Letter: Questions Remain For Rep. Anderson

To the Editor:

I’ve grown tired of waiting for Rep. Sarah Anderson to come forward with truthful and accurate information about her work history, and I’m calling her out to once again explain herself.  A few weeks ago, a letter supporting her opponent said that we need someone with private-sector experience to represent us.  Rep. Anderson quickly responded that “I have worked in the private sector. This fact has been public since I first ran for office in 2006,” and requested a correction.  Subsequent comments asked her for specifics about that experience, and it wasn’t until the Patch Editor contacted her that she responded, saying that her work experience includes “Fingerhut, two seed companies, a meat processing plant, a bank, and waitressing to name a few examples.”

This doesn’t jibe with what was on her legislative website a while back, which indicated that right after college she was hired by the Republican government organization, and later became Steve Swiggum’s legislative assistant before leaving to work with Jeff Johnson on Republican campaigns. I saw nothing about private sector work, other than vague allusions to “business and technology” on her campaign website, until she provided the most recent information, which remains incomplete.

I raise this issue for two reasons. First, she makes much of her support of business and her disdain for government, while her post-college experience appears to be wholly in the latter and none in the former. She makes much of her Chamber endorsements, but they, too, have been provided almost no information about her private-sector experience. I would like voters to make their choice on real, not simply voiced, facts. She has been taken to task in the past for providing misleading information to voters, and I’d like to think that she has learned from that experience not to mislead, rather than how to be smarter about it.

The second reason is simply one of honesty. I know of two recent discussions she had when door-knocking where she was asked about the ballot amendments. Rather than clearly voicing her position, which is to strongly favor both, she simply said, “I’m working on it.”  That response is misleading at best.  If one holds such a strong position on them, as she does, she should not be afraid to voice her convictions.  We should expect such courage, clarity, and candor from our elected officials.

I will continue to wait for those from Rep. Anderson.

Kelly Guncheon

Plymouth