McGavick hypocritical in his often-aired ads

I have repeatedly watched Senate candidate Mike McGavick’s television ads, wherein he claims that his opponent, Maria Cantwell, was part of the congressional establishment which voted itself a pay raise while cutting spending on vital programs like Social Security. Mr. McGavick’s comments suggest that if the greedy congressional members hadn’t voted for pay raises, money would have been available for vital governmental programs.

But this makes me wonder why Mr. McGavick, when he had the opportunity, didn’t turn down some portion of the approximately $28 million severance package he got when he left Safeco. Perhaps if he had, some portion of the 10 percent of the Safeco staff who were laid off while Mr. McGavick was the company’s CEO would have been able to keep their jobs.

For example, if Mr. McGavick had been willing to take the paltry sum of $13 million as his leave-the-job package, Safeco could have kept about 143 employees making $35,000 a year, for three years.

Mr. McGavick is being extremely hypocritical in his often-aired ads. I wish someone would make him justify his position.

RICHARD W. SWANSON

Marysville