I agree with Janet Stevens Donahue and Jim Messina: Mike Nugent is our best bet for some positive change in local government. It is sad and somewhat hypocritical to blame or punish Nugent for something totally out of his control. I agree the National Association of Realtors should have stayed out of the mayor’s race, laws should be changed on political contributions and limits should be introduced for amounts spent on campaigns locally, regionally and nationally.

And, what did our former mayors do to limit or control growth, rising housing costs and out-of-control tourism numbers? Not much. They mostly encouraged the stoke; so that long-time residents ended up shouldering the burden on the infrastructure from increased population and visitation.

Kadas and Kemmis are pointing fingers as if they were never influenced by, or responded to, developers and Realtors during their tenures.

Perhaps Kemmis initially endorsed Nugent because he has a moderate, common-sense approach to addressing the governance of Missoula. That hasn’t changed. And now, Nugent has reason not to be influenced by either the national or local group of Realtors, because they ended up hurting his campaign.

Dudley Improta, Missoula

missoulian.com/opinion/letters/letter-to-the-editor-nugent-best-bet-for-positive-change