To the editor:
We are writing in support of Mike Carpenter for the Maine Senate. A man of experience and insight, integrity and empathy, wisdom and bipartisanship, Carpenter stands in contrast to his opponent, Harold Stewart, a young man well on his way preparing to be a career politician and demonstrating a commitment to Trump party-line policies and practices that favor the elite, and do the bidding of monied interests, regardless of potentially harmful effects on ordinary Mainers.
One issue that clearly illustrates their differences is their stances on the proposed Central Maine Power (CMP) transmission line that would carve a lethal path through one of Maine’s most essential resources: the North Woods. Its purpose is to deliver hydropower from Quebec, Canada, to Massachusetts. According to a Bangor Daily News article, “Everything Mainers need to know to vote in the 2020 election,” Carpenter opposes this. Stewart supports it (bangordailynews.com/maine-2020-voting-guide).
Carpenter recognizes that the complexity and long-term consequences of this project go beyond the short term, undeliverable “clean energy” and economic promises to Mainers from Hydro Quebec’s online posts (www.cleanenergyformaine.com/questions/what-are-the-clean-energy-corridors-benefits-for-maine?). Stewart, who opposed the Legislature’s law to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, said “I did not support this new policy because average Mainers shouldn’t pay to line the pockets of out-of-state investors” (bangordailynews.com/maine-2020-voting-guide). His online bio casts him as an outdoorsman who seems to value Maine’s forests (mehousegop.org/reps-r-s/rep-trey-stewart-2). Yet he favors the CMP corridor project. We wonder why this seeming contradiction.
As we head into the murky future we need Mike Carpenter. We don’t have to wonder about him. He makes decisions informed with prior knowledge, with a broad appreciation of the people on the ground that he represents, and with a practiced understanding of how to cross the aisle and get the right things done in Augusta.
Pamela and Wayne Sweetser
Presque Isle
