EDITOR,

Running for county supervisor is not easy. I enjoyed my attempt and felt privileged. It was a learning experience. My competitors had more experience, recognition and contacts. It was a very similar experience to applying for a job and not getting it. I had no trouble moving on. I had to decide who I was going to vote for, and after much thought, I decided on Bruce McPherson. I then got many people telling me they were unhappy with my choice.

That said, I thought it would be a simpler and happier world if voters judged candidates as if they imagined themselves as a boss hiring a manager for their company. That way, voters would agree to disagree and feel their choice would do a better job. Only an unemotional focus on what specifically that candidate would do for the company would be discussed. It all seems so very easy to get distracted by other opinions, myths, bias and prejudice generated from the dysfunctional world of partisan politics.

You may learn some truth from other opinions, but you can also be so easily misled. I feel the voter should focus on what tasks the candidate thinks are important, how that list compares to your list and think how the candidate is qualified about performing these tasks. Especially for a nonpartisan office like this, it seems the best way.

So, I’m choosing the candidate who I feel will solve issues I care about, with no lip service. This was not easy, because I am using what I know a supervisor can do and if he or she will do it. I then weighed positives and negatives of both candidates and made compromises. No one is perfect.

So, Mr. McPherson, “You’re hired.” My single vote cannot hire you, but combined with votes of favorable future bosses, you will be.

Bill Smallman, Felton