I have known Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen for 37 years. We have worked together on education issues during all these years. I have gone to Mary Margaret for support for education bills and laws many times. She has always stepped up to the plate to support the local school district and its students. I am serving my 20th year on the Coupeville School District Board of Directors, and I spent 15 years serving on the Washington State Board of Education, two as president.

Mary Margaret, like all others who serve our communities on boards and commissions, has had to make votes that she did not want to in order to achieve the greater good for our students. When the money is not to be had, you have to make cuts — the hardest votes that any of us ever have to cast. To take those votes out of context of the big picture amounts to a lie to me. To question Mary Margaret’s support of education based on votes that had to be made is making false accusations.

Mary Margaret is very knowledgeable about the 10th District — the schools, the communities, the farms, our transportation needs. She listens to our concerns, hears our requests and makes decisions and casts votes that serve the people of this district. Those votes cannot always be what we want, but there are so many more facts at play in all legislative decisions than we at home can possibly know or understand. We elect persons to represent us individually and collectively in Olympia. Mary Margaret has done just that.

I trust Mary Margaret, I respect her, and I will be voting for her.

Kathleen Anderson

President, Coupeville Board of Directors