I want to share my experience with candidates running for House District 34.
I first learned about Cathy Muñoz while reading a horrifying account of how she wrote a letter for a convicted pedophile, urging the judge to reduce his sentence. She went on to recount how she lost sleep over the loss of so much of his life, being incarcerated. No mention of the victim and how she lost her innocence forever and would be forever haunted by the abuse. Then it happened again, wherein she praised the abuser as a “good Christian.” More recently, likely due to her willingness to advocate for child predators, she was asked to intervene for a staffer’s son. She actually drafted and submitted a proposal but withdrew it only after advocates for victims of abuse objected. As a victim of non-familial sexual abuse, I am sickened at the thoughtless and impulsive need to advocate for abusers and child predators. I reached out to her through Facebook, and was very firm in telling her that her actions were unacceptable, sharing statistics of abuse. She reacted strangely telling me I was “misinformed.” Then she repeatedly asked me to say hi to someone from my friend list. It was an odd request that I thought was inappropriate and had nothing to do with my concerns (which she never addressed).
I have no confidence in Muñoz. Not voting has never been an option for me and I’ve never voted for a Democrat, but I looked at Justin Parish and his platform. I don’t take anything at face value, so I emailed him, challenging him to convince me to vote for him. I gave a long list of things I was concerned about and wanted to know what he would do to address those concerns. He replied with his phone number to call at my earliest convenience. We talked for over an hour and afterwards, I was very confident in his policies, and stance on many issues. We discussed education, safety of our communities, financial stability and management of our resources, and finally, the PFD raid perpetrated by Gov. Bill Walker and a number of legislators. His answers were thorough, well thought out and not prepared in advance. I cannot in good conscience vote for someone who voted to take our PFD and advocates for child sex offenders. I vote on principles, not a party system. I’m voting for Justin Parish.
Laurie Bell,
Juneau