A choice needs to be made

The costs for increased security by our newly militarized local law enforcement at presidential-campaign events, which is borne by local taxpayers, is a form of outsourcing [“Cities pay a price for campaign swings,” page one, Aug. 22].

Politicians running for president and vice president reap the benefits of using the public infrastructure to gain votes while evading the costs to local law enforcement for their campaign events. If we were speaking about big oil, it would be multinationals reaping huge profits from activity that despoils the environment while bearing no responsibility for the cost of cleaning up their mess.

If this is wrong for big oil to do, it must also be wrong for candidates for president and vice president to do. Our choice is to either remove money from national politics, or to demand that all of the costs of these campaign events be borne by the campaigns holding them.

— Phillip Orin Zack, Renton