Do we need divisive and controversial agenda?
Letter to the editor
We in Seward have a long history of helping each other, understanding each other and, even if we disagree, we tolerate and respect each other’s opinions. We work together to get the job done.
I’m afraid that is not the case with state senate candidate Cathy Giessel. She takes extreme positions on many public policies and refuses to work with anyone who disagrees with her Tea Party-esque ideology. It was her stubborn refusal to work across party lines that kept her out of the senate majority for the last two years. She was marginalized because she is difficult to work with.
She promotes and believes in an extreme agenda that includes total privatization of public schools, total ban of abortion even in the case of rape and incest, and billions of dollars in oil tax reductions with no accountability or advantages to Alaska.
In recent forums and op-ed pieces in the Anchorage Daily News she has been running away from those extreme positions and working hard to reinvent herself as a moderate. More than once, I’ve noticed Ms. Giessel box herself into a corner because she had changed a publicly stated unpopular position and couldn’t quite wiggle out of the discrepancy when voters asked the questions.
If she can’t publicly stick to her values because she is afraid voters might not like her ideology, then what else will she be willing to sell out to get what she wants?
We do not need someone with a divisive and controversial agenda representing our community. My experience with Seward is even if we don’t see eye-to-eye, we still are willing to work together for the betterment of all of us.
— Virginia (Ginger) Randazzo