Writer: Zinke's representation was lacking, vote for Tranel

By Rex Koenig

My grandfather took the train from Miles City to Missoula in 1950, and my family has been here ever since. Before I left for college I asked him what he learned in his 40 years of talking to juries as a trial lawyer in Western Montana. He said that people here are honest, they don’t like liars and they don’t take B.S.

Ryan Zinke looked the leadership of the Navajo and Hopi tribes in the eye and told them that there would be no oil drilling in their ancestral homelands of Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments. Then he flew back to Washington, had Trump shrink the National Monuments’ acreage by half, and permitted oil and gas drilling amidst 100,000 archaeological sites held sacred by the tribe. Just like my Grandpa, Monica Tranel grew up on a ranch in Eastern Montana and then worked as a lawyer in Western Montana for many years. When I’ve met Monica, I've been impressed that she knows and embodies the values of honesty and hard work that my Grandpa talked about. I personally want that quality of representation over the track record Zinke has given us. I hope you agree.

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