GOP and LWV

Re “League of Women Voters Accused of Bias,” May 5:

Assemblyman Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove) and like-minded Republicans place themselves in interesting company when they attack the League of Women Voters for taking a stand in support of Measure R, the half-cent sales tax increase Orange County voters must decide on June 27.

It was only a few years ago that redoubtable Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) was railing against the league for its position on reapportionment, and suggesting that we all return to our kitchens!

One of Pringle’s problems is that in spite of his chosen career path, he does not understand the difference between nonpartisan and political . The League of Women Voters is wholly and completely political. We were born out of the suffrage movement 75 years ago with a legacy from one of the most sustained and concerted political struggles in this country’s history--the 80-year fight by women to gain the vote. Since the league’s beginning, we have been unflaggingly nonpartisan, meaning we never support a party or its candidates. But we do support and oppose issues, based on grass-roots study and member consensus, and we work actively to influence public policy on those issues.

We do not concern ourselves with arbitrary and subjective labels such as “liberal” and “conservative,” only the merits of the issue under consideration. But since Pringle brought it up, it must be interesting to the many prominent and “conservative” Republican supporters of Measure R to learn that they have jumped the fence into the “liberal” camp.

CONNIE HADDAD, President

League of Women Voters

of Orange County