Press Release from Dobson For Senate Campaign

                                      

                            -For Immediate Release-

Today, Laurie Dobson will be available at the Ralph Nadar Press Conference at 7:15 p.m. at the Old Parish Church, Congress St., in Portland, to answer questions regarding her challenge to the party candidates Collins and Allen, and to demand that they withdraw their support for the Bailout Plan recently passed by Congress.

Dobson has insisted on inclusion in tomorrow's debate at noon, between these two candidates for the U.S. Senate which will take place at Jeff's Catering in Brewer, Maine.

Included below is today's column by Dobson, printed in the Bangor Daily News Contributor Section, on the "Silencing of Independents in Maine" and the state of Maine's Economy.

Dobson's remarks are as follows.

"I challenge Senator Collins and Rep. Allen to allow me to enter their debate tomorrow in Brewer at Jeff's Catering at noon. As they well know, the entrenched prejudicial policies towards independents caused my campaign to be barred from the ballot.

"I have unceasingly opposed their unsupportable stands on the economy, since my campaign began last October and as seen in my recent article in Maine Voices in the Portland Press Herald on Oct.2, and today's article in the Bangor Daily News.

"I expect them to answer for their votes which went against the will of the Maine people and I will be there tomorrow to hold them to account for their abandonment of our country, as Jefferson would agree:

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." Thomas Jefferson 1802."

http://www.bangornews.com/detail/90468.html

10/6/08

Guest Columnist

Silencing independent voices in Maine politics

By Laurie Dobson

Whatever consumes the media between now and November, one

significant note was struck already this year, when attuned voters

heard about the defiance of two independents, who refused to play by

the party rules, and ran for the U.S. Senate in Maine.“Coordinated

campaigns” aside, there was true distinction shown in the efforts of

myself and Herbert Hoffman, both independents, to offer voters an

actual choice for change. Because of our alternative platforms, Mainers

had a brief opportunity to reject the Congress’ anointed opportunists,

Susan Collins and Tom Allen, with their corporate collusion and their

failure to protect the residents of their state of Maine.

Voters

had a chance to look for a different way out of our problems than the

way these two 12-year legislators got us into this mess, by going along

with the White House and its disastrous piloting of our country into

the national wreckage we have become.By agreeing to get us into

the war, by continuing to sink our money into warfare, by ignoring the

emergencies they knew we would face with obviously unsupportable

economic practices, they have proven their unconcern for the welfare of

our state. These two, Collins and Allen, should have been driven from

office, along with all the others who were derelict in their duty.

Instead, they’re up for re-election.Hoffman and I toughed it out as far as we could until the system formally shut down our campaigns in the courts.I

began this campaign a year ago, fighting for an end to the war, for

impeachment of Bush, for single-payer health care and for a radical

shift in our economic policy. From the beginning, I condemned

congressional collusion with the criminal derivatives practices, which

gambled our economic treasure away, and which will now destroy the

basic subsistence of our lives. I called for a freeze on foreclosures,

I brought my policies under the noses of the presidential candidates, I

made sure that my own economic recovery plan was made available and

could be used by Mainers as a template for political change.Despite

my fight, and Hoffman’s, the parties, with their fingers in the state’s

governing branches, succeeded in excluding us both from the ballot,

although we fought all the way to the top of the judicial system to

resist the prejudice against independent voices.What is now

clear is that the fight to allow independents a chance to get on the

ballot and a chance to be heard is not going to end. It’s a hard road.

Maine likes independents, we are told. It is a hard truth to face that,

as much as they like us, we are not at the table with them. Our state’s

citizens will eat what we are fed from the reigning two parties and it

is unsavory fare indeed.Here’s a refreshing thought to take from

the lessons offered at the Common Ground Fair: Everyone has the right

to good sustenance — good meat, good drink, good living choices.It’s

time to ask the right questions, such as this one I leave with the

public after my year of public service, running for office: Don’t we

have the right to question our authorities in their choices for our

leadership? I think we do and I hope others will follow in our

footsteps. I’ve tried. And I won’t stop trying until life is better for

us all.Laurie Dobson of Kennebunkport is a write-in candidate for the U.S. Senate.