Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

October 20, 2012

Letters to the editor: Backers overstate King achievements

Why does so much of our local media adore Angus King?

The incessant delusional trumpeting in several Maine newspapers of King's "career" in wind power is foolish.

The basic reality there is very simple: Wind-power companies can't produce bottom-line profits without artificial support from federal and state tax subsidies that we taxpayers have to cover. Maine voters shouldn't be expected to reward a deal-maker with a U.S. Senate seat, just because his business gained from special tax privileges.

And King's accomplishments as a former governor? A dozen years ago, he spent a lot of taxpayer dollars on laptop computers for schoolchildren. Those middle-schoolers are young adults now, and what have those laptops helped them achieve? How did the big talk and sparse action of the King administration actually help our state's students advance?

Furthermore, Mr. King's "independence" won't majestically elevate him above the messy fray that characterizes the difficult work of Congress. That sales pitch is pure fantasy, since he's never been particularly adept at persuading others.

If we elect Angus King as our next U.S. senator, his lack of influence means that he'll be all but ignored in Washington, until a large percentage of the other 534 politicians in Congress see reasons to enlist his help with their objectives.

Instead, let's put a Mainer in the U.S. Senate who'll help the growing conservative movement in Washington get our national government back on the right track.

Please vote for the only candidate in our race who is committed to the task of downsizing our obscene federal spending habits. That candidate is Charlie Summers. He'll bring more of the Maine qualities of integrity, reason and perseverance to the work of the U.S. Senate.

James Clingensmith

Saco

Maine should send Angus King to Washington. He is just the man that town calls for, a 1 percenter who has used his political connections to cash in at the public trough.

The green energy legislation he pushed as governor that helped enrich him after he left office costs the average Mainer hundreds extra a year in electricity bills, and yet he still smells of roses to many in the state. Very impressive!

This fellow presided over one of the biggest tax-and-spend binges in his time as governor and he left a huge budget hole in his wake, but somehow legend has him a "fiscal conservative." You can't beat that!

This wind power weasel is ready for the big time. He was made for D.C., slick, very slick. Don't worry that he is neither Democratic nor Republican. Seems he is in it more for the Wealth Party, so he'll fit right in. Yes, sir, let's send him to Washington, just not as our senator.

Please vote Charlie Summers, a serviceman for U.S. Senate.

Anthony Garrity

West Newfield

People with vision loss depend on Falmouth bus

As a Cumberland resident currently working at the Iris Network, with a 35-year career in assisting Maine residents with blindness and visual impairment, I am watching the Falmouth vote on public bus service with concern.

While vision loss can happen at any age, our chances of developing vision problems increase dramatically as we age.  

According to a Fall 2010 Maine Jobs Council report, Maine has the oldest population in the United States.  

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