Thursday, November 14, 2024
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Candidate for fire district defends campaign

| September 5, 2024 12:00 AM

As the only person who ran against an incumbent in the Special District election for the Polson Rural Fire District last May, I can only assume Mr. Dick Wunderlich was referring to me in last week’s letter titled “Polson RFD has strong leadership and goals” (Leader, Aug. 29).

In his letter, Mr. Wunderlich made several inaccurate assertions about me and my campaign. First, he stated that I thought the Polson RFD board did not have a goal or leadership. I have never made this claim. 

When deciding to run in the Polson RFD election, I carefully researched each member of the current board and their credentials. Their ties to the community and sense of community service were clear and established. I never dreamed of running personal attacks or questioning their fitness as leaders of the fire district.

Second, Mr. Wunderlich claims I stated the election would cost the taxpayers and the department $9,400. I made no such claim, and the department’s finances were not a subject of my campaign apart from saying I would keep both firefighters and taxpayers in mind when making decisions.

This was specifically about decisions to approve new fire levy ballot measures that might significantly impact the tax burden on property owners in the district. I wonder where Mr. Wunderlich came up with the figure of $9,400. He surely did not get it from me or my campaign, and I challenge him to cite his source.

Finally, Mr. Wunderlich states he wished I had attended fire board meetings to see what the board was doing and planning. This implies I did not attend fire board meetings when this is, in fact, not true. I attended two meetings in the months leading up to the election, including January’s meeting during which Mr. Wunderlich was not physically present.

Had Mr. Wunderlich been present he would have known that I took the opportunity after the meeting to introduce myself to the board members. It was a delightful meeting.

Here are the facts of my campaign. I chose to run because I though I could add to the groundwork that had already been laid by the current board. As a 32 year old who had never run for any office, I was excited to reach out to neighbors and hear how I could serve them.

During my campaign I sent out postcards to all voters in the fire district and placed several yard signs with the permission of various homeowners. My campaign material did not contain a single negative word about the current board. Several of my yard signs were stolen, and I may never know who is responsible.

After my election loss, I called each board member I ran against (Mr. Wunderlich was not up for re-election) and expressed my gratitude and appreciation for their continued work on the board.

After all my hard work to run my first political campaign, it pains me to see Mr. Wunderlich attack me in the paper. Well, Mr. Wunderlich, if your intention was to intimidate me into never running for public office again, you have failed. I am more motivated than ever to take part in our country’s democratic process.

And let me leave you with a lesson I learned during my time campaigning: Whatever our feelings on an election, we leave everything at the ballot box, instead of making insinuations in the local paper many months after the fact.

– Brian Walsh

Polson