Candidate Balmages in 25th Senate Race

In your article about my candidacy for the 25th state Senate District (Nov. 3), you say, “As a candidate not expecting to win, Balmages said he does not have a legislative agenda of his own. . . .”

What I really said was that if I was being asked if I had already drafted specific legislation which I would introduce when I got to Sacramento the answer is no because I do not have a staff to do that.

Additionally, you completely left out of the story the reasons Orange County Party Chairman John Hanna gave me for running, which convinced me I would be doing a public service and a service to the Democratic Party by running. Those reasons are:

(1) To prevent an extremist from running;

(2) To keep traditional Democratic endorsements;

(3) To have a platform for a Democratic point of view;

(4) To remind everybody that, even in Orange County, this is a two-party system.

You also say I told Hanna I wasn’t going to spend some of my “own” money on the race. Initially, I told Hanna I wasn’t going to spend any money on the race. I have since spent my own money and so has my wife.

MICHAEL G. BALMAGES

Tustin