I’m proud to say that Guilford, one of our towns here in Piscataquis County, was one of nine towns in Maine who were selected to as Maine’s most business friendly communities. Thank you Governor for not ignoring these hardworking towns in rural Northern Maine.
As the radical left continues to besiege Peter Vigue, the catch phrase used by the these environmentalists to justify their anarchist intent is they don’t want to lose “the quality of life” poverty-stricken Piscataquis and Washington County has to offer them. This is akin to the “it’s for the children” line used every time a liberal politician wants to raise your taxes to pay for another redundant bureaucracy. There is no quality of life in poverty save for the quality of your soul, but that is not the substance of this debate. If rural Counties in North-Central Maine cannot show large businesses that we have a transport artery for them to easily ship their products to market, we cannot hope to provide an attractive package to entice these businesses to come here. These enviro-leftists know this and that is their hope. At the core of their plan for our Maine is to drive the human footprint out of the “wildlands”. They use the ruse of “quality of life” to create hesitation in those who truly love the quality of life in areas we live on the edge of Maine’s wilderness. They hope to create uncertainty and conjure the elements of a conspiracy against the native men and women of Maine. The inevitable stalemate ensues. The entrepeneur with all his good intent suddenly finds himself neck-deep in a quagmire. After millions and even billions lost trying to help the impoverished, the businesses give up in despair to the cackling glee of environ’s meddling minions. Their accomplishment is two-fold. The hated business man has learned a painful lesson concerning rural Maine and leaves considerably weakened financially. The inhabitants of rural Maine are left even deeper in the despair of poverty, the environmental “quality of life”, and, with their children leaving in droves to seek fortune elsewhere, they follow in their wake to a different quality of life. And Maine is left barren of humanity, just the quality of life these anarchists seek.
Opponents continue to rail against proposed east-west highway in Piscataquis County
One of the major tenants of conservatism is the belief of private landowner rights. It was the adherence to this belief that caused this columnist to be doubtful of the East-West highway project. The Maine Conservative Voice had concerns about the probability of imminent domain and the violation of private landowner rights. That is why I attended the forum at the Foxcroft Academy. I made my way up to the top of the bleachers so that I could brace my tired back from a long day of construction work. No sooner had I sat down that many orange-garbed people began to surround where I had deposited my tired frame. It was readily apparent that they had already made up their minds about the project and expressed their disproval of the highway.
The presentation began and I listened. But my neighbors did not. At any moment when they did not approve of Peter Vigue’s statements, they would flash signs calling him a liar and at points heckling him. Soon Mr. Vigue addressed the issue of imminent domain and it verified some of my research that private companies cannot invoke imminent domain. On the other hand, the heckling orange clad protestors, that I found myself next to, revealed evidence of a different kind.
Every time Mr. Vigue would ask if the people from Piscataquis wanted a better prosperity, the orange throng about me would mutter, “No, we want a green life.” When asked if they wanted to see more businesses leave Piscataquis, they would answer, “Yes, to save the earth.” I began to see that all the protest against the violation of landowner rights was just one more ruse by the Environmental Left to keep any hope of prosperity coming to this great area from blossoming, thus, driving the hated human footprint from rural Maine, to turn this into the Wildlands they dream about. After all, these are the same groups who advocated for LURC, wildlife easements and the like. And they do have a plan for Piscataquis.
For some strange reason I received an email from a Mr. Gayton detailing his plan for Piscataquis County called the Piscataquis Village. He plans to build small European style villages with narrow streets and create no-car zones. This “micropolis” would set on 125 acres and would have “private building covenants”. Gayton also proposes a 325-acre “green band” around this village, which also would be a car-free zone. He needs to raise 2 million dollars to achieve the start of his plan for Piscataquis. He has many who have started to donate in the hundreds of thousands. There is more on this at these websites:
https://www.facebook.com/villageproject
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/cities/an-urban-experiment-in-rural-maine/1969
http://carfree.com/cft/i066.html
Some advocate these car free villages will agree to share one vehicle in case one is needed. So while the left calls for Piscataquis to embrace its vision of our future, which is something akin to beg, borrow and steal, we the people of Maine need to look closely at the true motives behind those who exploit our love for this land. They wish to blind us into severing our lifeline to future prosperity by cutting off the artery of business, transportation, as a sacrifice to their green agenda.
Recently while driving through Dover-Foxcroft, I noticed a bright hand made sign in storefront window. On the sign was boldly written “Say No To The East-West”. Right next to this sign was another sign in the window. It read “Going Out Of Business Sale”. Need I say more?
And please folks, get out there on the 12th and vote for Bruce Poliquin and Blaine Richardson, so we can send true social and fiscal conservatives to Washington, D.C. !!!
Incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud leads his Republican 2nd Congressional District opponents in fundraising by a wide margin, according to the latest campaign finance data.
Through May 23, Michaud had raised a total of $813,686 — including $95,023 from April 1 to May 23 — to Republican Kevin Raye’s $188,453 and GOP candidate Blaine Richardson’s $7,535, the candidates’ pre-primary Federal Election Commission filings state. Michaud’s numbers include a refund of about $3,500.
Michaud reported $45,273 in contributions from individuals from the period of time known as the preprimary ― April 1 to May 23 ― and $288,912 from January 2011 to May 23, his filing states.
Most of the rest of Michaud’s contributions came from a host of nonparty or political action committees, unions, associations, and corporations. Michaud garnered $49,750 in contributions from PACs from April 1 to May 23 and listed $528,250 as his total in PAC contributions since Jan. 1, 2011.
Those numbers, Raye campaign consultant Kathie Summers-Grice said, shows who Michaud really represents.
“He is real top-heavy with PAC contributions and other inside-the-beltway stuff. I think the national average is 41 percent and Mike is at something like 65 percent,” Summers-Grice said. “That shows a politician who is more in touch with inside-the-beltway politics than what’s happening in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District.”
Michaud is very much in touch with his district, said his campaign manager, Greg Olson.
“At the end of the day, this race isn’t about money. It’s about the people of the 2nd Congressional District,” Olson said. Kevin Raye’s campaign is “doing a lot of dissecting of our finances because they are not pleased with their own. He [Raye] is not keeping pace with his own fundraising from 10 years ago.”
Unions representing steelworkers, firefighters, carpenters, electricians, creditors, utility workers, painters, and municipal employees have each contributed between $4,000 and $5,000 to Michaud’s campaign, the filings state.
Unions or PACs representing teachers, beer distributors, Home Depot, emergency medical workers, and insurance agents contributed $2,500 each.
“There are a broad spectrum of people that support Mike, from working people to people who create jobs here in Maine,” Olson said.
Michaud’s largest individual contributors include Leon Gorman, the former CEO and current chairman of the board of L.L. Bean, and his wife, Lisa, who each gave a total of $5,000, and Imad Khalidi, who also contributed $5,000. Former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rosa Scarcelli contributed $3,000. Stephen King, Gary Lauder, Nancy Anderson, New Balance Athletic Shoe Chairman James S. Davis are among those who gave $2,500 each, his filing indicates.
Raye’s numbers show that the state Senate president is less successful now than when he first ran against Michaud 10 years ago, Olson said. Raye’s campaign had raised about $50,000 more at this point in 2002 than his campaign has now, Olson said.
Summers-Grice didn’t dispute that assertion. The difference between now and then, she said, is that Raye is a state senate president and not a fulltime candidate, as he was in 2002.
“Obviously Kevin has been very much a part-time candidate now,” she said. “There was a lot more focus on raising the money and campaigning full-time then.”
Raye’s listed contributions from individuals total $183,703 for the entire campaign, with $31,797 coming from April 1 to May 23. He received $4,180 from outside political committees, which can include PACs, from April 1 to May 23 and $4,750 from those sources overall.
Raye contributed $2,967 to his own campaign. Snowe For Senate contributed $2,000 and Republican Majority for Choice contributed $2,500, his filings indicate.
Raye’s campaigners are pleased with his fundraising strength so far, Summers-Grice said, adding that a disparity between challengers and incumbents is expected, with incumbents usually having a significant advantage. Michaud has raised four times as much as Raye in 18 months, while Raye has had only five months to raise funds for his run, Summers-Grice said.
Raye “is most proud of the fact that the very [highest] percentage of his donors are from Maine,” she said. “When you look at it in the context of other [2nd district] races, we are much further ahead that Jason Levesque was at this point in 2010, and Jason gave Mike a very strong run.”
Richardson’s campaign organization, Richardson for Congress 2012, and Richardson himself are his listed contributors. Of his $7,535 in contributions, $6,971 came from April 1 to May 23, according to his filing.
Raye and Richardson discussed some of their campaign goals with WLBZ-Channel 2 News Center’s Pat Callaghan during a segment taped last Wednesday.
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