Maedje on Jopek

I just finished reading that Rep. Mike Jopek (D-Whitefish) and some other Democrat candidates for state legislature announced they are going to introduce bills in the next legislature, if elected, to reform eminent domain and protect property rights.

I've served in the legislature for nearly four years now, and I served with freshman Rep. Mike Jopek this last session on the House Natural Resources Committee and on the House Local Government Committee.

Rep. Jopek voted against every single measure which reformed eminent domain. He actually proposed measures, written by him, which horribly infringed on private property rights. They never passed. Even some Democrats couldn't stomach his property rights infringement bills.

Worse yet, this fellow introduced a bill (House Bill 293), apparently unknown to the people in Whitefish, which would have allowed the government to take property from you just so people could travel through your yard in order to get to a body of water. Rep. Jopek actually proposed increasing the scope of property takings by government.

I'm going to be absolutely candid. I served with him, I know him well, and if this fellow is claiming he wants to reform eminent domain, I don't believe it as far as I can throw a house, and I would suggest to voters in that district that they shouldn't either.

There. Somebody had to say it, and it's time for a little truth in politics coming from someone who sat right beside Jopek for some 90 days in committee meetings and knows better than to believe such nonsense.

I'm not running for another term, so I have no real political interest in Jopek's re-election bid, except that I've never seen a House member try to pull such a whopper on his constituents — that's just plain wrong.

Rep. Rick Maedje

Fortine