Thanks to everyone who voted

The elections are over and many will probably say they are happy to have it over with: the calls at dinner time, the basket full of flyers and knocks at your door in the middle of the evening news. As a candidate, we also get to a point of feeling that campaign grind.

As I pulled the last “Vote Tempel” sign from the ground, Judy said, “This is it.” My wife of 48-plus years has been a real trooper in all of this; have to love this gal. My kids have also been very instrumental in my campaign, not only keeping me on task and supporting from afar, but also managing social media and my web page. I want to thank everyone that voted for me and the great turnout of support, both emotionally and financially.

The race turned out very close, which we anticipated from the get-go. With all the help from many, many relatives, friends, new acquaintances, and party people, we did prevail in the end.

The turnout of voters for this midterm election was overwhelming: Hill County and Cascade County at 68 percent participation and Chouteau County at 75 percent. Liberty County really stepped up with 84 percent, which was the highest participation of voters in the entire state of Montana.

Believe me, it makes for a proud group of county officials, and also for myself, that these counties had such a high turnout. Elections are a lot of work and I thank every one of you for choosing to participate in democracy. Every vote matters.

Moving forward, I start right in on my legislative responsibilities. I have the updates and training in Helena this week. I missed this training last session as I wasn’t appointed unit late in December. We will be updated on laws, procedures, communications, and protocol. At the same time, there is a Montana Invasive Summit taking place in Helena. I plan to attend, learn all I can, and be involved with the Summit as Lake Elwell is under the zebra mussel watch. They will be talking about aquatic and land invaders. One of the issues that will be discussed is what we can do to stop the spreading of invasive species.

Hunting season is about to the end. I hope everyone did well. In our area, Hill, Chouteau, Liberty and Toole Counties are under a Chronic Wasting Disease watch. The Fish Wildlife and Parks have picked up another sick deer this season. This was very disappointing as it may mean the area of the disease is larger than first thought or that the disease may be more prevalent. For more information on this, Google: Montana CWD.

Sen. Russ Tempel, R-Chester, can be reached at [email protected]