SOUZA: The champion is MIA

Where has Mary Souza — CHAMPION OF THE PEOPLE — gone? Remember during the McEuen Park debate that she was adamant that the city hold an advisory vote so that Council would know what the people wanted? Now, Mary is our senator and the people gave her an advisory vote when they passed the Medicaid expansion initiative with a 61% majority. Senator Souza didn’t like the advice. Now she wants to make the initiative process so difficult that the people would probably never be able to bring an initiative to the ballot and vote again. She doesn’t want our advice. (I call the initiative “advisory” because the Legislature can amend and even repeal an initiative at will.)

Where has our CHAMPION OF THE PEOPLE gone? She has gone to Boise and is concerned with her political career and serving her party’s elite. I miss our CHAMPION.

CHET GAEDE

Coeur d’Alene