No real Democrats

To the editor,

Recently Democrat county commissioner candidate Joe Brenneman suggested that political party affiliation really doesn't matter when running for an office like the Flathead County commission.

That may have been true back when we had Democrats like Allan Jacobson or Ken Krueger serving on the Flathead County commission. Today, times have changed. As Democrat U.S. Sen. Zell Miller recently pointed out, the Democrat Party is "a national party no more." Sen. Miller could have just as accurately stated that it is a "local party no more."

The long respected traditions of the Democrat Party, and the mainstream local people that used to serve that party with distinction, have been co-opted by extreme, politically far-left interests that no longer represent mainstream America or mainstream Flathead County.

We can see this by the fare of Democrat candidates that the local Democrat party has offered up in recent years for the office of Flathead County commissioner.

This year's Democrat candidate, Joe Brenneman, is a well known, long time behind-the-scenes activist for the anti-growth green group, Citizens For A Better Flathead, an organization that is not "mainstream" by any stretch of the imagination. Prior to Brenneman, we were offered up Karen Reeves, an activist for both the CFBF and the Montana Wilderness Association, another group far left of "mainstream." Prior to Karen, it was candidate Alex Hilton, all of the above.

I will say this to the voting public—whether a candidate for public office calls himself a Democrat or Republican, beware of the candidate that to get elected cannot honestly represent himself for what he is, or his values for what they really are.

Unfortunately for Democrats steeped in the tradition of Roosevelt, Truman and Kennedy, such is the state of the Democrat party today.

Dick Skees

Columbia Falls