Commissioner Rye is the Better Choice

MISSOULA - I have read with interest several letters in the Missoulian and the Pathfinder for or against each of the Democratic Party primary nominees for County Commissioner.

Regardless of my political affiliations, I am a supporter of Commissioner Stacy Rye, who I have met on several occasions, with whom I have communicated frequently since her appointment to the Board of County Commissioners and whom I believe has the interests of we, the people, uppermost in her activities as a commissioner.

But in favoring Mr. Dave Strohmaier over Commissioner Rye and criticizing Commissioner Rye as Commissioner Jean Curtiss recently did in a letter to the Pathfinder, one must wonder what her current critics will do should she be the nominee for her party for Commissioner in November. Will she be supported over her opponent by those now critical of her publicly or privately simply because she is the Democratic Party’s nominee or will the excuse be that, in spite of all that her current critics have to tell us about her, she will be an automatic better choice over whoever the Republican nominee is?

I believe that party politics and affiliations have little or no influence at the county level, nor should they, and we, the people, should elect the best person to represent us in running the county, who has all our interests in mind, who reaches out to us all and who wants to hear what we have to say, and who has no personal agenda which he or she might want to push through public office. Commissioner Rye has attended meetings in Seeley Lake, has listened to and shown interest in our concerns and is such a person.

At this time the choice before us is Commissioner Rye or Mr. Strohmaier. Who knows who the people might pick in November to serve us for the next six years but should one of the candidates be Commissioner Rye or Mr. Strohmaier? I believe Commissioner Rye is the better choice at this time.