I am writing to suggest that Maine voters pay attention to the ads and the speeches you hear as you think about voting.

Janet Mills and Jared Golden offer hope for Maine’s future, real solutions to Maine’s problems, and a path forward in which we all can work together. Mills focuses on fully funding education and revenue sharing to lower property taxes, keeping Maine’s public health system strong, and maintaining health insurance for Mainers. Golden has worked to strengthen health care for veterans, to increase the number of people in our country with health insurance, and to protect the environment. He has a 94% rating from the League of Conservation voters. Both Mills and Golden support women’s reproductive freedom, and Maine peoples’ rights to live, and love, and marry as they choose.

On the other hand, Paul LePage and Bruce Poliquin focus on fear to try to get your vote. They tell you to be afraid of LGBTQ Mainers. They demonize their opponents, hoping they can create fear of the “far left.” They tell you that we need to ban books and ideas, and to be afraid of teachers and librarians. They push fear of immigrants. They have supported having the government decide whether women (including young women) bear children by removing the right to choose which is written into Maine law.

When LePage was governor, he defied a vote of Maine people by refusing to extend Medicaid to those in need. Poliquin has a long anti-environment record, having earned a 16% rating from the League of Conservation voters (https://scorecard.lcv.org/moc/bruce-poliquin).

Maine does not have to be ruled by fear. I am voting for hope and for the Maine traditions of freedom and respect.

Stan Davis

Wayne