Viewpoint: Ward 3 needs Jennifer Savage’s leadership

Jana Staton

This month, Ward 3 primary race has five candidates running. My neighbor asked me who I was voting for, and my answer is Jennifer Savage.

I’ve done my homework, and Jennifer has the experience and commitment to represent the Ward 3. As the homeowner of an historic Craftsman home on McLeod, she understands the value of preserving our walkable neighborhoods with coffee shops, grocery and retail stores, sidewalks and trees for shade. But as a former owner of a Northside home she is uniquely able to understand that every Missoula neighborhood needs the infrastructure and services that we have.

What’s impressed me most about Savage is that other Council members support her as the ‘glue” that has made the Council work in tough times during the last 4 years (our Mayor’s  untimely death, leadership changes, COVID, increasing national chaos).

As a Council member from Ward 1 for four years, Savage has excelled at incorporating differing perspectives and finding common ground to get things done without obstruction. In the coming years, we will need her quiet leadership to avoid divisiveness and partisan paralysis, as we confront federal funding cuts and outside threats to our common good.