She just won’t say it. Right before the 2016 election, Kelly Ayotte, now our Republican candidate for governor, called Donald Trump a role model for children. Then she watched the Access Hollywood tape of Trump crowing about abusing and molesting women, lots of women. “I cannot and will not support a candidate for president who brags about degrading and assaulting women,” Ayotte said in an immediate press release. Indeed, she campaigned against sex offenders as our attorney general, drafting draconian legislation against them that became law. A New York jury has now convicted Trump of 24 felonies for illegally using campaign funds to keep Stormy Daniels, a porn star, from going public about having sex with him while his wife was pregnant.

Her unwelcome story would have inflamed Trump’s pre-election crisis in 2016, as it is doing now. Worse, E. Jean Carroll recently won $5 million in damages from Trump because he sexually assaulted her in a department store dressing room. She was awarded an additional $83 million because Trump kept defaming her about it. Still worse, 24 additional women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct. Ayotte now supports Trump, a convicted criminal, for president. She grovels before a rat with women. Democrat Joyce Craig is a far better gubernatorial candidate. As mayor of Manchester, she created thousands of good jobs and housing units for the city, while its violent crime rate dropped 40 percent. And she’s honest.

Christopher L. Dornin

Concord