Some people are concerned that Paul LePage will cut needed programs.

At least those people admit that LePage is not going to spend more than we can afford. Let’s look at what Paul has done with Mardens. Just recently Mardens opened a new store — in a down economy!

They must have been in pretty good financial standing to do this. Paul did not cut a store to put the company in a better financial position. He expanded the company to make it stronger.

Paul will do the same thing as governor of the state of Maine. He will cut wasteful programs and he will support needed programs and he will make Maine a stronger state.

Paul has already proved that he can make Maine stronger so that it can stand on its own two feet and not have to be bailed out by the federal government. Look at his track record. It is there for all to see.

This is what Paul does. He makes businesses successful. He made Waterville successful in a down economy.

I challenge all of the voters of the state of Maine to take a look at Paul with unbiased eyes.

Next year is going to be ever so challenging in oh-so-many ways! Health care, education, welfare and jobs, to name a few.

This is not a time for partisan politics. This is a time for deciding who is the right person to be the next governor of Maine, the right person to help all of us get on our own two feet so that we can support our families.

Who is the right person to stop spending our money wastefully? Too many budgets were funded with stimulus monies this past year. There is no stimulus money next year. People without jobs cannot live on unemployment checks for years on end. This is not the answer.

Vote for Paul LePage and let him do what he does best. Let him make Maine successful.

Donald Kelley

Wiscasset

What’s wrong with this picture? The more forums a candidate misses, the more publicity he receives from The Portland Press Herald and the more opportunities he has to criticize those who do show up.

At Rockland’s Strand Theater, I attended a wonderfully designed forum sponsored by the Island Institute. Paul LePage was the only candidate who didn’t show up.

It seemed like his loss, for he missed what Libby Mitchell noted was a first — a forum where those who know the topic first-hand educate both the candidates and the public.

Apparently, according to the Press Herald, LePage’s absence was a call to give him his own private forum the next day. That morning he received a Local & State headline and criticized Mitchell for being the only Clean Election candidate.

To me, the primary message of the forum was the realization that Maine’s islands, only 15 of which still have year-round residents, and its 125 working waterfront communities are a precious part of what makes Maine special to both residents and tourists.

One island resident noted that when these coastal communities suffer, it signals we will all suffer soon, much the way a canary dying in a coal mine sends a warning that immediate action is needed.

Each candidate present, Eliot Cutler, Mitchell, Shawn Moody and Kevin Scott, learned from the excellent presenters and then made contributions and shared points of view with the audience.

I am a supporter of Libby Mitchell and was delighted at the enthusiastic support she received in Rockland. It never occurred to me that the paper would miss the real story to reward the absent candidate.

I urge you to use your unique powers of communication to encourage more candidate contact with the public, not less!

Albie Davis

Thomaston

Where is the outrage? Out-of-staters are coming to Maine to overturn our publicly funded elections law so corporations and rich supporters can buy Maine state elections — just as they can buy federal elections.

Why aren’t Mainers outraged? We would go from a tradition of democracy exemplified by the town meeting to offering politics for sale?

The Press Herald reported that the same people who “fixed” federal elections to benefit corporations and the rich have been invited in by Paul LePage’s supporters to overturn Maine’s election law, which seeks to put publicly funded candidates on a more equal footing with privately funded candidates.

The upshot is that only the rich, or candidates beholding to wealthy special interests, would run our state government. Isn’t a federal Congress beholding to lobbyists bad enough?

Where does Paul LePage stand on this? Will he renounce their effort and demand that his supporters abandon this challenge to Maine election law, or is he willing to abandon New England’s tradition of democracy to buy the governorship?

Also, when will Paul Le- Page clearly state what part of the “new” state Republican platform he supports and what he doesn’t? LePage supporters were also reportedly involved in that effort — so remarkably radical it made national news.

Paul LePage may be a miracle-working business manager, but would any candidate be worth abandoning our hard-fought New England traditions of freedom and democracy for, traditions earned through the blood of our forefathers?

Please, Mayor LePage, tell us clearly where you stand.

Laurent Hourcle

Col., USAF, Retired

Saco

 

In the Morning Sentinel it was reported that Eliot Cutler was on the board of a company that holds the prestigious title of being in the top 10 of mortgage company failures.

Very interesting news from the candidate who claims he can “Make Maine Work.” In his defense, Mr. Cutler says that his family lost “hundreds of thousands” of dollars in the collapse of Thornburg Mortgage, and that as a board member he “flew back from China” to try to help the company.

Don’t you wish we had “hundreds of thousands of dollars to lose” and the opportunity to “fly back from China”? Mr. Cutler is out of touch with Maine people. He left Maine as soon as the prep schools would take him, and returned 40 years later fat on the riches of Indian gaming and government contracting.

He was at the helm of one of the nation’s largest mortgage failures. His shareholders lost nearly $25 billion.

Maine people were caught up in the fast and loose practices of an irresponsible, fly-by-night mortgage industry in which Cutler was making “hundreds of thousands of dollars.” and they have lost their homes at a staggering rate.

And we’re supposed to feel sorry that he lost “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Unbelievable. As are Cutler’s campaign promises.

Mary Breen

Ogunquit

 

Why I won’t vote for Libby Mitchell: What does she know about running the government when she never ran any kind of business?

Libby Mitchell has never worked a job for eight hours a day, five days a week. She became a teacher, then went into politics.

She has always been a “yes woman” for the governor, no matter what he wanted, especially regarding taxes on recreation such as golfing, skiing, etc. Think what she would do if she were elected.

I see that the Press Herald gave Scott Kauffman a quarter page in the paper for him to push for Mitchell. Does he have an ax to grind against LePage?

As for Eliot Cutler, he has no experience running a business except political appointments. And anybody knows theose appointments are all payback for favors.

As far as I can see, he’s trying to buy the Governor’s Office as an independent when he is a Democrat in sheep’s clothing. The paper can do all the mudslinging it wants, including Bill Nemitz, who doesn’t know half the truth about the stories he writes.

As for LePage, he’ll get my vote as a self-made man who got where he is by what he knows, not who he knew.

His life experience shows that he knows how the working people feel to be unemployed. Can Mitchell or Cutler say the same?

Richard C. Campbell

South Portland

 

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