Editor:

As your thorough overview of the upcoming congressional election pointed out ("Congress: The Dating Game," March 15), this is a race for two spots on the November ticket. As the title you assigned to Jared Huffman, "The Anointed One," suggests (and polling has confirmed), he will win one of those two spots. So the race is really about who will be the second candidate in the runoff.

My choice to support Susan Adams was made easy by her personal story, her?political experience and her close ties to the North Coast. Susan is the fourth generation of a Mendocino ranching family, and her second home is here in Carlotta -- unlike Stacy Lawson, who has only lived in the district for two years and whose financial ties with some rather questionable gurus make her much less appealing.

While no one questions Norman Solomon's progressive credentials, those?very qualities mean that he would have no chance of defeating Huffman in a?general election runoff with Democrats, Independents and Republican?voters.

If we are to consider the skills you suggest we look for in a congressional?representative, Susan Adams is the one candidate both qualified for the job and capable of winning in a general election.  While she has broad support from liberals for her progressive positions -- on single payer health care, stopping the wars, reforming Wall Street, ending marijuana prohibition and protecting the environment -- she also has the political experience of successfully bringing differing factions together to find workable solutions to difficult problems.

She is not burdened with corporate or special interest donors and, most?impressively, she is already receiving support from what would otherwise?be considered more conservative members of the community. This demonstrates her ability to build the diverse coalition needed to work through the gridlock in Washington D.C.

At the last Arts Alive there was a photo taken of Susan Adams with two of?her supporters, Mark Lovelace and Virginia Bass.  If she can get these two to agree on her, I think that makes the case that she is a consensus builder who can bring people together.
 
Richard Salzman, Arcata