Letters

The November 8 election is increasingly being fought on a national stage, with issues like abortion, inflation and crime resonating in races across the country.

But it’s easy to forget that we’re about to elect someone to represent our district in Congress. Only one candidate, it seems to me, has shown the willingness and experience to do that.

Bridget Fleming, after six years as a Suffolk County legislator and, before that, as the only Democrat on the Southampton Town Board, has a proven track record of working across the aisle to help make life better for her constituents. She has been out front in protecting our coastal environment from the effects of climate change. She has worked to keep taxes low and our finances sound, helping the county to achieve its highest bond rating in 10 years. She supports common-sense measures to curb the explosion of guns on our streets, and to protect a woman’s right to make her own reproductive decisions, positions that align with the vast majority of voters in this district.

Even if you’re a Republican, even if you once voted for Donald Trump because you thought Washington needed a shake-up, aren’t you a little exhausted by now? Six years of nonstop crises and chaos, bitter partisanship and inflammatory rhetoric, democratic norms flouted and long-held constitutional rights taken away, even a violent attack on the Capitol to overturn a free and fair election.

Isn’t it time for a return to sanity? To common-sense lawmakers who will tamp down the rhetoric, put people over party, and get back to the serious business of making government work for all of us?

I firmly believe Bridget Fleming is that candidate.

Barry Bloom

Sagaponack