The independent nature of Maine residents has been well documented.  Pundits from all political persuasions have lamented the fact that it is so difficult to predict the way Maine people will vote.  Maine residents are very proud to be called an enigma; in fact, Mainers work very hard to perpetuate that image.  Unfortunately, in recent years that fierce individuality, so long Maine’s strength, has been exploited by the Democratic Party until it has become the ironic bane of Maine’s slow painful demise.

Mainers vote their conscience.  Mainers resent being confined to a party.  In the past, this was a badge of honor proudly displayed in the face of any political pollster.

I, too, was raised to believe that you voted the issues, not necessarily your party.  My friends, sadly, that has changed.  I realized this four years ago after my last vote for Mike Michaud.  I voted for him because I thought he was the most conservative candidate.  While he campaigned as a Conservative Democrat, I think we can all now agree that he has no Conservative spine.  I’m ashamed to say that, unwittingly; my vote for Mike Michaud was a vote for Nancy Pelosi.

So there in lies the problem.  We must come to the realization that there is no such thing as a Conservative Democrat.  A vote for a Democrat at any level is a vote for a liberal agenda that is destroying our State and destroying our Nation.

For years the Democrats have used our children as the bargaining chip to pass many of their unfunded mandates.  The result has been a mass exodus of our youth, who have realized that, the bill for the mountain of  “for the children” legislation will fall to them.  They are leaving for Conservative states that offer a crazy combination called higher wages and lower costs of living to forge a new life for themselves.  As the youth of our state leave, they are being replaced by entitlement seekers who are addicted to the “Turkish delight” freebies the Democrats offer.  Your vote for a Democrat is vote for the long coordinated attack on the independent strength of our state.

It should be increasingly clear to all of us that a vote for a Democrat is a vote for their leadership.  Those who control what the party does.  A vote for a Democrat is a vote for those who have a repulsive unmitigated gall to equate tea party goers with the demented Timothy McVeigh.

To my Conservative Democrat friends, when I criticize the Democratic Party I am criticizing the Democratic leadership not it’s voting constituents.  I challenge my Democratic friends to evaluate their vote.  Are you sure you want to have your vote support a party that has piled a mountain of debt on the backs of your children?

The day has come when these stark questions must be addressed.  Are you willing to vote for a party, which has become filthy rich off the many environmental regulations it has imposed on this state?  Your vote for a Democrat is a vote for a party that envisions the North central part of the state of Maine as a complete wilderness devoid a human footprint.  They support the United Nation’s plan to annex all private property into public lands.  Do you really want to support that left wing agenda?

The sad reality is a vote for a Democrat is a vote for socialism.  There are no Democrats in the Party that have the strength to right the ship as it careens off to the left.  This is not the Democratic Party that your grandfather voted for.

As this voting cycle begins to heat up, remember whom you are actually voting for when you vote.  The Republican Party is far from perfect.  There are two Senators from this state I have to hold my nose to vote for, but I have learned my lesson.  A vote for a Democrat is a vote for party that has lost all moral grounding.  I will never again empower them with my vote.  A vote for Republican, no matter how flawed, is a vote for a party that still holds to Conservative principals.  This State, this Nation, needs to return to Conservatism.  Let’s keep the big picture in mind when we vote.

This winter, as with any Maine winter, has presented the cyclical challenge of fiscal survival for my family, as I’m sure it has for yours.  With the possibilities of carpentry and masonry work looking rather bleak, I searched out other job opportunities to be stop gap measure to help us through the lean months.

One of these of these jobs required that I take an oath to keep all sensitive information confidential or something to that effect.  Being that I am a Conservative and take oaths seriously, I have decided not to tell you anything about my job.  In order to share with you the following information, I have decided to use the cover of obscurity.  All names have been changed to protect the innocent.

One of the objectives of my job was to verify that the brooks and ponds on the map were the brooks and ponds on the map.  Yes… I did just write that.  No…it is not a typo.  They were willing to pay me to hike out to a pond, take a look around, and then quantify the results of my investigation, which generally consisted of, “Yup, that’s a pond.”

So there I was in the middle of “nowhere”, following the brook “none of your business” to find the pond, “Can’t get there from here.”  As I trudged through the snow, I noticed a clearing with small rolling knolls in it.  I walked into the clearing and began the traverse over these knolls.  When I crashed through into branches, I realized these “knolls” were blow downs.

I flailed about in the branches (painful branches I might add) until I found some footing and scrambling out.  So why so many blow downs in one area?  I soon discovered why.  This whole clearing area was wet, marshy soil created by water that had backed up from the pond.  Because the ground was so saturated, the roots of the trees had no depth and no strength.  The effect was trees that quickly rotted and could not stand any strong wind force.

So what created the wetland?  I hiked on until I found pond “can’t get there from here.”  I quickly realized this pond was a beaver pond.  That’s what caused the back up into the brook basin area.  It should be noted at this point that part of my job directive was to verify that there were no houses in the pond.  Yes, I wrote that… in the pond.  Yeah, I know…let’s not dwell on it.

I cannot tell you where the pond is because it is the residence of some beavers.  Yes, we want to protect the beavers.  Rumor has it that the Obama administration wants to put them on his new “animals to obliterate from the face of the earth” list.  It seems beavers represent the very thing that scares the stuff out of Liberals; that is, industry.

These little buggers never quit working.  They build dams (gasp), dig channels to float logs (Heaven help us), and, worst of all, they cut down trees.  They even build homes!  (Liberals are passing out all over Maine)  Then to top it off they work incessantly to maintain everything they have built.  If they were human they would be called contractors and loggers.

The analogy is this.  Socialism is like that backwater marsh.  It functions off the labor of hard working individuals.  Those who set in its pool of free entitlements become the blow downs.  Without the deep roots of independence, we rot and become the casualties of government dependency.  The trees don’t have a choice.  We do.

Finally, a few weeks ago, my eldest son listened attentively as my friend and I held a lively discussion on the money shenanigans of the Liberals in Augusta.  We railed against the dishonest methods of Democrats and divisive tactics they use to rake in bundles of money.  My son piped in with his solution.  “Dad,“ he said, “if they’re fighting over money, take the money away!”  Hmm, could it really be that simple?

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.