To the editor:

I am writing this letter to give my opinion on a candidate that is running for Supreme Court justice for the 4th Judicial District in New York.

I have known Julie Garcia since she was 8 years old. She has been a neighbor, schoolmate, family friend and just a wonderful person. She grew up in Witherbee, a small town in the Adirondacks. Once a thriving mining town, now almost a ghost town. A place that New York state has forgotten about. But not Julie. She still has ties to the area and always will.

Let me tell you a little about Julie. When I was going to college, Julie was still in high school. She would visit my mother, who lived by herself. She would frequently stop in to talk politics or just about what was going on around town, just to make sure she was OK. Julie raised her sister’s two children after her sister passed away. Julie is now helping her brother who has ALS. If you are lucky enough to know Julie, you know that there is nothing she would not do for family and that she considers upstate New York her family.

Julie is a very good lawyer. She attended Albany Law School. She has worked in Suffolk County in its domestic violence unit and in Renselear County’s district attorney’s office, and was also the DA of Essex County. She could work anywhere and be making much more money that she does, I’m sure, but her heart and soul belong to upstate New York. She is our hometown girl. She will never forget about her roots, and that is why she should become the Supreme Court justice for the 4th District. She knows the area, the people and what the needs of the area are.

I currently live in Virginia but still own a home in the town of Moriah. I am often told that people from New York are not welcome here in Virginia. That is because when they think or hear about New York, they only know what they have heard about the city. I have to explain to them that there is a whole other area of New York that is very rural and beautiful country and where people are different. None of the other people running for this position know as much about the Adirondacks as Julie does. Nobody cares as much for the people who live in the Adirondacks as Julie does, and nobody would do a better job as a justice for this area as Julie would.

If you live north of Albany and care anything about the area you live in, you need to vote for Julie Garcia for Supreme Court Justice of the 4th District.

Edward J. Rytell

Chesterfield, Virginia