To the Editor:

I, like most of you, can't wait for Nov. 8 so we no longer have to see negative political ad after negative political ad our television screens.

I was already tired of those negative ads in the presidential ads when supporters of River District Assembly candidate John Byrne took to the airwaves with ad after ad attacking Assemblywoman Addie Jenne Russell.

I don't know if the super PAC representing millionaires and billionaires from outside the region were thinking the "country bumpkins" from the North Country were simply going to fall for their misleading ads filled with half truths and lies, but boy were they wrong.

Their ads simply turned me off and led me to do some research to see why this super PAC was so interested in an assembly race in the North Country. That was when I discovered they were upset that Assemblywoman Russell didn't support a tax credit for millionaires and billionaires that would come at the expense of funding for public schools in St. Lawrence and Jefferson counties.

That made sense to me because the Addie Russell I have seen over the past few years is far from a tool of downstate interests. And Addie isn't just the shady image they use in their ads. We know that because it seems like she is always in our communities.

Like me, she has deep roots in the North Country. She also, like me, wants her children to be able to call the North Country home. She works every day to fight for the jobs that are here to bring new jobs to the regions so that opportunity will be there for her children and for our children.

And we do get to see Addie in the North Country. I've seen her at groundbreakings, community meetings, events marking community milestones and a variety of other events.

It's not uncommon for Assemblywoman Russell to be the only state elected official at those events, a sign of her work ethic and passion for working to make the North Country a better place to live and work.

Equally important, I've seen Assemblywoman Russell is also able to make a positive difference in Albany and secure funding for projects like Pickens Hall in Heuvelton and the Boys and Girls Club in Massena to assist with efforts that help our communities move forward.

My family has benefitted from her ability to bring back an additional $1 million in supplemental state aid for school districts in St. Lawrence and Jefferson counties in each of the past two years.

Her efforts are markedly more effective than the results compiled by her peers on the so-called B team in the state Assembly, the team her opponent wants to join.

That's why I urge residents of the River District to join me in voting for the A(ddie) team on Nov. 8, so we can send a message to the super PACs that they can't buy the North Country.

We also need to make sure the next time somebody proposes closing a prison or the psych center in St. Lawrence County we know we will have an elected official in Albany that will stand up, as she has in the past, to stop that from happening.

Addie is one of us. She is visible and gets the results.

Tammy Beaudin

Canton