To the editor:

In last week’s Barrington Times, one of the leading Independent candidates for Town Council was quoted saying that he and the other Independents on the ballot are running because he “[doesn’t] like the direction we’re going socially.” 

That kind of coded, backward-looking appeal to people’s worst instincts - which sounds far too familiar to the rhetoric Republican candidates for federal office have embraced in recent years - should be a red flag for most Barrington voters.

When we hear candidates talking about the need to get back to basics, it’s the Democrats who have shown that they actually understand the real and pragmatic challenges and opportunities we face as a community. While their Independent opponents are promoting wedge issues that stoke division amongst neighbors, the Democrats running for Council have proven on the campaign trail that they will govern thoughtfully and with principle by focusing on core nonpartisan community issues like safe streets and housing affordability.

I’m voting for the Democrats next week not out of party loyalty. I’m voting for the Democrats because Jordan Jancosek, Kerry O’Neill, and Liana Cassar are looking to the future and talking about what it will take to make progress in our town.

Mike Raia

Barrington