Christy Smith has run a number of TV ads touting her suitability for the congressional seat in the 25th District.
In one of her ads, Smith announces she is supported by nurses and firefighters and proclaims that “they have my back and together we have yours.” I happen to have a number of friends who are nurses and firefighters. None favor the candidacy of Smith. So let me interpret her true meaning this way: I, Christy Smith, am supported strongly in my candidacy for the 25th Congressional District by nurse and firefighter unions. They have my back by making massive contributions to my campaign. I have their back by promising to support their efforts to make union membership mandatory and all requests for higher pay and fatter pensions. Together, we expect the taxpayer to support our efforts, without complaint, by supporting higher costs and taxes.
In another ad, Smith proudly proclaims she will never take a dime from drug companies, implying that such companies are somehow “evil and not to be trusted.” I don’t know if she has noticed but our country is currently in the grip of the COVID-19 epidemic. In an unprecedented short period of time we have seen: trials started for newly developed COVID-19 vaccines; newly developed testing methods that are more accurate, which reduce testing time from weeks or days to hours or minutes, and which are far more amenable to the testing of millions of people as needed to fight the pandemic; development and testing of possible therapies and medications, which may help to mitigate or cure the infection; and development of blood tests to determine whether a currently uninfected individual has been infected previously.
All of these developments will be critical to, eventually, putting COVID-19 behind us and all come courtesy of names like Glaxo Smith Kline, Pfizer, Abbott Labs, Bayer, Gilead Sciences, Roche Holdings, and many others. Ms. Smith may look askance and down upon such “evil” companies that are unworthy of her support. However, I think most of us are quite thankful that they exist and are able to bring their talents and capabilities to bear on the emergency. In the future, if cures and therapies are to be found not only for viruses like COVID-19 but also mankind’s persistent ailments like heart disease, cancer, diabetes and others, they too most likely will come as a result of research conducted by these same companies. They certainly will not come as a result of the activities of Ms. Smith’s union supporters or her socialist cronies.
Needless to say, I will not be voting for Christy Smith.
Paige Weaver
Valencia
