Criticizing what she sees as a “needlessly cruel” campaign focused on humiliating her husband and family, Carol Sherwood has issued an emotional letter to area Republicans expressing her commitment to her husband’s re-election.

After an Oct. 4 debate at Bucknell University between Rep. Don Sherwood, R-Tunkhannock Township, and his challenger, Dimock Township Democrat Chris Carney, Carol Sherwood felt compelled to speak out, she wrote in the letter which was mailed to supporters last weekend.

“Chris Carney talks a lot about family values — but the ‘substance’ of his campaign is to attack my family,” she wrote. “The negative ads approved by Chris Carney seem to be needlessly cruel. Private humiliation is one thing to endure, but to be repeatedly, publicly humiliated is quite another.”

Don Sherwood admitted to an affair with Cynthia Ore, a woman 35 years his junior. Ore accused Don Sherwood of trying to choke her at his Capitol Hill apartment, which he has denied. Don Sherwood was not charged with a crime and the two settled a lawsuit out of court.

Carol Sherwood said she does not condone her husband’s “mistake,” but she will not dwell on it, either.

“It is a fact that good people can and do make mistakes,” Carol Sherwood wrote. “Don is a good person. I took a break from politics and campaigning for a while, now I am back and willing to work as hard as you to keep a good man doing a good job for all of us.”

Don Sherwood declined to comment Monday. Don Sherwood said he did not ask his wife to write the letter.

“Because of the personal nature of this thing, I had decided I didn’t want to try and get my family any more in the public view than they have been,” Don Sherwood said.

Carol Sherwood has been absent most of the campaign, a fact Don Sherwood said they agreed on. But the political ads on television and the debate upset her, he said.

“She stayed up most of that night and wrote that letter,” Don Sherwood said. “She said, ‘If I write a letter, will you get it sent out to our supporters?’”

Carney defended his campaign, saying Don Sherwood’s infidelity is mentioned by voters across the district.

“I don’t doubt that this is a tough time for Mrs. Sherwood, and it’s regrettable that her husband’s embarrassing indiscretions have become news,” he said in a statement issued by his campaign. “But this is something I hear about from the voters everywhere I go in the district. They feel let down by their leaders in Washington and by Congressman Sherwood in particular.”

Carney said he is glad Carol Sherwood “feels at peace” in her marriage.

“But when the public says they’ve lost trust in their leaders, then we need to change those leaders,” he said.

epiet@timesshamrock.com