The campaign and candidate papers were filed with the Federal Elections Commission in Washington DC
June 1, 2005
Why are you running against Olympia Snowe?

It's not a matter of running against Olympia Snowe. I am running FOR U.S. Senate.

I am running to end the war in Iraq. It was wrong to invade a sovereign country which had not attacked us and had no means or desire to attack us. And it is wrong to stay there. Our presence there is escalating the violence against our military men and women and against the Iraqi people, violence emanating from an "enemy" that we cannot recognize nor fight. The war has drained our coffers here at home to the point that essential services, including homeland security, are under-funded and are putting our own citizens at great risk. And our status in the world community is in shambles.

I'm running to stop the financially destructive Republican policies, like the tax cuts for the wealthy, which, along with the hundreds of billions in tax dollars diverted to fund the War in Iraq, have resulted in our astonishing federal deficit and astronomical national debt. That fiscal irresponsibility is also severely impacting state budgets, including Maine's.

I'm running to protect social security, and other programs that reflect a government that recognizes its responsibility to its citizens -- its elderly, its disabled, its orphans -- and to its veterans.

I'm running because it's long past time we had national health care.

I'm running to protect what jobs we have left in this country and restore the ones we've lost, by repealing devastating trade agreements such as NAFTA and refusing the allow new ones such as CAFTA.

I'm running to make our nation more secure by ensuring food independence. True homeland security requires the regional ability to feed ourselves. With the continuing high cost of fuel, we need to promote dispersed, diversified farms and their support industries such as processing facilities. A decentralized agriculture also diminishes the possibility or impact of deliberate sabotage.

I'm running to ensure a healthy environment -- clean air, clean water, clean land -- essential for the preservation of the planet and all living things on it. We must also recognize the threats to our natural environment, and to the sustainability and viability of our diverse seed banks, posed by genetically-modified crops.

I'm running to promote the concept of energy self-sufficiency through renewable resources such as wind, solar and bio-diesel, along with research into advanced technologies to make the best and most efficient use of the world's dwindling oil reserves.

I'm running to save human rights and civil rights from assaults such as the Patriot Act, and an Attorney General who thinks the Geneva Conventions are "quaint."

I'm running to protect the federal judicial system from extremist right-wing judges who are dedicated to decimating Constitutional protections and the Bill of Rights. I will fight the confirmation of such judges to all levels of the federal court system, through use of the filibuster if necessary.

I'm running to rescind the un-American and unconstitutional denial of jailed "enemy combatants" access to lawyers or courts by our Justice Department, based solely on the unsupported declaration of the Bush administration that they are threats to our national security.

I'm running to preserve reproductive rights and the individual liberties and responsibilities which are laid out so eloquently in Roe v. Wade.

I'm running to provide all of our children an opportunity for a quality public education through college.

This is the vision I have for America. It is a vision I believe most Mainers share. It is also a vision that is under attack by the Bush Administration and the right-wing Republicans who now control both houses of Congress.

The only way we can take back our America is to vote our vision, vote our values, by voting for candidates who shares those visions and values.

I am such a candidate. With your help, we in Maine can send that shared vision to the floor of the U.S. Senate.