EDITOR:
This election showed me how absurd the campaign process has been reduced to mudslinging and hate messages instead of focusing on the important issues.
The television ads were despicable and hateful impugning the intelligence, integrity and character of the candidates on both sides.
This was not centered in one campaign but nationwide. Sarah Palin comes to mind. Or the "B" word used on the "View."
It is beyond my comprehension as to why a person wanting to enter the public service would subject themselves to public humiliation and target themselves and their families as the candidates have in the past election.
The cost of campaigning is obscene.
Why do you have to spend millions of dollars for a job that gets you nothing but ridicule, damned if you do and damned if you don't, and a relatively lower fixed income salary compared to the cost to get elected?
If you win is the power you perceive to acquire worth living in a fish bowl, having a flock of news cameras tracking your every move, invading yours and your family's privacy and disrespecting your prestige and stature as an elected official, and it does not matter which office?
I heard a talk given by a Christian Science lecturer Mr. Ron Ballard, CSB, of Ashland Ore. He had begun his career working on political campaigns.
In all the campaigns he worked on the candidate won. He ran clean campaigns, focused on the issues and not fighting back against opponents by slinging mud. Food for thought for 2012.
Also stop the predictive dial phone calls. All they do is aggravate the electorate. Especially those who have either absentee or early voted. Get and use the lists for those who have not voted.
The same for mailings, think of the cost of postage saved by not bombarding those who have already voted by precinct walkers or mailings. Have your computer list remove duplicate addresses, some folks have different last names and don't need two flyers.
Edward Goldberg
Minden
