Of course it is politics season again, and our community is priming for a city council election. 

I am writing to endorse Ben Thomas, one of the candidates for council. Ben has lived in Port Townsend a good portion of his life, and I have known him and his family for much if not most of that time. 

As always, there are plenty of contentious issues facing candidates, but my primary reason for personally endorsing Ben is that he is most interested in how we as a community communicate and collaborate to make this amazing community even better. 

Rather than focus on contentious issues, Ben is running to bring us together under our common goals and interests. This is refreshing to me because over the 47 years I have lived in Port Townsend, I have seen politically contentious politics divide the community. 

In my opinion, divisive politics tends to divide us rather than bring us together. Progress is difficult at best under this brand of politics. We can create so much by working together.

I believe Ben Thomas is the perfect candidate to help us focus on common goals so we can move forward together. There are plenty of critical issues from infrastructure maintenance (streets, water, sewer, sidewalks, and people-friendly bikeways) that we can make progress on if we work together. Ben Thomas is the candidate who believes in the collaboration, and has the positive attitude that it will take to make it happen. 

I’m voting for Ben Thomas. I hope you will join me.

Larry Dennison
PORT TOWNSEND