schools without raising taxes. And she is also an active supporter of protecting public lands, keeping them in public ownership, and ensuring Montanans have the right to access them as part of Montana’s economy and quality of life.

– Rick Graetz, Missoula