This is in response to John Turner’s letter of Jan. 29.

I want to state for the record, as I always have, that lobbyists are the bane of our legislative process.

People, like State Rep. Nathan Libby, are elected by their constituency to represent and protect the best interests of that constituency. If a potential candidate is accepting money from a special interest group or corporation to win an election, we the constituency should be concerned about the obligation that candidate has to the donor and wonder whether it would be in conflict with the needs and desires of the constituency.

Currently we are hearing about our elected officials in Washington and their involvement with the National Rifle Association. The narrative being that if an elected official accepted a donation from the NRA and didn’t support the platform of the NRA, that elected official may not be re-elected because the NRA would pull its support and money.

That is but one example and that, folks, is the power of money in politics.

Rather than saying “wow” to Rep. Libby’s proposal to change the state Constitution to protect the constituency from the influence of money, we should be asking why doesn’t it already provide that protection.

Norman Smith, Poland