Your July 12 article, “Political balance before Spokane voters,” shows little research and an annoying obsession with the sensational. While I quibble with a lot of the passages in the article, I find most irritating yet another reference to Karen Stratton as a “pot farmer.” Karen’s investment in an Initiative 502 growing operation is an incidental part of who she is and what she has done.

Check into her background. She was an adviser to mayors Jim West and Mary Verner, and also served as public information coordinator with the Spokane Regional Solid Waste Department. Most recently, she served two years in the Clerk’s Office. That’s a pretty well-rounded municipal experience.

She also worked for me in Olympia with the Washington Legislature, so she understands the legislative process and personalities. I have followed City Hall since 1965, and I believe you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who had more experience in her first race for a City Council seat.

Your newspaper continues to ignore her relevant background and dismiss her efforts to bring diversity and openness to city deliberations. You can do better, and you should. The voters of this city deserve a full picture.

Lois Stratton

Spokane