Letters to the editor Sept. 29

Forstag’s full resume revealed

As a former smokejumper in Missoula and a pilot for Johnson Flying Service, I feel obligated to tell the “rest of the story” on Sam Forstag.

Sam wants Montanans to see him one way: a smokejumper who knows how to swing a tool, but that’s only half of his story.

Fire season runs in the summer. The Montana Legislature meets in the winter and this is where Forstag was working the halls of the Capitol in Helena as a full-time registered lobbyist, first for the ACLU of Montana and then as a partner at the lobby shop Central Houses Strategies.

Lobbying reports show his firm billed roughly $250,000 across two of the sessions that he worked. 

What did that money buy? Forstag worked against bills to keep boys out of girls sports and to stop gender-transition procedures for minors. He opposed tougher penalties for assaulting police officers, for repeat DUI offenders and for dealers whose drugs kill someone. He fought a ban on sanctuary city policies. On the city payroll, he lobbied to raise property taxes and prevent tax reductions.

He wants you to believe he is made in Montana, but he is a lobbyist from Portland and his support comes from the likes of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders. A fact he wants to hide.

None of this shows up in his campaign ads.

I respect anyone who fights wildfires. It is hard, dangerous work, and Montana owes those crews a lot. But a seasonal job doesn’t erase a career spent being paid to push an agenda most Montanans reject. Forstag can’t claim the credibility of the fire line while hiding the paycheck from Helena.

Voters deserve the whole resume. Read the lobbying reports yourself at lobbyistsamforstag.com. Then decide which Sam Forstag is really asking for your vote.

— Larry Ashcraft, Polson

Sam will get us out of this mess

For several years, Montana has seen an influx of out-of-state millionaire politicians with very well- financed campaigns. These candidates promise to drain the swamp, create jobs and bring down prices, yet in the end, answer only to their rich friends. They get the tax breaks and the middle class pays.

It is time to elect someone like Sam Forstag, who understands the difficulty acquiring affordable healthcare, out of reach housing prices for those in need and the spiraling cost of gas and food. Sam realizes the importance of our public lands and the need to protect them. 

His opponent, Aaron Flint, is a hand-picked Trump “warrior” who will continue the failed policies that have driven up the national debt to $40 trillion, mired us in an unwinnable war with Iran and ramped up inflation. Our standing in the world is greatly diminished and our relationship with Canada, our closest ally and important trading partner, is on the rocks. 

Get us out of this mess by voting for Sam.

— Jan Metzmaker, Whitefish