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Races for several seats on the Missoula City Council are already taking shape. Filing for council elections opened on April 17 and closes June 16. The municipal primary election is Sept. 9, and the general election is Nov. 4. Missoula city elections are non-partisan. Here’s who has filed to run so far:
Ward 1
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Betsy Craske is an environmental educator whose platform names affordable housing, climate resilience and multimodal transit as priorities, among other issues.
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Lucas Moody is a city library staffer. His platform also focuses on issues like housing and sustainability, but he more specifically calls for expanding shelter capacity, rent control and a higher minimum wage.
Ward 2
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Hayden Cook, who helped lead the effort to unionize the Brooks Street Starbucks in 2023, says he’s focused on climate action, affordable and attainable housing, and infrastructure improvement, among other priorities.
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Justin Ponton, a real estate professional and CEO of the Montana Regional Multiple Listing Service, lists his priorities as property tax and zoning code reform, support for homeless services and budgetary responsibility.
Incumbent Sierra Farmer has yet to file for re-election.
Ward 3
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Jennifer Savage, who currently represents Ward 1, is moving to the University District this summer and is vying to represent a new ward as a result. Law requires that council members reside in the ward they represent (a requirement that doesn’t actually exist at all levels of representative government). She told the Missoulian her main priorities are developing a comprehensive strategy to address homelessness and finalizing the city’s code reform process. Savage is director of enrollment marketing at the University of Montana’s College of the Arts and Media.
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Daniel Carlino, a staunch progressive, climate advocate and vocal critic of the council majority’s approach to homelessness, is running for re-election. Savage’s decision to run in Ward 3, thus challenging Carlino, sets up a potentially fierce primary that could highlight factional divides in the council.
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Nathan Coyan is the former deputy elections administrator for Missoula County.
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David Knuson — Montana’s “Maple Man” — is the only maple syrup producer in the state. He taps urban maple trees at 100 properties around Missoula.
Ward 4
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Mike Nugent, a realtor, is the incumbent. He first won election to the seat in 2021, then mounted an unsuccessful race for mayor against Andrea Davis in 2023. (He’s since endorsed Davis’ re-election bid). His priorities include housing, public safety, infrastructure, property tax and code reform, and boosting public-private partnerships.
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David Quattrocchi, a community organizer and advocate, says every person deserves housing, healthcare, and dignity. In announcing his bid for the Ward 4 seat, he named three core tenets: “The rent is too damn high,” “the taxes are too damn high,” and “the power is too damn centralized.”
Ward 5
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Stacie Anderson, the incumbent, has filed for re-election. She says she wants to help Missoula navigate the balance between growth, fiscal responsibility and quality of life. She has long worked in the progressive or Democratic-aligned political arena, most recently as executive director of Carol’s List, which supports pro-choice women running for office in Montana.
Ward 6 (full term)
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Incumbent Kristen Jordan, a progressive who along with Carlino forms the council’s left flank, is running for reelection on a platform of affordable housing and climate resilience, among other issues. She says she brings the voice of a low-income homeowner and single mother to the council.
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Chris Foster is a retired electrician, union member and political newcomer running on housing affordability and property tax reductions.
Ward 6 (partial term)
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Incumbent Sandra Vasecka, a libertarian, is running to fulfill the remaining two years of her term. She was appointed to her seat in Ward 6 following an extremely rare tie vote in her 2023 re-election bid. Because she was appointed by council — the required procedure in the case of a tie — she has to seek re-election by the voters to carry out the remainder of the term. Her platform includes fiscal responsibility, private property rights and addressing “criminal behavior and homelessness.”
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Sean McCoy, Vasecka’s 2023 challenger and the loser of the council’s appointment vote, is again vying for the seat. A Navy veteran and former wildland firefighter, McCoy is the chair of the Missoula Consolidated Planning Board. He’s running on mitigating gentrification and improving government transparency.
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Valeda Jonessian, a political newcomer, is also running for the seat.
Are you council-curious? Find candidate filing information here. |
County gooses 'housing sprint' |
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The Missoula County Board of Commissioners voted last week to deposit $125,000 in a fund designed to help house residents of the Johnson Street Shelter, which the city is closing in August.
The sum marks the largest donation to the fund thus far, bringing its total to more than triple the previous balance of $50,000. The city of Missoula had previously transferred $25,000 to the fund, which is administered by the United Way of Missoula.
"This is not a perfect solution, but it is kind of the least-worst, or most-best, because we have really limited money and we want to get these folks into the most stable situation possible," Commissioner Josh Slotnick said during a meeting of the county commissioners last Tuesday.
Missoula Mayor Andrea Davis announced a gradual shut down of the temporary homeless shelter in Midtown in March, citing funding constraints. At the same time, she said the city would solicit public and private donations for a so-called housing sprint — with the goal of raising $400,000 — that would help Johnson Street residents fill out rental applications, pay deposits, find family members and navigate other barriers to stable housing. However, she acknowledged that the city would likely not be able to find housing for everyone staying at the shelter.
The shelter has a formal capacity of 165 beds, but slept as many as 200 people last winter. Between 100 and 125 people have stayed at the shelter each night in April, Community Planning, Development and Innovation Director Eran Pehan said during a council meeting last week.
In March, the city called for reducing shelter capacity by 30 beds a month until shutting it down for good in August. But the shelter has not begun removing residents, Pehan said.
The county is funding the transfer through a more than $1 million remittance from the Missoula Redevelopment Agency, the vast majority of which was already set aside for funding Johnson Street. The MRA, which helps fund urban renewal projects through tax-increment financing, regularly sends money back to city and county taxing jurisdictions to cover operational costs.
The agency’s board has also approved a separate $44,420 donation to the fund, pending review by its attorneys.
Davis did not need to seek approval from city council to close the shelter, but the majority of the council has nonetheless united behind her in her decision. In a council meeting last Wednesday, two notable dissenters — progressives Daniel Carlino and Kristen Jordan — moved to keep the shelter open at full capacity past August. The proposal was voted down 10-2.
Carlino argued that the city is simultaneously taking away access to shelter and reducing the number of places that homeless Missoulians can sleep outside, the result of a park camping ban the city council approved last December.
“We’re all going to feel the effects in our community as unsheltered homelessness becomes more visible,” he said. “We’ll see more people sleeping along the river or downtown, in their cars and in our neighborhoods without access to a place where they can sleep indoors at night.”
The Carlino and Jordan resolution called for funding shelter operations in the city’s 2026 budget as well as topping off the housing sprint fund. Jordan told her colleagues that the city could use the money needed to implement the urban camping laws to fund the shelter. Short of that, Carlino said the city should make any necessary cuts to other operations to keep the shelter open. The shelter costs about $1.8 million a year, a bill the city had been splitting with the county with federal pandemic relief funds.
The council will take another vote on the resolution on May 5. |
The ledger #️⃣ |
42 |
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The number of University of Montana employees facing layoffs after Congress cut funding for the Defense Critical Language and Culture Program, which is part of the UM Mansfield Center.
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The week ahead 🗓️ |
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Missoula County and government officials in Lolo are holding an open house on Tuesday, April 29 at 4 p.m. to solicit community feedback on how to fund improvements to the Lolo water and sewer systems, which are at capacity.
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The Missoula County Board of Commissioners will consider adoption of a community houselessness strategy at its Thursday, May 1, meeting, which begins at 2 p.m.
Find a list of all upcoming city meetings here and county meetings here. |
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