Howard’s had his chance, it’s time to switch to Larson

To The Daily Sun,

Ray Howard is now in his third term as a State House member representing us in Alton, Barnstead and Gilmanton. He seems to be big on keeping taxes down and that’s all right with me.

Nevertheless, I looked up Mr. Howard’s voting record on a few things. He voted against having a study (Just a study! No tax hikes for this) on how we can deal with the cost of prescription drugs in NH. Then he voted against another study dealing with the opioid crisis in N.H. (Again, just a study—no taxes on this either.)

Our drugs cost a fortune, as everyone knows and opioids are killing people and ruining families. These are horrible things and Mr Howard doesn’t even want the State House to investigate these matters. Really. That’s nuts. Maybe Ray Howard just thinks it’s a waste of time to study these issues, but it’s just plain crazy to ignore them. They’re not going away and we cannot afford to look the other way.

One more thing: The State House voted to support a task force (this would cost a bit of tax money) to deal with sexual predators who go after children online. I’d pay a little extra to get rid of these creeps, but Howard and just three others voted against the creation of the task force.

Ray Howard hasn’t supported our studying the opioid crisis, nor the costs of prescription drugs and he voted against establishing a task force to go after sexual predators. Howard is a decent enough guy, I imagine, but prescription costs, opioids, sexual predators? He needs to pay better attention to these kinds of things.

Now, I’ll admit. I generally go right down the ballot voting for all of the Republicans or all of the Democrats. I do it and I feel pretty good about it. But, in my humble opinion, I think if ever there was a time to NOT vote automatically, it is now. There are a lot of changes going on in the USA today. It’s nerve-wracking and confusing. We might be liberal or conservative, but we’re all Americans. And we need to be alert and smart. Our country depends upon us really paying attention to our government. Our Founding Fathers expected no less from us. I feel like I’ve been paying attention and now I want some new blood in the State House.

I’m voting for Ruth Larson instead of Ray, and I encourage others to study (just a bit) our candidates and vote for what and whom you think is best for us in N.H., and to not vote automatically. Right now, in this election, I believe that Ms. Larson is the better candidate. I’ve followed the letters to the editor about her (and from her) and I find her to be smart, thoughtful, and well-informed. Howard has had his run; I think it’s time for a switch to a new representative.

Sincerely,

Leslie Smith

Gilmanton