Invest your vote in Rob Quist

After losing his bid for Governor I had hoped Greg Gianforte would return to his roots. Not to New Jersey, as Montana is his home, but to his original mission of creating jobs by starting businesses in Montana. Imagine if he used his proven talent and the millions he’s spending on election campaigns to invest in businesses in Colstrip or other Montana towns. Instead, Gianforte is running against Rob Quist for Montana’s sole seat in the House of Representatives.

As a fifth-generation Montanan and a former senior executive of RightNow Technologies, Gianforte’s former company, and cofounder of OpensourceMt, I have important reasons for supporting Rob Quist in this race.

Rob Quist is fiercely independent. His voice in Congress in support of all Montanans is much needed. He has a diverse background and has spent decades interacting with ordinary Montanans of all backgrounds, cultures and locations. He’s personally faced many of the same challenges that Montanans face. Quist will fight unequivocally for public lands, Social Security, Medicare, our Second Amendment rights, high-quality public education, equality and diversity. Quist will vigorously represent Montanans and the values that make our state special.

Gianforte says he is running so “liberals” don’t obstruct President Donald Trump’s agenda. But, we don’t need someone blindly following someone else’s agenda. We are a multi-faceted state and there is no way the Trump agenda is designed to serve all the interests of Montanans. Instead, we need someone who will advocate for a Montana agenda.

And, we need a Representative who will deal face to face with us and give honest, clear and fact-driven answers on tough issues, not someone who limits his access to Montanans through paid campaign events the way Gianforte has been doing and whose answers seem to play both sides of the fence.

In addition, Gianforte and Quist differ markedly on some key issues. While we at OpenSourceMT stand for a limited government and for active, involved citizenship, we also advocate for public policies that enable the technology and other industries to continue to thrive in Montana. Recently, OpenSourceMT sent a questionnaire to both candidates, asking for their positions on public education, diversity, pubic lands and infrastructure investment.

Quist responded to our questions, Gianforte did not. We assessed Quist based on his responses and Gianforte’s based on the information on his website and his actions and statements in and prior to the Governor’s race. Of particular concern about Gianforte are his past effort to block public access to the East Gallatin River near his home, his open opposition to common sense anti-discrimination policies in Bozeman and other Montana cities and support for the diversion of public education funds to private schools, something that would be especially detrimental to rural communities.

We found Quist to be a far better representative for Montana’s technology community as well as other growing businesses (see details at www.opensourceMT.org).

Montanans deserve more than a rubber-stamp Congressman. We need an independent person like Rob Quist who understands and will listen to all Montanans. As a business-person myself, I’d say if you are investing in a business, consider investing in Gianforte. But, running a business is very different from serving Montanans in our only seat in Congress. In this race you’re investing your vote, and I urge you to invest that vote in Rob Quist. I have great confidence Quist will best represent our Montana values and the interest of all Montanans.

Susan Carstensen is a Billings native, MSU graduate, Bozeman resident, parent, cofounder of OpensourceMT and former CFO, COO and SVP Customer Experience at RightNow Technologies.