Recently a very aggressive and negative mailer went out to many homes in the 10th District. It bashed our senator from the 10th for being a “career politician.” It showed her face next to the face of the 1982 head of the Soviet Union, a blatant allusion to communism.

Last week, at the AAUW forum in Stanwood, Linda Haddon responded to a question about this mailer by saying that her name wasn’t on it so obviously she had had nothing to do with it. However, in the lobby where the candidates had their campaign materials, I saw a convenient stack of this very piece sitting with Haddon’s literature. When Haddon claimed she had nothing to do with it, I actually had one of the mailers in my hand that I had picked up from her table.

I believe this means one of two things: either that Haddon isn’t very smart, or that she thinks that we’re stupid. Honestly, I don’t think she’s dumb. I think she is letting the leadership of her caucus continue their tradition of running deplorably negative campaigns in this district.

Many of us remember the negative eleventh-hour mailer that Barbara Bailey sent out against Tim Knue two years ago. This is more of the same.

It’s no coincidence that the literature repeatedly calls Sen. Haugen a “career politician.” Haddon’s favorite thing to say is that she herself is not a “career politician.” Anyone who’s been to the forums has heard it.

I wonder if Haddon thinks that we’re not bright enough to put the facts together. But I do think she’s making a mistake: she’s viciously criticizing Haugen because she has seniority and experience in the legislature representing the 10th, which is no criticism at all, no matter how you phrase it.

Robin Ledbetter

Burlington