While I applaud Mr. Lauderdale’s military service, I am deeply troubled that he aligns himself with Kelly Emerson, a Tea Party Republican, who filed a lawsuit against the county government she was elected to serve. Subsequent to the court’s judgment, she has yet to pay the assessed fines.  Does Mr. Lauderdale find this acceptable for a county commissioner?  If he doesn’t agree, then he should come out and say so.

Many more voters pay attention to national elections than local, but even locally elected officials endorse the platform and policies of their respective parties. That endorsement and support goes clear up to the top of the Romney-Ryan ticket.

This is why I urge every citizen to scrutinize carefully what the majority of Republican candidates endorse, even at the local level: cuts to Medicare and Medicaid; alteration of Social Security benefits with cuts; privatization of public education; laws to restrict access to abortion and Planned Parenthood clinics; invasive procedures ordered by Legislators and not physicians; voter suppression laws; decreased environmental regulations; unrestricted operations by big oil, including fracking; endorsement of big PAC money to campaigns without naming sources; unanimous opposition to the jobs bill; votes against equal pay for equal work by women; continuation of the failed trickle-down theory of economics; laws which profile immigrants; no increased regulation on buccaneering financial institutions.

Most disastrously of all, with the election of a Romney-Ryan ticket, there is a likely to be an all-out war with Iran! But, of course, the pact not to increase any tax revenue at the expense of billionaires remains!

I support Helen Price Johnson and Angie Homola, both of whom have provided more transparency than previous commissioners and who have worked diligently to explain the sources of county revenues and budget cuts. They have done a brilliant job!

Paulette Becker

Langley