To the Editor:

Normally I do not respond to letters to the editor; however, Sen. Andy Sanborn’s letter in your publication on Oct. 21 was so patently false, I felt it was important to set the record straight.

Sen. Sanborn wrote that he was "the creator of the NH Pay Equity Law," This statement is a flat-out lie. I should know, because I wrote the legislation back in 2014. Senator Sanborn never sponsored or co-sponsored this legislation.

In fact, I remember him being outright hostile to the bill during its first public hearing. Even though women described in detail how they were discriminated against, he pursued his aggressive inquiry. And the inequity of women not being paid the same as their male counterpart for doing the exact same job still persists today as the law requires time to take effect in the workplace.

However, most troubling to me is his ludicrous claim that he was the "driving force behind" Joshua’s Law. Once again he was not the sponsor or co-sponsor. Anyone who followed this heartbreaking story knew the driving force behind that piece of legislation was a courageous woman by the name of Becky Raines, who lost her son Joshua. She was the real driving force to get the Legislature to strengthen our domestic violence laws not Senator Sanborn.

This issue of truth-telling seems to be a disturbing pattern for Senator Sanborn. Here in Concord he left thousands of dollars in unpaid bills with local vendors through his bankruptcy proceedings. And in a recent political flier he even used a Democratic state senator’s name and image without his permission to falsely claim that Sanborn’s support was bipartisan.

This penchant for misstating the truth for his own personal and political advantage should make voters question whether he has earned another term in the state Senate.

Sylvia B. Larsen

New Hampshire Senate, 1994-2014