To the Editor:

Why do those who oppose Jo Butler’s re-election to the Princeton Council feel it necessary to distort the facts? If you look at the true, undistorted facts you will be compelled to vote for Jo.

A recent letter to the editor from two long time Princeton residents and political insiders [“Registered Princeton Democrats Should Endorse PCDO Line of Miller and Nemeth.” May 7 Mailbox], concluding that there is “overwhelming” support for Jo’s opponents, contains several inaccuracies that need to be corrected. All three candidates for Council have the exact same status as a result of the endorsement meeting of the Princeton Community Democratic Organization. All received the 40 percent of the votes necessary to be “Recommended.” Not one received the 60 percent necessary to be “Endorsed.” Plain and simple there is no “overwhelming” result that can be ascribed to either the vote of the Municipal Committee (where the margin of victory was three votes) or the PCDO.

Furthermore, the PCDO is a political club whose members must pay dues to vote. While its goals may be lofty, one should not place undue stock in an organization that represents fewer than 5 percent of the registered Democratic voters and an even smaller percentage of all eligible voters in the Democratic primary. (Unaffiliated voters can declare party affiliation at the polls on June 3 and vote for Jo in the Democratic primary)

Other letters to the editor from Princeton’s old time establishment contain factually misleading endorsements and meaningless bromides. For example they repeat hearsay from one of Jo’s rivals that meetings are interminable because of her. Meetings may take a little longer than her opponents might like because she resists their attempts to push through items without debate on a consent agenda, because she argued long and hard for a conflict of interest policy, because she wouldn’t vote to overpay the town attorney. She had the audacity to ask to see the attorney’s contract before voting on it.

Apparently some supporters of Jo’s rivals would prefer that in the interests of collegiality she give her unthinking proxy to her colleagues. We pay the salaries of six council members; we are entitled to six independent votes. Each council member should have the strength and courage to run, be elected, and vote independently. Each voter should cast an independent thinking vote.

Those who know the facts and are capable of analyzing those facts for themselves are voting to re-elect the one truly independent Democratic candidate for Princeton Council, Jo Butler. Why do those who oppose Jo Butler’s incisive questioning of often hurried undeveloped proposals want to silence her? Vote like the independent thinking voter that you know you are. Read and heed the letters of Peter Marks and Alain Kornhauser [May 14 Mailbox], independents who urge you to vote for Jo. They cite the undistorted facts supporting her re-election. Please join us and the other independents and independent Democrats who will vote to re-elect Councilwoman Jo Butler in the Democratic primary on Tuesday June 3.

Alice K. and Joseph C. Small

Hawthorne Avenue