LETTER: Attack mailers by 'anonymous cowards'

Well, they’re back ... On Friday, May 13, I received the first attack mailer of the 2016 election season. You know these things: full-color glossy postcards, pre-sorted, bar-coded, mailed under a permit number and put together by a graphics-bulk mail business. They’re usually sent by what I call “anonymous cowards.”

Their message attacking a candidate usually references a past legislative action, and never imparts an accurate portrayal of what occurred. The one I received attacks Sen. Fielder and says she voted for “dark money,” asks what “she wants to hide from voters” and exhorts me: “Don’t send Senator Fielder back to Helena.”

If there’s any senator from Northwest Montana who is NOT bashful about telling voters her positions on issues, it’s Sen. Fielder. Hide something? Not lately. You may not agree with her position on an issue, but she’s forthright about where she stands.

So who’s the first “anonymous coward” in my mailbox this year? “Montanans for Responsible Leadership, John Ward, Treasurer…” with a Kalispell mailing address. That’s the same PAC name (but not the same address) as the PAC organization that supported the seven “responsible Republicans” during the 2014 primary election almost exactly two years ago with generous financial help from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes ($22,000), “Service Employees International Union — Healthcare” ($10,000), and the “Montana BASE” PAC ($30,000).

During the 2015 legislative session those seven “responsible Republicans” voted with the Democrats to pass key pieces of legislation opposed by the party they allegedly represented.

Given that it is spending money attacking Sen. Fielder, I find it strange that the Commissioner of Political Practice’s electronic reporting system gives the “status” (related to the 2016 election) of “Montanans for Responsible Leadership” as of May 22, 2016, as “closed.”

John Ward’s name isn’t to be found, nor is any donation or expenditure information. Attack mailers by anonymous cowards aren’t without cost. —Frank S. Johnson, Kalispell