Judy Stang drops out, endorses Clark

After a considerable amount of thought I have decided to withdraw my name from consideration for election to the Montana Senate and endorse Paul Clark for Senate District 7. I would like to thank the people and organizations that supported me over the last few months.

I am endorsing Paul Clark because his Republican opponent, Greg Hinkle has publicly announced that Montana should not accept any Federal funding. That seems too extreme to me and will cost Mineral, Missoula, and Sanders County too many jobs. Working in politics for 18 years I have seen the benefits of Federal funding and could not imagine local and state governments, schools and rural health care functioning without this funding.

Just in Mineral County the schools rely on Federal funding for many of their programs. The county has done numerous low-income housing projects that have allowed folks on fixed or low incomes to have homeownership, plus a better quality of housing. The revenues from highway construction have a huge impact on our local economy, and create good paying jobs for Montanans. Even counties have numerous services that have monies from the federal government that trickles down to our level.

My main reasons for running was to see this District represented in a non-partisan way. We need more candidates in politics that remember to represent the constituents of their districts and not become party clones. The last legislature was an indication of what happens when representatives do not have the courage to go outside of their party leaders issues and really give and take on solutions. It is going to take a lot of non-partisan work to bring this state around.

After talking with Paul, I am convinced that he will be a strong advocate for Mineral, Sanders, and the Frenchtown area of Missoula Counties. In fact, after numerous debates and questionnaires from newspapers, I have noticed our solutions to the issues are very similar. He has promised to work across ideological lines to find solutions to the problems important to all Montanans and to keep in touch with counties, schools, hospitals and local constituents during the legislative session. Paul will work hard to bring better paying jobs to rural Montana, support responsible development and work to increase access to affordable health care.

Judy Stag

Write-in candidate for senate race