Viewpoint: Youth voters aren’t Carlino’s cannon fodder; vote Savage

Eli Steinberg

I’m a junior at Sentinel High School. I’ve been deeply involved in the politics of Montana for a number of years now. In 2024, I started a High School Democrats of America chapter at Sentinel in May of last — the first anywhere in Montana. In the 2024-25 school year, I was fortunate to serve as Montana State Chair.

This summer, I had the honor of being elected to the High School Democrats National Executive Board as National Development Director.

The reason I do the work I do is simple: I believe young people need a seat at the table; I believe the issues of the 2020s: the cost of living, job and wage security, a strong education system, protecting the American Dream, and a government that is fiscally responsible can only be solved with the input young people and new ideas.

So, when we come to the Ward 3 election for City Council, I might be expected to support Daniel Carlino — after all, isn’t he young? Isn’t he a changemaker? Someone who cares about delivering results for young people? For working people?

Well, I want youth in government. I want to change. I want young people and working people to get a fair shake. And that’s exactly why I’m proudly supporting Councilwoman Jennifer Savage for Ward 3 — not Daniel Carlino. Daniel Carlino — despite his rhetoric — demonstrates none of those qualities that he claims.

Carlino claims to represent his generation, to represent a new generation of leadership. Now, I believe in youth in government — but I will not support a candidate based on their age. I will not support a candidate who campaigns solely on their age. I will not support a candidate who uses their age — any age — to cover for extreme, out-of-touch positions, and that is exactly whatCarlino does. The difference between Carlino and Jennifer Savage is that Carlino claims to speak for young people; Jennifer Savage gives young people a voice of their own.

Jennifer has dedicated her life to serving the next generation — as a mother, working on behalf of students and staff at UM, and now serving as Communications Officer for MCPS. She doesn’t talk about serving young people, she serves young people, period.
Jennifer’s expertise makes her by far the most effective changemaker on City Council. Carlino may be young, but his ideas are just plain old playing politics with peoples’ lives.

Speaking in glittering generalities and ideological jargon isn’t changemaking. Grandstanding and stonewalling on City Council isn’t innovative or reforming. Jennifer — despite what Carlino would have you believe — believes that change is measuring not in what she promises, but what she delivers.

In the 3 1⁄2 years she’s been on City Council, Jennifer has built a strong record on delivering, from leading the fight to protect flying of the LGBT+ flag in Missoula, to getting the Northside Pedestrian Bridge back up and running after it was closed in 2022, to counting to move Missoula on climate action in her role as Chair of the Climate, Conservation and Parks Committee on City Council. In short, the difference is that Carlino is change-talker, Jennifer is a change-maker.

Now, if you listen to Daneil Carlino, you’ll hear a lot of talk (in part because it’s all he does) but also because he wants to sell you a narrative about Jennifer. He wants you to believe that he is fighting for ordinary working Missoulians, that Jennifer is a sellout. How again, this Carlino alternative universe just isn’t true.

Jennifer was raised working-class, the granddaughter of textile mill workers in North Carolina. She knows the values of working people: treat people with respect, find joy in work and family, and want more for your kids than you have, live by the rules. She knows those values because she’s lived those values.

For Daniel Carlino, supporting working people is a ‘do as I say not as I do’ situation. Just a few days, Carlino was found to have put up his campaign signs on public property, which is illegal, and he darn well knows that. But not just anybody can take them down. The city has to send a city employee (who are already overworked) to take them as per the law. I don’t think you could have a better encapsulation of Daniel Carlino: he plays politics, working Missoulians pay the price
So, Missoula: the choice is simple. If you want a Missoula where Missoulians are treated as economic cannon fodder and tools in political games, vote for Daniel Carlino. But if you want a Missoula of shared opportunity and shared responsibility, where we all keep moving forward and upward, you have to vote for Jennifer Savage.

This election is a choice between respect and playing politics, a choice between responsibility and blame, a choice between change and talking about change. I trust Missoula to make the right choice.

Eli Steinberg is a junior at Sentinel High School. He serves on the High School Democrats of America National Executive Board as their National Development Director.