To the editor:

How do you feel about keeping four institutions for the developmentally disabled community open? Or ensuring that digital mammography and family planning remains available for low-income women in Kitsap County? Or exempting nonprofit organizations that provide legal services to low-income people from the B&O tax?

These are just some of the important things Sherry Appleton has helped make happen in Olympia. Thanks to her tireless efforts on our behalf, pay day lenders are now regulated and funding has been provided to help care for disabled and elderly adults throughout the work day. There is more to be done.

It isn’t easy to deliver on these urgent issues in today’s economic and political climate. The pressure to save money or reduce the role of government by pulling back from the challenge is ever-present. But Sherry is relentless in her determination to fund health and human services and education, to ensure that opportunity grants are available for low-income kids to study at institutions of higher learning, to fund retraining programs for those who have been dislocated, to extend unemployment benefits to victims of domestic violence, and to expand the state’s housing trust fund and the Washington wildlife and recreation program. She is a key member of the ferry caucus working to defend the interests of all the communities served by the WSF.

I have known and admired Sherry since she was first elected to the House of Representatives eight years ago. I’ve worked with her and have seen her grow and develop into one of the most effective legislators in the capital.

Sherry Appleton has served us brilliantly, and she has more to give. Please join me in returning her to Olympia to finish the job.

CHRIS SNOW

Bainbridge Island