Who says Republicans don’t know how to bring business to Montana?

The Republicans on the Havre city council have joined together and sent the following letter to the CEO of the Chick-Fil-A company, asking him to consider opening a franchise in Havre.

August 7,2012  Mr. Dan Cathy Chief Executive Officer Chick-fil-A 5200 Buffington Road Atlanta, GA 30349   Dear Mr. Cathy,   Greetings from the elected leaders of the City of Havre Montana. We would like to extend an invitation to you to explore the possibility of opening your first Montana restaurant in our great city. Havre is a friendly place with many hardworking citizens, which would be a perfect fit for your company and its Operators. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions. We look forward to hearing from you. Best regards and thank you for your time,   Brian Barrows                      Rick Dow Councilman                         Councilman Andrew Brekke                     Robert Kaftan Council President                       Councilman

 

The letter has an amusing tone, sort of like a 9-year-old writing to Santa Claus.

With this type of opportunity presenting itself, it is clear that Chick-Fil-A made a very shrewd business decision in opposing gay marriage.  For with pockets of faithful conservative Republicans in small towns like Havre, long deprived of anti-gay-marriage fast food, Chick-Fil-A has many new opportunities.  See? Bigotry pays.

The letter also prompted a bit of local controversy.  As the Havre Daily News reports, Democrats refused to sign the letter.  And there were further protests and complaints amid dozens of comments logged underneath the article on the Daily News website.  One Havre citizen is outraged that Arby’s or Taco Bell are not also being courted, because those places are better than Chick-Fil-A.  Another Havreite disagrees, saying that he moved to Havre from Florida and Chick-Fil-A is the thing he misses most.

One council member said “We lost Wendy’s. That was an impact on our local economy so I want to bring something back in. ”  (The Wendy’s franchise was actually closed down for a food safety infraction, not by the local health department but by its own corporate parent, which found the Havre store had ran afoul of its own internal food safety standards, including using expired food products.)

In other Montana Chick-Fil-A news, TEA Party Republican David Howard has revealed that he went all the way to Texas to show his support for an anti-gay fast food chain.  The other thing he revealed? He’s an even poorer fit to represent Montanans in the legislature than we thought.