Editorial denying bias biased

Dear Editor:

Your March 13 editorial denies political bias in publishing a biweekly column by state Reps. Lekanoff and Paul, saying this was done “not to promote their views but to update citizens on their legislators’ activities and thinking.” I always hope that legislators’ “views” arise from their “thinking” so I find this distinction confusing. And surely every newspaper editor knows there can be a difference between a politician’s activities and what the politician most wants to tell you about them.

More basically, Rep. Lekanoff is not our legislator. She represents District 40, encompassing the San Juan Islands and parts of Bellingham, Burlington and Mount Vernon but no part of the Town of La Conner.

We are in District 10, and our legislators are Senator Barbara Bailey and Reps. Dave Paul (that one is correct) and Norma Smith. The two apparently not invited to have a column in our local paper are Republican, and the only one so invited is the sole Democrat.

Perhaps this fact – along with the editor’s search for a columnist who represents Bellingham instead of La Conner as long as she is a Democrat – is why some townspeople thought they saw partisan editorial bias. A column rotating among our three legislators would seem to solve that problem.

Richard Doerflinger

La Conner