A vote for me is a vote for you. If you want more of the same from Maine’s government, vote for anyone but me.
If you want a democracy; if you want fairness; if you want a governor who will come to you for weekly town hall meetings; if you want a governor who has served you for decades in state government, is educated in government and who knows how government is supposed to work; if you want positive reform and want to be a part of it; if you are homeless, elderly, hungry, dealing with mental illness or drug use by yourself or a loved one; if you believe as I do that no Maine child should ever die of abuse or neglect; if you want to pay no more than your fair share of taxes; if you want government to be run as efficiently and effectively as possible; if you believe in full government transparency; or if you believe in putting people before politics, then perhaps you should vote for me.
I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth. My father was a high school educated blue collar worker who built helicopters. I spent the better part of twenty years in college classrooms while working to support my family to achieve my two college degrees. I have worked many jobs and even have been fired from several. My first job was making septic tanks at the age of sixteen for $1.75/hr. I have been a janitor and an environmental specialist and just about everything in between. I have been financially poor and needed food stamps to feed my family. I have been married and divorced. I was married to a woman for thirty six years who suffered from mental illness and substance use disorder. I know what its like to come home to a suicide note or to make trip after trip for her to doctors and emergency rooms, some for valid reasons and some not.
I am one of you. I have tried, both inside and outside government, to affect positive change for virtually all of my adult life. Government’s standard operating procedure is to deny your petitions, ignore your letters, pay lip service, and say no unless it benefits them-expecting that you will give up and go away. It almost always works so they keep doing it.
Why should you vote for me? It’s because I will not give up and I will not go away.
