Strange ethics

Letter to the editor, Helena IR, 9/21/06

I am a constituent of Rep. Scott Mendenhall, HD 77, and wonder about some aspects of CI-97,of which he is an advocate. Mendenhall has reportedly been concerned about clean campaign tactics and political ethics. Somehow these two concepts don’t seem to go together...political ethics and CI-97.

Many residents of Jefferson County feel they were misled (tricked?) into signing these petitions. Also, there are questions as to why out-of-staters were paid $274,000 for gathering signatures. If this petition is good for Montanans, surely we would be out getting the petitions signed ourselves...without pay.

Where does following-the-money-trail lead in this case? Montana’s Constitution has safe guards against overspending the budget. Montana does not need this spurious amendment proposed by extremist factions from out-of-state.

As a candidate for re-election, Rep. Mendenhall needs to answer these questions, and be forthright and honest about his connections and involvement in out-of-state promoters of such a flawed initiative as CI-97.

Above is what we don’t need. Here’s what I propose:

Vote against CI-97 (if it makes the ballot), and vote for Sheila Hogan, candidate for State Representative, HD 77, a well-known advocate for good government for the common good.

Tempie Daigle, Clancy