To the editor:

I read all the candidate statements in last week’s Times for the Senate District 11 seat. All of the candidates kept to the issues, except one.  Right out of the gate, Amy Rice launched an attack by claiming that candidates serving on town councils, if elected to the senate seat, “would cause our towns to incur thousands in debt for their desertion.”

First of all, it’s shocking that Ms. Rice doesn’t know that Tiverton and Portsmouth don’t hold special elections for town council vacancies so it wouldn’t cost the towns a dime. She actually served one term on the town council in Portsmouth — has she never bothered to read the town charter?

But what really troubles me is her attack that Mr. Seveney’s run for office is an act of “desertion.” That word directed towards a U.S. Navy veteran who served his country honorably is highly disrespectful, unjust, and just short of slander.

The people shouldn’t elect a loose cannon who will say anything to get elected regardless of the facts and whose first instinct in a campaign is to go negative.

I want a decent, competent public servant.  On December 1, I’ll be voting for Jim Seveney.

Jhodi Redlich

Portsmouth