Last week marked the unveiling of the new “Red County Caucus” website.  It may be the only site of it’s kind in the State of Maine.  It was created to make the questionnaires available to Piscataquis County residents to view and compare the candidate’s answers to nine questions on the pertinent issues facing the State of Maine.  These questions were drafted by members of “The Red County Caucus Committee” who, after deliberation, came to a consensus on wording and substance for each issue.  Each gubernatorial candidate was presented the questionnaire, with a cover letter, at the Piscataquis County Caucus, “The Red County Caucus”.

As many of you who were at the Caucus know, there was no differentiation between candidates.  Each candidate was given the same nine questions.  Each candidate was given the same deadline.  Some chose to wait to the last minute to answer the questions and pass it in just before the deadline, like some dreaded college research assignment; while, others chose to invest time, thought, and, most importantly, respect to voters that simply want substantive answers to their concerns.

This was an opportunity for the candidates to establish a strong platform to run on.  Again, each candidate was afforded this same opportunity.  As residents of Piscataquis County, and the rest of the State for that matter, spend time at www.RedCountyCaucus.com they can come to their own conclusions to which candidate capitalized on this moment more impressively.

It is hard to imagine, though, that one could read these answers and not come away feeling that one candidate seized this moment emphatically and showed the he, indeed, took ‘The Red County Caucus” seriously.  That candidate, in this columnist’s opinion, was Bill Beardsley.  Mr. Beardsley laid out a very specific yearly plan for his Governorship of Maine if given the nomination and elected.

While it seems small, this columnist noticed that Dr. Beardsley responded to the core question of each issue rather than repeating, or copy and pasting, the whole description back to “The Red County”.  It shows a thought process that immediately moves to the essential substance of each problem.  Once the root is identified the solution is more specifically rendered.

Bill Beardsley was also very honest and pragmatic in his assessment that a Republican Governor alone cannot cure the ills of Augusta.  There must be shift of power in the Legislative branch of our State Government.  This will enable the Governor to enact the needed sweeping reforms to our ballooning State bureaucracy.

Mr. Beardsley believes unnecessary commissions and commissioners should be eliminated.  Those commissions left behind should be overseen by men and women with private sector experience that understand the need for business growth in the State of Maine.  Amen to that!!  It is amazing that liberals really think if they just form another commission and spend more of your hard earned money Mainers will actually believe they are working and solving problems.  Can anybody say “out of touch with reality”?!

The forestry industry will find no stronger ally than Bill Beardsley.  He chose to announce his candidacy at the Pleasant River Lumber Company.  This man shares the angst of the vast majority of Mainers who are fed up with militant environmentalists and their enumerable regulatory laws, which have destroyed Maine business.  Just a quick glance at his answers to the questions at www.RedCountyCaucus.com will show his strong desire to return power back to Maine people and wrest it away from enviro-leftists.

He is a strong proponent of private property.  Dr. Beardsley is adamant in his opposition to the 1992 Biodiversity Treaty of the United Nations, which calls for turning Maine into a wilderness area.   What the… some one please tell me where the U.N. gets off thinking they can decide the affairs of a sovereign State of the United States of America?!!  I think it’s time to start charging rent and make it retroactive to the date of their inception.

Mr. Beardsley is probably the strongest of all the candidates on traditional family values.  He opposes gay marriage.  He opposes abortion.  He does so unapologetically.  It shows his strength.

Speaking of strength, in Bill Beardsley’s first year as President of Husson, he was given a unanimous vote of no confidence by faculty and staff; yet, he stayed the course and fought the unions turning the beleaguered school around.  Husson is now a strong University that is the pride of central Maine.  Perhaps I should amend my concern for the perception of his tenacity.  I think I was dead wrong.