 | |||
|
|
| |
| |||
Maine needs tax reform, jobs, and universal healthcare. Mainers need small business and educational opportunities. One in ten Mainers is below the official poverty line, and too many of us are one serious illness away from losing our homes and our savings.
How did we get to this place? Is this the world we want for ourselves, our neighbors, and our children?
Are we upholding the time-honored Maine values of social and fiscal responsibility when we are letting so many of our neighbors fall through the social safety net?
How can we expect our Maine-based businesses to survive when the state jobs are exported as quickly as the private sector jobs? Thousands of Maine jobs have gone everywhere from Massachusetts to India. |
Over the last two decades we have lost 22% of our manufacturing jobs averaging nearly $40,000 dollars a year and increased our retail jobs by 73%.
Those retail jobs yield about $15,000 dollars a year, requiring folks to work at least two of them to maintain even a minimal standard of living.
How many of us can work two jobs and still find time to see our kids, let alone coach little league or volunteer in our children's classrooms? These activities are proven to help keep kids out of trouble. Could this be one of the reasons for Maine's higher than average teen suicide rates? There are so many questions we need to ask, and so many answers that need to change. 
Throughout February:
Voter Registration College Tour in High Gear
Maine Gubernatorial candidate Pat LaMarche has visited six universities recently, and is set to visit three others as her 2006 Voter Registration College Tour shifts into high gear.Bates College, Bowdoin College, Colby College, Unity College, the University of Maine at Orono and the University of Southern Maine at Portland were the scenes of recent events.
Dozens of students and community members registered to vote and signed up as volunteers for the campaign. Many signed petitions and gave $5 to the Clean Elections Fund to get LaMarche and the Green Independent Party on the ballot this November.
LaMarche will be making return visits to Colby College and U.M. at Orono, and also reaching out to the College of the Atlantic, Husson College, and U.M. at Farmington.
LaMarche Campaign Continues Outreach
January 30, 2006: Gubernatorial candidate Pat LaMarche continues her campaign to serve as Maine's next governor with participation at community events, signature-gathering, house parties, and campus outreach. She also has launched an email newsletter to keep her supporters updated on campaign activities. 
LaMarche: Let's Hear From the People of Maine!
January 14, 2006: This past week, Pat LaMarche sent an open letter to the editors of all of the local media outlets in Maine asking them to find out how their readers would respond to a simple question: "If I were Governor of Maine, I would......" All Mainers are welcome to send their response to this question, along with a photo, for posting on Pat's website. 
By Tom Bell
Rivals Critical of Governor's Speech
Excerpt: "Gov. John Baldacci's State of the State address amounted to an upbeat campaign speech filled with vague promises that can't be kept, according to several candidates who want to become Maine's chief executive. "It was a rah, rah for us speech," said Pat LaMarche, a Green party candidate who plans to be on the ballot in November and watched Wednesday's address on television from her home in Yarmouth." 
By Pat LaMarche
Pat LaMarche's Letter to the Editor
Excerpt: "Governors need to listen. Our neighbors, fellow co-workers, students, educators, healthcare providers and recipients, travelers, children, elders, and every other subdivision of Mainer have ideas and wishes and dreams for this state. And no one should be Governor without at least attempting to learn what those wishes and dreams are. No Governor should ignore the solutions that are housed in the minds of those facing some of Maine's greatest challenges and experiencing Maine's greatest successes." 
By Alfoor
Few Incumbents Seem to Realize the Economic Crisis We're In
Excerpt: "It's time we got a legislature and a governor who's willing to reform, rather than react. Who are willing to be leaders, rather than lackadaisical. Who are willing to throw themselves into the fray, rather than simply follow. In short, we desperately need profound change in Augusta in every part of government, because few incumbents seem to realize the economic crisis we're in." 
By Pat LaMarche (letter to the editor)
Pat LaMarche, Candidate for Governor of Maine
Excerpt: "Hello, I am Pat LaMarche. On December 8th I announced that I would like to be Governor of Maine. As soon as I made that declaration, I was asked some truly excellent questions. The most important question asked was "why?" "Why do you want to be Governor, what would you do?" This question is huge because the content must be correct and the response would naturally cover so many topics. That makes it hugely important as well as gigantic in size. So I decided to write to you because I want help with the answer." 
