‘The System Still Works’

For the first time in some years, I am proud to be a Democrat in the 40th Congressional District. For despite LaRouche candidate Art Hoffmann’s claim that his 14,000 votes in the primary represents a “voter’s rebellion” against the Democratic Party, every active Democrat in the county knows better.

The simple fact is that Hoffmann’s votes came primarily from those who knew nothing about the candidate whom they found listed as the only Democrat running in their district.

Surely Hoffmann knows that this is so: the man who waited for election returns outside the Registrar of Voter’s Office with four other LaRouche candidates and two supporters must know that he has little following outside of extremist circles, and none within the district.

Besides, Hoffmann’s campaign strategy depended entirely on a hoped-for and cultivated voter ignorance. This so-called candidate filed for office at the last possible minute, ran virtually no campaign, and simply laid low, hoping that a majority of Democrats in the district, weary from the many defeats suffered in previous congressional contests, would automatically assume that the only name listed on the ballot must represent a mainstream, moderate Democrat for whom they could safely vote.

The ambitious write-in campaign for Bruce Sumner worked in part because Sumner is one of the most decent and fair-minded men in politics today, and in part because voters were incensed and insulted by the LaRouche candidate’s beliefs, especially by his view of the Orange County voter. What happened at the polls was a “voter rebellion,” of sorts, a rebellion against candidates like LaRouche and Art Hoffmann, who fear and debase the informed voter.

LINDA GEORGIANNA

Santa Ana Heights