First published in The Manhattan Mercury, October 15, 2006.

Democrats sound like Republicans; Just elect a real one: Bob Strawn

To the Editor:

The Democrats are Republicans, or so their ads would lead us to believe. Prominent Demo candidates were, until recently, Republicans. Most Demo ads don't acknowledge their candidates' party affiliation.

And the ads (Nancy Boyda's loopy and expensive ones excepted) are all either about Republican issues - cutting taxes, cutting government waste, protecting the border - or about problems Republicans have already solved - by passing in-state tuition for military personnel years before Sydney Carlin was elected to the Kansas House of Representatives to write the bill, for example.

But I've read that Mrs. Carlin voted 97 percent of the time with the minority Democrat caucus. So her Republican leanings are just for show. One wonders if she has voted for anything that passed. Consider this, too: How effective can a House member be if she will almost never swap votes in order to benefit her district?

Even Democrats may want to vote for the accomplished airport de-icing magnate Bob Strawn, the Republican candidate for that 66th District House seat. A vote for Strawn is a vote for truth in advertising.

G.W. Clift
1724 Fairchild Ave.