James Mcfarlin: Will Smart let her opinions be known or is she too close to Silber, Sylvia?

To The Daily Sun,

Meredith Statehouse candidate Lisa Smart's positions on local issues are unknown, and that’s concerning. The letters in the papers from her thus far have been absent of her opinions on any issues facing our town. With so many issues facing our county such as the staffing crisis at the jail and the nursing home running at half capacity despite a waiting list of over 100 patients, the voters deserve to know where she stands.

The fact that Norm Silber’s Belknap County Republican Committee endorsed Smart and donated funds to her campaign leads me to suspect why she may be avoiding these issues. Does she support Silber’s destructive county policies? I don’t know, but I’d like to hear from her where she stands and I’m sure other voters would like to hear as well. 

A few specific questions to Smart: Will you vote in favor of restoring the almost $1.4 million in nursing home funding requested earlier by the county commissioners? If not, why not? How will you help with the nursing home staffing issues? Will you provide the corrections department the resources it needs to keep us safe? What about mental health and community health funding? Will you restore this funding that was cut under the Silber/Sylvia executive committee? Finally, affordable housing for the workers who support our tourism and service industry is almost nonexistent. Do you have any plans to address this? Ms. Smart, disagreements are OK but the voters deserve to know where you stand. The three other candidates have made their views known, will you?

James Mcfarlin

Meredith