Hanson disputes energy vote

Come on Mike Taylor, Mon-tana does not need a Public Service Commission candidate who tells half-truths.

It is public record that you voted yes for Senate Bill 390, which dumped deregulation in the lap of Montanans on the crucial second vote.

Once it was clear this miserable idea would pass, you changed your vote for the third reading.

This procedural maneuver is a common butt-covering measure, employed by crafty politicians worried that they may one day have to deny the way they voted on an issue, nothing more.

Worse yet, this seems to show that you knew what a bad idea this bill was and wanted later to be able to say that you voted against deregulation.

In fact, you were a sponsor of the deregulation bill and never asked to have your name removed as a sponsor, despite rules which allow it. As to your actual voting record on SB390, you voted three times for and once against, so your claim now to have voted against is, in fact, really only a quarter-truth.

In 1998, after it was clear that deregulation was a bad idea, there were two calls for a special session to "delay implementation of portions" of SB390. You voted no for both calls, choosing instead to stick Montanans with deregulation.

It is one thing to stand strong for your votes — even when those votes foist higher energy costs on ordinary Montana citizens. At least it could be said that you stand behind your convictions.

It is quite another thing altogether to employ artifice and deceit to try and hide your voting history. The Republican Party deserves better. Montana deserves better.

Shannon Hanson

Whitefish