To the Editor:

Probably the most undemocratic thing I have witnessed would be the Democratic Caucus that chooses local candidates every two years.

If you are a registered Democrat, you can come to this event and nominate another Democrat for office. Of course, you must find out when and where they are having that affair.

They like to keep it as quiet as possible so that preferred Democrats come to it-you know - the ones who will vote the right way. At a given caucus, you might get 25-40 out of 1,000 registered Democrats. If you corral maybe a little more than half of those 25-40 folks, you are very likely to be a candidate! Furthermore, the odds are 3-1 against Republicans in the village, thus you should be a shoo-in at the general election and be on the village payroll for four wonderful years.

This system simply invites disaster. A perfectly qualified and experienced village trustee such as Eleanor Hopke can be sandbagged at the caucus by a determined little group (maybe 20) and lose the nomination. Not only that, but when it was determined later on that one of the nominated candidates was ineligible to run, the nominating committee had a golden opportunity to replace him with Eleanor. They did not. Instead, they chose a man who had lost his seat in the county legislature a year or so ago, thus protecting the good ole boys.

I know I am now writing this from outside the village, but I had over 35 years of watching that village government dig a hole which puts it on the brink of disaster. Much of the pickle they are in is because of very inefficient government that is the result of one-party rule and no competition.

Eleanor Hopke is now running as an independent. She is the only person on that ballot who is not afraid to say no. I urge my friends in the village to vote for her.

Dick Hutchinson

Hannawa Falls