In response to Duane Kimball’s letter (Sunday Monitor, April 17) accusing former congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter of allegedly “sliming” candidate Shawn O’Connor, let me provide some facts.
Kimball says Rep. Jackie Cilley did not identify the source of the alleged “sliming.” True enough, but he forgot to mention that “Cilley stressed (to WMUR) several times she has received no indication that Shea-Porter or her campaign staff is the source of any sort of whispering campaign.”
Misleading his readers, Kimball omitted Rep. Cilley’s denial that Shea-Porter or her staff were the source.
Next, Kimball cites state Sen. David Pierce – but Pierce told WMUR that he has “no evidence that Shea-Porter or (campaign manager) Andrews were behind the rumors.”
He said, “I have no knowledge that Carol knew any this was going on” and “I don’t know if any of her staff knew that any of this was going on.”
Matt Murray of N.H. Labor News thoroughly investigated the allegations, finding no evidence connecting Shea-Porter to them. Calling the allegations “completely baseless and unsubstantiated,” he concluded they were a “well-crafted smear campaign by O’Connor against a very upstanding public servant who has represented the people of the New Hampshire with honor and dignity for years.”
O’Connor assaulted Shea-Porter’s good name without a shred of evidence. She has rightly called the allegations a “sad, untruthful, and desperate attack.”
Before irresponsibly propagating unfounded smears, Kimball should have done his fact-finding homework.
CHARLIE PROULX
Raymond