Matt Coker: Trying to profit politically from self-inflicted crisis is not responsible governance

To The Daily Sun,

Politicians will, unfortunately, be politicians. A group of our Belknap County state representatives marched in a parade over the weekend with a big banner that claimed, “We saved Gunstock.” I appreciate every state representative who attended the emergency Gunstock meeting, however, if you believe you saved Gunstock you are wrong. The brave Gunstock employees and the residents of Belknap County saved Gunstock and they saved it from you. Many of the Belknap County Delegation state representatives set the house on fire and predictably want credit for putting out the fire. Belknap residents made their voice heard clearly and forcefully a few times leading up to this meltdown. The state representatives that claimed to have saved Gunstock ignored the will of the people on many occasions leading up to this mess. What changed? Clearly it was the reality of the upcoming election. This isn’t the first time many of them have tried to profit politically from a crisis they created. In the 2021 budget cycle they defunded the sheriff's budget by almost $50,000. Included was $3,000 for body wire used mostly for anti-narcotic initiatives. The Belknap County Delegation of state representatives could have easily funded this crucial piece of equipment, but they did not. Many of them then took to their social media to blast how they were the heroes doing a fundraiser to support this same equipment. Trying to profit politically from self-inflicted crisis is not responsible governance. I hope the people of Belknap see through these stunts and vote for a change both in the September primary and then again in November. Let’s make local politics boring again.

Matt Coker

Meredith