To The Editor:

I've lived in this town a long time, and I've watched plenty of candidates show up right around August, once the race feels real, shake some hands, and disappear again the day after the election, whether they win or lose.

Amybeth Laroche was out here back in March. Town events, hosting her own play date events at parks early in the morning, the unglamorous stuff nobody schedules a camera crew for. That's five months before most campaigns even bother introducing themselves to voters.

A park playdate at eight in the morning isn't exactly what a campaign consultant would put on a media schedule. There're no news crews there. Half the parents showing up are just trying to get their kids out of the house before naptime, not thinking about November at all. These aren’t the kind of actions you do because somebody told you it polls well. It's the kind of thing you do when you're a parent in this town, and you know where the other parents will be and when because you’ve been there countless times.

She's not treating this district as some kind of political career launching pad. She's treating it like her home that she’s trying to defend.

Sue Goodridge Newtown