To the Editor:

It was with a degree of astonishment that I read the quote attributed to Bill Cook in the WDN where he announced his candidacy for the District 1 Senate seat. He is reported to have said, “I don’t know how many years it’s been since conservative thinking people in the east have had a conservative candidate for the Senate,” he continued. “When you think about it, it’s just been a long, long time. This is an opportunity to give those people a conservative voice to represent them.”

Unless Bill is being seriously misquoted, his statement is so far over the top that it strains credulity. Hood Richardson ran for the District 1 Senate seat in 2010 as a conservative Republican. Unless Hood somehow underwent a miraculous metamorphosis during the election process and became the liberal candidate, I suspect he would take exception to Bill’s suggestion that he was not offering a conservative alternative to the District 1 voters.

Sadly, revisionist history by self-serving politicians is something that is all too common in this day and time. Their motto seems to be if the facts are inconvenient, just make up something that sounds good and throw in some mindless platitudes for good measure.

Hopefully, some other Republicans will see fit to throw their hats into the ring for the District 1 Senate primary race and the voters will have a choice between candidates to send forward to the general election. With his unique recollection of events, giving a free pass to Bill without primary challenge would be a mistake.

KENNETH L. BOYD

Washington