In the June primary, three Republicans will be asking for your vote for the U.S. Senate. Jamie Radtke and Bob Marshall are conservatives; George Allen claims to be.

The June winner will face Democrat Tim Kaine in November.

Actually, Mr. Allen is conservative if compared to Mr. Kaine, whose liberalism is remindful of a suffering Europe.

Think about it: We have the richest poor people in the world, mainly because of capitalism and our form of government. Conversely, bad ideas of far-left liberals and pretend conservatives drag down economic productivity.

Let's recognize the tax-rate-cutting courage of such leaders of old as John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. Both men knew that high tax rates hurt families as the cost of a car repair spikes or a small business dismisses a family's mother.

Kennedy would have hated to see his successors repeatedly push for tax rate increases, ultimately chasing so many Big Business jobs out of the U.S.

An equally critical form of productivity applies to our nation's pre-K-12 education. Conservatism demands that the U.S. dramatically hike the productivity of pre-K-12 years, recognizing the threat of other nations overcoming us economically by creating a better-performing pre-K-12 human resource.

Yet during Allen's and Kaine's many years in office, neither gentleman seemed to have a clue that pre-K-12 costs and productivity are often mutually exclusive. Both men thus squandered that opportunity en masse.

Please join me in voting for Ms. Radtke in June and hopefully again in November. Let's send a real conservative to the U.S. Senate. America needs a Sen. Radtke--and no, I'm not a relative; I've never met her.

Vernon A. Baker Jr.

King George