October 22, 2006 (Sunday) - U.S. Senate candidate debate sponsored by the Colby College, the Morning Sentinel and the Kennebec Journal, Page Commons Room, Cotter Union Building, Colby College, 7 to 8:30 p.m.

October 23, 2006 (Monday) - U.S. Senate candidate debate sponsored by the UMaine Speech and Debate Team, Memorial Union, University of Maine Orono campus, 7:30 p.m. (Snowe has NOT confirmed for this event.)

October 24, 2006 (Tuesday) - U.S. Senate and First District Congressional candidate forum. Temple Beth-El, 400 Deering Avenue, Portland, 7 p.m.

October 25, 2006 (Wednesday) - Maine Public Television U.S. Senate candidate debate, live broadcast, 8-9 p.m. (Radio repeat: Thursday 10/26 at 1 p.m., TV repeat: Sunday 10/29 at 7 p.m., TV repeat: Sunday 11/05 at 3 p.m.)

October 26, 2006 (Thursday) - Channel 2 & 6 Senate Debate (WLBZ-TV & WCSH-TV), live broadcast, 7 to 8 p.m.

BANGOR -- Over the din of the 1,500 raucous anti-war protesters that surrounded her, one had to listen intently to hear Jean Hay Bright's message. But it's a message the Democratic U.S. Senate contender believes will resonate loudly, far beyond the recent rally at the Bangor Waterfront and into voting booths around Maine on Nov. 7.

(from The Nation, Nov. 6, 2006 edition, posted online Oct. 19, 2006)
... Antiwar candidates on the ballot in November range from likely winners such as Keith Ellison in Minnesota and John Sarbanes in Maryland, both of whom won tight Democratic primaries for open House seats by promising to kick-start their party on the war issue, to the longest of long shots, like Wisconsin Green Rae Vogeler, who's mounting an antiwar challenge to wishy-washy Democratic Senator Herb Kohl, and Maine Democrat Jean Hay Bright, who's keeping the heat on supposedly moderate GOP Senator Olympia Snowe. Other antiwar candidates include Senate challengers Ned Lamont in Connecticut and Jon Tester in Montana and House challengers such as New Jersey's Linda Stender, Pennsylvania's Joe Sestak and Patrick Murphy, and Connecticut's Diane Farrell, whose antiwar messages have helped them pull even with entrenched GOP incumbents. Their strong polls suggest that ending the war resonates not just with Democrats but also with swing voters, and even some Republicans.

1. Military Tribunal bill signed (with Snowe's support)
   This week President Bush signed the military tribunal bill that was approved by Congress on Sept. 28, the one in which Congress voted to debase the Constitution, to deny habeas corpus rights to "enemy combatants," people designated as such on the President's word alone; to allow the President to set the rules for what kinds of torture is acceptable for agents of the United States Government to inflict on our prisoners; to allow hearsay and/or coerced evidence at military tribunals, to deny defendants the right to see what evidence is being used against them, and to deny defendants the right to face their accusers.
   
   Olympia Snowe did not vote that infamous Thursday, because she was here in Maine attending her aunt's funeral. She could have taken a pass. Instead, she issued a statement that, had she been in Washington, she would have voted in favor of all those bills.
   
   This is the America Olympia Snowe wants us to live in. Is it the America you want to live in?
   
   
2. Snowe's Iraq War Switch (Colin Powell 2003 column)
   At the Portland Press Herald Endorsement interview on Oct. 4, Olympia Snowe insisted that, when she voted for the Iraq War Resolution in 2002, she was voting to save America from terrorists. She insisted that all of us who were now opposed to the war were operating on 20/20 hindsight.
   
   However, as I pointed out in that meeting, my opposition to the war was public, even before the war, and included a column I wrote for the Bangor Broadside, in which I said Colin Powell's presentation to the United Nations was based on "bogus, vague and conjectured" information. And, of course, Maine's two Congressmen at the time, Tom Allen and John Baldacci, both saw the same evidence she did and came to the opposite conclusion -- both voted against that 2002 resolution.
   
   With polls now showing that the vast majority of Americans -- and Mainers -- want us out of Iraq, Snowe has had an epiphany. Just last week, in an election-year conversion, Snowe decided to follow Sen. John Warner's lead (Snowe is a follower, not a leader) and suggested that we may need to rethink the current course in Iraq.
   
   Snowe said in a press release, "Staying the course is neither an option nor a plan."
   
   I say, reelecting Snowe is neither an option nor a plan.
   
   
3. Snowe and Slavick fail "choice" test
   After several years of approval, NARAL has refused this election year to endorse Olympia Snowe because of her votes for anti-choice federal judges in 2005, and of course, because of her vote last January to confirm Judge Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court.
   
   As we know, Snowe voted to confirm Judge Alito even after he refused in his confirmation hearing to disavow the action plan to dismantle Roe v. Wade that he drew up during the Reagan Administration.
   
   Snowe's vote to confirm came at the very end of the process, after Judge Alito was already solidly confirmed by the Republican Senate.
   
   Snowe's BDN questionnaire Friday (today) stated: "The nomination of Justice Alito presented me with a close and difficult decision. While I had several concerns with the nomination, history has consistently demonstrated that predicting how a justice will rule on a particular case is inherently unreliable."
   
   This is a disingenuous, flippant, "it didn't matter anyway" statement. It shows that Snowe did not take seriously her Constitutional responsibility as a U.S. Senator to vet Supreme Court nominees.
   
   As we know, her vote, coming last, did not change the outcome. But that situation presented her with an opportunity, one she chose not to take. Snowe could have highlighted those "concerns" by voting against Judge Alito's nomination. Snowe could have sent a cautionary signal to the new Justice Alito, who already knew he was on his way to the Supreme Court, that she and her women's rights groups, constitutional rights people and human rights proponents were all watching. But she didn't.
   
   Instead, Snowe's vote and support for him clearly showed us that Judge Alito's America is the America Olympia Snowe wants women to live in.
   
   Is this the America you want to live in?
   
   It isn't clear how my other opponent, Bill Slavick, the independent running in this race, would vote on Senate bills to limit choice. His BDN questionnaire, published Thursday, states: "There is a societal consensus that women should not be jailed (punished) for having abortions which seems to extend to late term abortions when the woman's life is threatened." So, does he agree with the "societal consensus"? What would he do, how would he vote, if the "societal consensus" changes?
   
   Slavick stated Thursday in Cape Elizabeth that he does not think a woman's right to choose is an issue in this U.S. Senate race.
   
   If pro-choice is your issue, I am the only choice in this race.
   Vote pro-choice, vote Jean Hay Bright.
   
   
4. Slavick and Hay Bright differ on immigration
   The issues responses that ran with my profile story in the Bangor Daily News Wednesday did not have space for my complete answer to their question about the immigration bills put forward in 2006. Here it is:

   Immigration reform (2006) NO
   None of the bills on the table were acceptable. My own immigration reform proposal calls for

   1. enforcement of the existing labor laws on American employers who willfully hire undocumented workers;
   2. making the minimum wage a living wage so Americans can afford to take these low-wage jobs;
   3. national single-payer health care;
   4. withdrawal from unfair trade agreements, such as NAFTA, CAFTA and WTO.

   Bill Slavick, flatly does NOT want existing labor laws to be enforced on American employers. He does NOT believe that American workers will take such "stoop labor" jobs even if they are paid a living wage. (As an organic farmer, I've done lots of what Slavick calls "stoop labor" work, and find it very rewarding and productive.) Slavick says the undocumented workers who pick the crops we eat keep our food prices low. Slavick favors amnesty and citizenship for undocumented workers, and is on board with the concept of a North American Union, which would open the borders between Canada and Mexico to the free flow of workers.

1. Letters to the Editor, Talk to your Friends
   If you want to help from the comfort of your own computer you can write a letter to the editor for your local newspaper. These need to be submitted soon as most newspapers have a 1-2 week deadline before the election for all submissions. For ideas on topics to write about please visit our website. Talk to your neighbors and friends about Jean and her positions on the important issues of today.
   
   
2. Name ID and YOU.
   Lawn signs and bumper stickers let people know I'm running. Display them proudly. If you want a lawn sign, palm cards, literature, or bumper stickers, you can get them at your local county Democrat Party headquarters; or email us at manager@jeanhaybright.us and we will get them to you.
   
   And keep checking on those lawn signs. We've had reports of signs for all Democratic candidates (and only the Democratic candidates) are disappearing all over the state. It is against the law to remove a legally-placed lawn sign (potential $250 fine), so if you see someone doing it, let us or the Democratic Party know ASAP.
   
   
3. Get out the Vote
   If you'd like to help turn out Jean's supporters on Nov. 7, you can contact your local Democrat Party headquarters. Volunteer to do phone calls, absentee ballots or drive folks to the polls on Election Day. Or contact us at manager@jeanhaybright.us and we will connect you with a GOTV effort in you area.