Supports Curtis

Before being selected Aug. 16 by the Montana Democratic Party to be the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, State Rep. Amanda Curtis said in her nominating speech, “This election could decide who controls the U.S. Senate. I don’t mean the Republicans versus the Democrats. I mean the millionaires versus the middle class. This is the fundamental difference between Steve Daines and me. He seems like a nice guy with a wonderful family, but I’m pretty sure he doesn’t understand what life is like for the rest of us.”

That pretty well sums it up. According to the Billings Gazette, fully two-thirds of the $5 million Daines has raised comes from out-of state sources, including conservative PACs, hedge funds, wealthy individuals in 47 states, and sources associated with the Koch brothers.

Ask yourself — do we independent, hard-working Montanans want to be represented in the U.S. Senate by a millionaire bought and paid for by out-of-state moneyed interests, or by a dedicated Butte High School math teacher who gets more productive work done in one month of lesson plans than the U.S. Congress does in a year. Like how about balancing the federal budget? Suggested campaign slogan for math teacher Amanda Curtis: “Elect someone who can count.”

And a woman who knows how to control a classroom. In the U.S. Senate good-old-boys club, where a bunch of mostly old white men are increasingly unable to play nice together and get things done, we need fresh change (Amanda is 34).

In nominating Curtis, state Sen. Robyn Driscoll said Amanda “understands everyday Montanans because she is one of us. She knows strong public education can be the path out of poverty because that’s her life story.”

The Montana GOP apparently is nervous, having already posted a compilation of totally out-of-context sound bites from Amanda’s YouTube videos she posted from each day of the 2011 Montana Legislature, trying to make her look bad. What I’m guessing the GOP didn’t imagine was that their attempted hatchet job would lead folks to watch the full versions of the videos and see what an honest, totally genuine and transparent person Amanda is.

We don’t need more slippery politicians representing us who change their beliefs on the fly to fit whatever audience is before them. Let’s try an honest, hard-working member of the middle class, a woman who knows what life is like for the rest of us — Amanda Curtis for U.S. Senate.

Gil Jordan

Coram