Editor,

Recently, someone wrote in to ask those running for local elected positions and incumbents to be courteous and civil to each other and the public during the upcoming election season(s). Bravo to whoever it was! Those running need to have thick skin and take the higher road when confronted with people who have conflicting views or whose perception and reality don’t align with theirs.

The problem is the Political Action Committees, not the candidates and incumbents. PACs spend millions on mailing thick bonded, double-sided, and multi-color brochures that most people don’t want and end up either in the trash or recycle bin. Pretty big environmental impact. Acids and chemicals and the amount of water, the possibility of run-off or spillage, the amount of trees for the number of pamphlets per registered voter in the household.

Additionally, the invasion of privacy, for the entitlement that PACs have because it’s their job to “educate” (I was told this by a PAC representative) the voter on their native. I counted 28 pamphlets in six days of mail, for two registered voters. My wife who is not a registered voter was also getting mailings, phone calls and texts. Another problem is that somebody posing as either the state/county election boards is providing email addresses and phone numbers and the citizens are being bombarded with phone calls, texts and emails.

I have contacted the state and Island County elections offices and been told all they can provide by law is the name, address and birth year. So who is doing all the phone calls? Nobody seems to know. The politicians are overlooking the fact when they say they have been/will be civil to their opponents, the PACS are not. While hyping the political candidates of their political party, the PACS are rude, inconsiderate to the other candidates, while providing deniability of the candidates. The candidates and incumbents need tell the PACS to stop.

Those in office need to write legislation in favor of the voter being able to opt out of all forms of political commercialization, without cost I fear they never will, because they (politicians) depend on the PAC’s to do the dirty work so the candidates can have clean hands and are week (the politicians don’t want to loose the support) and are sometimes immoral and unethical.

Richard Hoover

Oak Harbor