by Travis Mateer
Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Zoom Town’s local election coverage. While the Missoula Current is catching up to the number of candidates now filed to run for Mayor, I’ve already had my first chat with one of ’em. You can hear about that, and more, on this week’s episode.
by Travis Mateer
Yesterday was the last day to file for Missoula’s municipal races, which includes the job of Mayor. I was keeping my eyes open for a third candidate to file against Engen and, low and behold, there were actually TWO names added to the list of challengers, Greg Strandberg and Shawn Knopp.
I am VERY happy to see two new candidates throwing their hats into the ring for Mayor, especially Strandberg’s. While I may have been harsh in criticizing Strandberg’s past political efforts to win a seat on City Council, there are a bunch of factors that I think makes him a compelling candidate, like the fact he RENTS his housing in our cherished Zoom Town, and he busts his ass working in the service industry.
Shawn Knopp I am less familiar with, even though our names both appear in this Missoulian article from 2015 about the Poverello Center’s new location on West Broadway. I was working at the Poverello Center at the time, and Knopp was working at Montana Glass, right next door to the shelter. I wonder if proximity to the shelter was a motivating factor in Knopp’s decision making process to run for Mayor?
These local political developments will be the main topic of today’s podcast episode of Zoom Town, which I’ll be recording with Tim Adams later this morning. We’ll also be discussing the Reserve Street homeless camps, which I posted this video about yesterday.
So stay tuned…