Maine Victory 2006 Campaign Season Kick-Off
Southern Maine Community College
September 5, 2006
My name is Jean Hay Bright and I intend to be the next U.S. Senator from the great state of Maine.

I can think of few places better suited to represent Maine's proud history and its great future potential than here at Fort Preble, built almost 200 years ago toin the words of the U.S. Constitution - provide for the common defense. That's defense, not offense.

This site defended Portland in the war of 1812 and the Civil War. In World War II, Portland Harbor was an important naval refueling depot, and Fort Preble was part of its defense.

When the war ended, many veterans returned to Maine to study at Maine Vocational Technical Institute, which moved here from Augusta in 1952 after Fort Preble was decommissioned.

Look around you.

Highways.

Rail.

An airport.

A seaport.

Telephone, cable, and high-speed Internet.

And high-quality education available to all Maine citizens, now in the form of Southern Maine Community College.

It's infrastructure, built by a government of the people. People with vision, with hope, with an understanding of their past and faith in their future.

This is the kind of government Maine people want and the kind of government the Democratic Party can and does provide when it is in charge. We make constructive uses of our former bases when they no longer serve a military purpose.

We use our well-regulated militia to defend and protect our nation here at home.

We provide all our people an opportunity for a quality education. We build - and maintain - the infrastructure our society and our economy needs.

We assess taxes FAIRLY to pay for our public investments.

We CAN AGAIN BE in Washington, as we are here in Maine, fiscally responsible, so we leave our children with a future, not a burden of debt.

We are ethical, respectful, mindful of our environment, and peaceful. We are innovative.

Is there any of us here who doesn't know that unless we solve the problems of global warming all this will someday be under water?

Is there any of us here who doesn't know that someday those storage tanks out there will run short of oil?

Is there any of us here who doesn't know that America cannot continue to spawn war and violence around the world, who doesn't understand that America must return to its role of peacemaker, as we were under Carter and Clinton?

We need a Democratic U.S. House and U.S. Senate so we can end this war and bring our troops home - NOW.

We need a Democratic House and Senate so we can provide universal health care, so American manufacturing can once again be competitive in the world market, so entrepreneurs can follow their dreams while protecting their families, so our returning veterans and seniors can get the health care they've earned and deserve.

We need a Democratic House and Senate so we can make America energy self-sufficient - not with coal and nuclear power, but with solar, and wind, and hydro and tidal. Self-sufficient so those storage tanks out there can store Maine-produced bio-fuels awaiting export, not sit waiting for imported oil which every day demands we send more dollars - and more troops to foreign lands.

We need a Democratic U.S. House and U.S. Senate to restore fiscal responsibility to this country, to put the country in the black the way Gov. Baldacci and the Democratic Maine House and Senate have put Maine in the black.

It can be done. It MUST be done, and Democrats are the ones who will do it. But we need your help.

How Maine votes in this election WILL make a difference in what happens next, in this state, and in this country. Those of us standing before you today are asking for your vote.

It is not just a vote for us, It is a vote for the America we all want to live in.