Stephan Podrygula, Minot
As a former Minot city councilman for eight years, I am concerned about the recent politicization of base retention and flood relief. In the past, we've always worked together to help our community, whether we're Democrats, Independents, NPLers, or Republicans.
Locally, Task Force 21 and the city's other air base retention efforts have always been non-partisan. Historically, our state legislators used to work together on behalf of our region. At the federal level, both Kent Conrad and John Hoeven have been our allies.
Now, in contrast, we're seeing misleading ads and out-of-state politicians coming in to turn these shared community interests to partisan advantage.
Flood recovery and base retention are too important to all of us to make them into partisan political issues.