Negative Campaigns

* This election year has been the most disgusting I have ever gone through. The politicians who resort to what they euphemistically call hit pieces--and which I call just plain smut--should never be elected to office.

The way things are going, however, this would mean that we wouldn’t have anyone in office.

I long for the days when politicians talked about issues that were of concern to the electorate, when we knew where they stood and they could be held accountable.

These days, you vote for the person who has the fewest skeletons in their closet. This type of campaigning lets candidates totally avoid discussion of the issues that we, the people, have an interest in.

The mudslinging not only dirties the politicians, it dirties us because we tolerate it. I heard a lot about zero tolerance in this last campaign, and I think that the voters should have zero tolerance for politicians who resort to this kind of politicking.

I’ve been thinking of ways to begin an initiative to stop this kind of campaigning. However, I have no idea how to draft it because of the 1st Amendment rights of the people who are running for office. There is also the problem of enforcement.

Therefore, I believe that the best solution is for the electorate to not vote for the garbage makers who send out trash and who try to frighten us into voting for them because they are a lesser evil than their opponent.

JAMES MATTHEW FARLEY

Ventura