By Ann McLaughlin and Bill Wadt

Democrats in District 43 are very fortunate to have two strong, dedicated candidates who are running constructive, issues-oriented campaigns. We plan to vote for Pete Sheehey and wanted to share our reasoning.

First, we’ve always been impressed by Pete’s curiosity and humility. He’s always asking questions, analyzing information, and learning. These traits have served him well on the Planning and Zoning Commission and on the County Council. They will serve him well in the Legislature in building coalitions and making compromises to develop legislation that can garner sufficient support to become law.

Second, Pete has consistently demonstrated prudence when considering the expenditure of taxpayer dollars. He takes the long view and tries to account for various scenarios and the unexpected to avoid overcommitting resources, which can undermine the positive effects of legislation for improving education, healthcare, the environment, infrastructure, or criminal justice.  As a physicist, Pete learned that to be successful you need to consider a broad range of interactions, including unintended consequences, when designing successful experiments. Those lessons translate well to crafting effective legislation to improve a complicated public systems.

Pete’s very special combination of curiosity, humility, and prudence often leads him to innovative, cost-effective approaches such as the public-private partnership he promoted to accelerate the restoration of our precious forest watersheds. Finally, with the growing impact of climate change, it will be very valuable to have a scientist like Pete in the Legislature to help guide appropriate actions.

That’s why we’re voting for Pete.