Under the current economic conditions, voters need to be behind the candidates who will have the most favorable impact on our communities. We need to support candidates who will lead the way in trade reform and work to restore American jobs to America!

Chellie Pingree is opposed to expanding NAFTA to South Korea and Columbia; she is a member of the House Trade Working Group (the fair trade caucus in Congress).

Her opponent, Dean Scontras, stated recently he generally supports free trade and admits he hasn’t taken a look at the trade policy or trade agreements.

In our own community, back in the ’50s, local mills were purchased by an out-of-town company and relocated to the South. Our still-vacant mills are a testimony as to how a community is impacted when businesses move away.

And now “away” is not even in our United States. Please research the candidates for Congress and vote for the candidate who will continue to work to fix our failed trade policies.

Elizabeth O’Connor
Springvale

 

Are you happy with the $850 billion stimulus package that will leave our grandchildren in debt? Happy with the TARP bailout? Glad about Obama-Care, even though insurance rates are already rising?

Are you glad that cap and trade will give government control over everything you buy and set standards for those items? Are you happy the Bush tax cuts haven’t been extended? Does double-digit unemployment make you happy?

Do you approve of the Department of Justice suing Arizona over their illegal-immigrant legislation? Do you like the open-borders policy of our government?

Are you happy to know that as of 2012 you will be paying a 3.8 percent tax on the sale of your home to finance health care? Do you think it wise to prevent American oil companies from drilling in the Gulf of Mexico while giving Mexico $2 billion to drill there?

With no more incandescent light bulb manufacturing in the United States, we must now buy from China. Does that thrill you? Even though we are broke, the government continues to borrow money from China to give foreign aid to countries that are solvent and/or not necessarily our friends. Do you approve of that?

Are you better off now than two years ago?

If you answered “yes” to these questions, you should vote for Chellie Pingree because she and her party made all these acts possible. If you answered “no,” shouldn’t you consider the alternative?

Herbert Dobbins
Windham

It is difficult to imagine candidates in any election advertising or lending support to any notion to vilify another candidate. Chellie Pingree has been an excellent representative to her constituency.

She must be a formidable and able candidate for the opposing party to bring up personal issues that have nothing to do with her office. Making an issue of her flying from Maine to Washington on her fiance’s plane in an effort to discredit her appears to have fallen flat. After investigating those charges, it was found she did nothing wrong. It now appears that the issue of her values are coming under fire. When will this end?

Candidates should be more concerned as to how they appear in the eyes of the voting public and run campaigns on their merits.

Anne Milton
Springvale

 

In this contentious time of politics when candidates are climbing over each other to say what people want to hear, one candidate stands above the fray. As a small-business owner and mother of three, I am supporting Chellie Pingree because she has in-depth knowledge about economic policy, she is an expert on agriculture issues and she understands complex international and military policies.

Chellie uses her experience as a small-business owner, farmer and single mother of three to craft policy that will grow Maine’s economy by supporting small business in Maine, helping more Mainers get to college and investing in Maine resources.

I support her for all of these reasons, but I would move mountains to get her re-elected because she never pretends to be something she is not.

Whether her positions are popular or not, she respects herself and her constituents enough to explain her positions and listen to our reactions. Her honesty, transparency and commitment to Maine people is unmatched.

I am proud to be represented in Congress by someone who is more interested in people than in the game.

Nicole Witherbee
Portland

 

Chellie Pingree is a big spender. In Washington she voted for most, if not all, of the huge spending bills suggested by President Obama. Therefore, we have financial deficits that our children will never be able to pay.

I wish Dean Scontras would emphasize her voting record in Congress. She has done some good things in Maine, but I am profoundly disappointed by her spending record in Washington, D.C. She has not represented me.

A.T. Ekholm
Gorham

 

I am writing in support of Dean Scontras, who is running for Congress against incumbent Democrat Chellie Pingree. I am very concerned with the direction in which our country is heading.

The Democrats in Congress are pushing a radical agenda that most of us don’t agree with, and right now is the worst possible time that they could do it.

Dean wants to stop the stimulus and the bailouts and help our businesses hire people again. I had the pleasure of meeting Dean a few years ago, have been to several of his rallies and know he definitely is the right person for the job.

He’s not a career politician, he knows the challenges faced by small businesspeople like him, and he’s not a radical like Chellie Pingree.

I encourage everybody to do their own research on Dean because I know that, just as I did, you’ll like what you find.

June Messier
Wells

Chellie Pingree has done an excellent job representing us in Washington, D.C., and she deserves our vote again on Nov. 2 so she can continue to be the champion of Maine values.

Chellie stands for the things we believe in, care about and want our members of Congress to fight for: good jobs for middle class families, respect for our natural resources, health care for everyone, equal opportunity and peace.

She has a track record of voting for the best interests of her constituents and not selling out to special interests.

It’s wonderful that Chellie has met a man with whom she can share her life. The fact that her partner is very successful and wealthy is only relevant because he has joined forces with her to fight for social justice.

Please join me in voting for Chellie Pingree on Nov. 2. She is without a doubt the very best choice.

Cynthia Dill
Cape Elizabeth

 

On March 21, Chellie Pingree voted with 218 other members of Congress to pass health care reform. According to Rep. Pingree’s own website under “My principles for health reform,” she promised to work to “Guarantee choice — If you like your current coverage you can keep your doctors and plan.”

A family member has received a letter from Aetna Medicare which stated “Important notice: Your Medicare coverage is changing. Aetna Medicare will no longer offer your plan in 2011.”

This letter was received just days after 22,000 other senior citizens in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts were notified that Harvard Pilgrim would “drop its Medicare Advantage health insurance program at the end of the year.”

I ask Rep. Pingree, what good is “reform” if it causes the insurance companies to flee the market? Exactly what kind of “reform” is she selling?

Most people know that the state of health care in Maine is a total disaster. We pay much more in premiums than our neighbors in New Hampshire. Chellie Pingree’s vote has brought us to this place. I can honestly say that my family is worse off now that health care “reform” has passed. Thanks a lot!

I am looking forward to Nov. 2 when I will cast a vote against her. And on Nov. 3 I hope to see her board her “fiance’s” plane back to where he came from. The people of Maine can’t afford your “reform!”

Andy Madsen
Windham

 

The current job-killing Congress and their allies at MoveOn.org, Organizing for America, ACORN and the unions are desperate, and they are going all-out to win. Chellie Pingree has voted with this Congress 100 percent of the time, although she is supposed to be representing Maine’s 1st District. Has she been listening to us?

Congress’ decision to adjourn without fixing the tax code will ensure that taxes will rise for virtually every American (even though President Obama said there would be no tax increase for families making under $250,000). Unless the lame-duck Congress acts after the election, we will see:

• A family of four earning $50,000 per year paying more than $2,100 in higher taxes.

• A single mom earning $36,000 per year paying over $1,100 more in taxes.

• Married senior citizens earning $40,000 per year paying more than $1,400 in higher taxes.

From ObamaCare to the cap-and-trade energy tax, the Obama-Pelosi-Reid machine is a threat to our very way of life. Do you feel that Chellie Pingree represents you?

We must know that our entire way of life is at stake in these 2010 elections. The radicalism of the Obama agenda and the mindless complicity of House and Senate Democrats who didn’t even read the bills they were passing have left me with a dread that America is at risk.

If we don’t support constitutional conservatives, we are going to see the end of this great republic. America is the last best hope for freedom on Earth — and with so much at stake, can we really afford to re-elect Chellie Pingree?

Please consider voting for conservative Republicans — Dean Scontras in the 1st District and Jason Levesque in the 2nd District. Our best hope to start turning around this great country is to exercise our greatest civic responsibility to vote — hopefully, for candidates who feel strongly about the exceptionalism of America.

Sally Vose
Bath

 

As a clergyperson, my faith tradition doesn’t tell me who to vote for, but it does encourage me to inquire about who’s pursuing peace and justice.

Using that lens, I’m grateful for Rep. Chellie Pingree’s leadership on two fronts.

First, while the U.S. government is spending $7 billion monthly in Afghanistan and Iraq, Pingree has voted to end such military wastefulness and to redeploy the war money domestically to reduce the deficit and create jobs.

Second, Pingree is a passionate advocate for human rights, including women’s freedom to decide for themselves whether and when to have children, and the freedom of same-sex couples to marry.

Pingree has the wisdom to name the right problems and the courage to pursue effective solutions. Isn’t she the kind of Maine leader we should re-elect?

The Rev. Marvin M. Ellison
Portland

 

If you like living and spending beyond our means, ObamaCare, the bailouts, the stimulus, the unconstitutional expansion (by both parties) of federal power, carbon tax cap-and-trade and amnesty for illegals, then you’ll love Nancy Pelosi’s clone, Chellie Pingree.

In her support of these policies, Pingree represents what millions of us are so frustrated and angry about. And this is on top of our anxiety about jobs and the economy.

The irresponsible deficit spending policies of the Bush Republicans and the Obama Democrats have created a potential catastrophe.

I’m voting for Dean Scontras because he at least knows that the ever-expanding federal deficit is a clear and present danger and this spending has to end now.

To accomplish this we need a total housecleaning in Congress in 2010. I’d be happy if every single incumbent were fired.

Pete Hope
Pemaquid

 

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