Op Ed 763

Ward 5 Candidate Bob Campbell Shares Letter to Missoulians

Fellow Missoulians: My name is Bob Campbell and I’m pleased to announce my candidacy for the 5th Ward of the Missoula City Council.

I’ve called Montana my home since arriving here in 1993, gaining employment as a land use planner for Gallatin County. In 1995 I made the bold decision to make a career change, choosing a different kind of public service: law enforcement.

In 1999 I moved to Missoula, hired as a law enforcement officer here in the Missoula community, now serving as a patrol supervisor. Additionally, I’m a retired sergeant first class from the U.S. Army, enlisting while still in high school, serving through 2005 in the Reserve and Montana National Guard. As you can see, my entire adult life is dedicated to public service on many levels.

I’m proud to call Missoula my home. It’s where I live, work and raised my four children. It’s a place with so much to offer: world-class recreation, livability, vitality — an envy to most other communities in America. This is a deeply caring community, observing this first-hand in how we support one another, among those who taught and coached my children in public school, with those dedicated to helping persons in less fortunate circumstances. Missoula is a place I would love to see my children grow and prosper on their own.

Unfortunately, Missoula’s exceptional reputation is in peril — higher taxes for business and real property, failings in infrastructure, drug addiction and a mental health crisis that translates into incidents of crime and growing homelessness.

The controlling city leadership insists on a path that is set to work against working families — an insatiable appetite to grow government, stifle small business in the midst of a pandemic, and the gentrification of an entire generation of Missoulians — hardly a Missoula that works for everyone. All the while, the controlling city leadership preoccupies itself with attempts at limiting our personal liberties, or banning products that we, as adults, can otherwise legally purchase elsewhere.

My campaign has the formal endorsement of Councilman Jesse Ramos of Ward 4. On the City Council, I will provide balance to unchecked government growth and spending, voicing government accountability and fiscal responsibility.

I want Missoula to thrive! If you desire a place where we and our children can continue to have an honest opportunity to remain and settle, to be able to afford a place to call home, able to make a living in an economy that truly works for everyone, free of government overreach, then I respectfully ask for your support and your vote, allowing me to begin the urgent work needed on the Missoula City Council.

Please follow my campaign at my website CampbellForMissoula.com, and on Facebook and Instagram at Campbell4MSO. If you would like to help contribute to my campaign to strengthen government accountability and fiscal responsibility in Missoula, go to my website’s donation link, or make checks payable to “Campbell for Missoula,” mailed to Campbell For Missoula, PO Box 1266, Missoula, MT 59806. Any amount is greatly appreciated; however, the maximum allowed is $180 per person. I look forward to hearing your comments and concerns at [email protected].

Thank you, Missoulians, for your consideration!

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