Mary Fant Donnan is no stranger to newspapers.

In recent years, the candidate for the Democratic nomination for labor commissioner had two letters to the editor published in the Winston-Salem Journal, her hometown newspaper.

(In Dome's experience, that means she's probably written a few more that didn't make the cut.) 

The first letter ran on Oct. 29, 2002. It praised her neighbor Becky Johnson, then running for state House District 93. 

"She would work tirelessly to use the best of her experience to give Winston-Salem a statewide presence," she wrote. "She can work across party lines and represent the interests of Winston-Salem."

The second letter ran on Nov. 29, 2006. It questioned the need for a state prison in Grayson County, Va., where Donnan grew up.

"The stretch where the new prison is proposed, by Molly Osborne Shoals, is one of the most beautiful," she wrote. "Locating a prison there does not make sense."

Both letters show Donnan trumpeting a lost cause. Johnson lost to Republican Rep. Bill McGee by nearly a 2-1 margin, while construction went ahead on the state prison in Grayson County.