Editor, Smithfield Times

Early in Buzz Bailey’s term as Newport Supervisor, he made a bad decision to forward on to others emails he had received from another Isle of Wight elected official through his personal email. Those emails caused a lot of controversy as they were offensive to some. Mr. Bailey accepted responsibility for his decision and has apologized numerous of times.

When he announced he would run for re-election, a newspaper article created what he thought would be a situation that could be considered as threatening to his family. On that basis, he withdrew from the race. However, since that time he has been encouraged to run as a “write-in” candidate. I believe he was sincere in his apology and regrets what happened. I hope and would like to think that he would be judged on his almost 4 year experience and not on that one incident. I encourage our voters to vote the right way and that would be to cast a “write-in” vote for Buzz Bailey.

Leigh Stephenson
Smithfield