To the editor:

I am proud to vote for Hillary Clinton in the New York Democratic primary.

Hillary’s accomplished, capable and tough. Since she was 21, she has demonstrated her commitment to changing lives for the better. In her first job out of college, she had a dangerous assignment – to travel undercover to a small Southern town and expose racially segregated education. As first lady, she took on the giant health care industry to try and bring justice to the tens of millions of Americans who were just one illness away from financial disaster.

Hillary was an effective senator: leading the effort to provide funding for teacher recruitment and training, authoring a bill requiring safety tests for drugs prescribed to children, co-authoring a bill to provide military medical care for National Guard soldiers even while not on duty, passing a law to provide respite care grants for family caregivers.

She delivered for New York state, too: kept the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station open, obtained disaster assistance for local areas hurt by flooding, helped expand broadband, supported small businesses and literacy efforts in rural communities. She facilitated a partnership between eBay and New York state craftspeople, and linked produce and dairy farmers upstate with food markets in New York City.

She has led on women’s issues, turning her passion for women’s rights and reproductive rights into concrete accomplishments. At the State Department she championed economic empowerment of women, the education of women and children, and programs to stop gender violence. Also while secretary, she led the effort to counter discrimination and violence against LGBT peoples, the first time our government made this a focus of its diplomacy.

And yet, despite this demonstrably impressive record, the lies and smears of the right wing persist. The costs of GOP-led “investigations” into Hillary are staggering – at least $85 million spent over the past 30 years. She has been accused of everything, including murder. Fortunately, she’s survived this baseless persecution. She has paid a price, however, which prompted former New York Times editor Jill Abramson’s article in the March 28 Guardian titled “This may shock you: Hillary Clinton is fundamentally honest.” Abramson should know – she’s covered the Clintons since the 1980s.

I’ve found it sad and infuriating to see the Republican lies about Hillary repeated and shared by some (note: not all) of her Democratic opponent’s supporters. Do the people spewing all this unprincipled junk care about the damage this is doing to the only institution, the Democratic Party, that stands in the way of a President Cruz or a President Trump? It doesn’t hurt just Hillary – it also damages Bernie.

I wish I had the space or possessed the eloquence to say everything I would like to say about Hillary Clinton. I fondly hope that I have the opportunity to mark my ballot for her in November for president of the United States. You go, girl!

Ann Mullen

Saranac Lake