Letters to the editor May 12

Mudslinging

Yesterday, I sat through a 60-second radio interruption listening to a candidate complain about our sitting legislator, Rep. Courtenay Sprunger. In that entire time, not one solution from him — just attacks.

I decided to fact-check this candidate’s complaints: it was disappointingly predictable. This guy cherry-picked her votes on five bills (of several thousand) and misrepresented the full picture. Apparently, he’s already lost two elections — he must hope mudslinging will help him finally secure a win. 

I researched Sprunger’s record for myself. She voted with the Republican majority 94% of the time during the 2023 session. I also looked up the bills her opponent is trumpeting over the airwaves. 

I was particularly interested in his accusation that her vote on HB 402 allowed for illegal aliens to vote. Like most Republicans, I’m tuned into the problems at our nation’s southern border and the disregard most liberals had until election time came around (I see you Jon Tester). As someone in Sprunger’s district who watches closely, it sounded far-fetched.

Here’s what I found: The bill title is wordy and a little confusing, but the bill itself is straightforward. It amends existing law which, in its previous form, required that a person whose citizenship status was unverified be allowed to vote. HB 402 replaced that language with rules requiring the secretary of state to establish procedures for verifying U.S. citizenship and directs the Motor Vehicle Division to adopt rules, assisting the secretary of state in that effort.

HB 402 actually fixes the issue he is complaining about. The language allowing a person whose citizenship has not been verified to vote, including illegal aliens, was removed. I guess he didn’t read the bill.

Candidates, please — spare us the negative propaganda. We’re not idiots, we can read. Only pigs enjoy mudslinging.

— John Parker, Kalispell

No special sessions required

Special session-itis has hit the Montana legislators in search of headlines. So far all their proposals can wait until January 2025.  

By January they will have had enough time to read the state and federal constitutions and educate themselves on the property tax system and other complex issues properly under their jurisdiction.

In the short-term, here are some things they might pursue. None require a special session.

Ask Gov. Abbott of Texas and others to suspend the dispersion of undocumented migrants.

Find out whose credit card is paying the airfare for undocumented travelers and how things are handled with TSA.

Ask for federal enforcement of laws against employers using undocumented workers.

Press Flathead County Commissioners to explain why there has been no progress on an adequate detention facility in over a decade.

Encourage the House of Representatives to revisit the bipartisan immigration bill it put the kibosh on at the request of the presumptive GOP presidential candidate.

— Margaret S. Davis, Lakeside

Toxic dump site

Kudos to Flathead County Sheriff Brian Heino and his letter in the Inter Lake on May 5. 

The very last thing this valley needs is an influx of illegal aliens with no resources, identification, means of legally working, housing, etc. This current administration in Washington, D.C. is deliberately and without any concern for the safety and well being of the legal citizens of this country, allowing anyone and everyone to cross illegally into America. They care not one iota about the increased crime rates and crushing financial burdens put on cities that must find resources to accomodate these people. 

Orderly, fully vetted immigration is one thing — this insanity is another. Sanctuary cities should be outlawed period. Notice the chaos in those cities who adhere to this policy. Just take a good hard look at what has happened to this beloved nation the past three and one half years and you cannot miss the following. 

There is a naked, aggressive attempt to bring this nation to its knees. They have destroyed the educational system, our sense of safety and law and order, racked up uncontionable debt, eliminated our sovereign borders, hypersexualized our young children via the woke school systems, weakened our own military, and on and on it goes. 

We have become a toxic dump site for the world to send their criminals, terrorists and undesirables. And then our own government secretly flies these people to whatever town they choose, devoid of proper traveling documentation or ID required by the legal citizens of this country. 

Enough is enough! Only a change of administration in Washington D.C. and God’s forgiving grace for our disobedience to his will as a nation will give us any chance to utimately eliminate this malignant, virulent take down of our great nation.

— Jill Williams, Kalispell