Dear Members and Friends,

You may have read an article in the December 22 Advocate, on Tess Albin-Smith's unusual write-in victory, which describes her as thanking the League of Women Voters of Mendocino County for "advice."  Tess is a member of our League and has many friends in the organization, so undoubtedly she got lots of support and advice from League members.  But LWVMC did NOT support or advise her.  The League (national, state, or local) never supports candidates or parties.  It's important to us to be a trusted source of unbiased information, and we also want to make people of all political viewpoints feel welcome in League -- Democracy needs all the defenders it can get.

Our response to this misunderstanding was to send a letter to the editor which you see below.  However, we all know that word of mouth is more powerful than any other medium, so please mention to whoever you discuss this with that LWVMC has a nonpartisanship policy: we advocate for issues based on League positions, but we never support parties or candidates.

Thank  you,

Dorine and Paula

Dear Editor:

The League of Women Voters of Mendocino County, like its parent organization, the national League of Women Voters, is a nonpartisan organization with a mission to encourage informed and active participation in government. The League is nonpartisan at all levels, including our local League, and never supports candidates.

Unfortunately, an article in the December 22, 2022 Advocate-News gave the impression that LWV of Mendocino County had supported a candidate for Fort Bragg City Council. This is a big deal to us, because our ability to provide a trusted source of objective political information depends on our 100-year-old reputation for neutrality.

While the League encourages its individual members to be fully involved in politics, including running for office and working on campaigns, our only involvement as an organization in the City Council race was to organize a candidate forum for all the candidates at Town Hall.

Sincerely,

Dorine Real and Paula Cohen, co-presidents

League of Women Voters of Mendocino County