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Tom Ledue, the Democrat seeking a seat in the U.S. Senate, gained the support of Biddeford Mayor Joanne Twomey. Bob Mills, Biddeford City Councilor, and Heather Mills, Biddeford School Committee member, have also endorsed Ledue’s candidacy.”We are thrilled to have the support of these community leaders.” said Bob Doak, campaign manager for Ledue. “Tom’s reception in the Biddeford/Saco area has been very strong and the enthusiasm going into Tuesday’s primary is very high. The campaign has had a lot of leaders from around the state and very significantly within the Democratic leadership sign on as supporters. The support of these leaders from Biddeford is very welcomed.” The Ledue Campaign gained significant momentum after the Maine Democratic Convention held in Augusta last week. The campaign website www.tomledue.com tripled in the number of new visitors. Additionally, many members of the Maine Democratic State Committee have signed onto the campaign Tom Ledue was also endorsed by the Portland Phoenix newspaper. The primary elections are Tuesday, June 10th. |
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Excerpt from The Portland Pheonix shown below and linked here. ” On June 10, Mainers in both the Democratic and Republican parties will get to vote on people to represent them in Washington DC. There is a very strong field of candidates, most especially in the Democratic primary for the 1st Congressional District. Here’s who we’d like to see win the first round. Democrat for US Senate: Tom LedueA real progressive, with passion and energy — if not legislative experience — Tom Ledue can take the fight to reclaim our country to Susan Collins and, ultimately, to Washington DC. Ledue embraces his weaknesses and seeks to turn them into strengths. He has smart ideas on education, health care, impeachment, and Iraq, and will not fade into the woodwork easily in DC. As a school administrator, he knows how to listen to people, how to find out what they want, and how to connect his actions with their needs. He knows he has a lot to learn, but he also knows he has a lot to offer — his experience dealing with the real repercussions of the No Child Left Behind Act is perhaps where he can make the most impact right away, but his ideas of ways to involve more Americans in the shared labor of attacking the problems facing our state, our nation, and our world have real potential for positive change. Ledue has taken his message to the people of Maine, and has a plan to reach out even more should he prevail in this primary campaign. That sort of populist awareness, combined with his energy and new ideas, make him a strong candidate. |
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By Bill Trotter
EXCERPT - ” Ledue spoke before Durbin, but did not refer to Allen or Collins or even to George Bush, aside from making an indirect comment about “an unchecked imperial presidency.” Instead, Ledue spoke mostly in optimistic terms about the possibilities for the future. Ledue described himself as an “uncommon candidate.” He acknowledged that he is new to politics, but said that he has demonstrated the necessary leadership skills through the his personal life as a teacher, school administrator, family man and wilderness guide. “Washington is failing us,” Ledue said. “Our nation’s moral compass has become clouded. We must renew our vision of what is possible.” Many of the ideas espoused by Ledue mirror what other Democrats at the convention said they support. He called for an energy-stable economy based on clean, renewable power and said America should pull out of Iraq “quickly, responsibly and with honor.” Americans should have universal health care, he said, and fair trade standards should be pursued to help stop the outsourcing of jobs and the exploitation of the global environment. Ledue also said some problems could be addressed with the help of a program in which students could earn two years of in-state, postsecondary education with one year of national service. “My candidacy is about reaching beyond politics as usual, to bridge the gap between our people and their government so that both may partner to reclaim the promise of America,” he said. “Modest changes made possible by collective will, innovation and bold leadership will change our future.” “ |
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By Rebekah Metzler , Staff Writer Ready to challenge the status quo and base national decisions on the needs of local communities. LEWISTON - Tom Ledue seems like a rational man. The Springvale resident has served as a wilderness guide and been an educator in Maine for more than 25 years. He’s happily married and has four daughters. When he speaks, he’s thoughtful and articulate. But Ledue has made some decisions recently that would make some people wonder. He’s taken out a second mortgage on his house, a move that places him more than $20,000 in debt. He’s taken a year off of work. He’s asked family and friends for their time and money. And he’s done it all to join a U.S. Senate race that is poised to be the most expensive in Maine’s history, thanks to the more than $7 million raised by his more well-known opponents for the seat: Democrat Tom Allen and Republican Susan Collins. A race in which Allen, a sitting congressman with $2.5 million to spend, trails the incumbent Collins by double digits in recent polling. Ledue, who’s never run for any office before, has harbored dreams of running for the Senate since he was an undergraduate student studying political science at the University of Southern Maine. Thanks to an ever-worsening economy and worries about his daughters’ future, he’s decided now is the time to act. “Talk about David versus Goliath,” said one potential voter to Ledue after hearing him speak in Lewiston at a campaign stop in May. “Are you getting any help from the national party?” Ledue, a Democrat, laughed. “No,” he said shaking his head. “But I look at the trajectory that we’re on and I felt compelled to act.” So how do you run a congressional campaign on a shoestring budget? If you’re Tom Ledue, you recruit your best friend to be your campaign manager and get a former student to do your research. And most importantly, you do not turn down free publicity. Ledue accepted offers from two television stations and one radio program to participate in debates with primary rival Allen, who declined all three invitations. Despite his long-shot status, Ledue hopes to connect with voters because he’s running for a change that goes deeper than just party affiliation. “It’s not enough to say we need a super majority of Democrats in the Senate so we need to take Susan Collins’ seat away,” he said. “That’s not enough to convince Mainers. That’s not enough to change things in the Senate.” He readily acknowledges that he’s voted for Allen in the past. But at this stage, he said Allen’s just not getting the job done. “When any of us are in a career and an institution for a long time we can forget about what’s possible,” he said. “In a different time, I wouldn’t feel compelled to run against Tom Allen. But it’s common wisdom in Washington to play the middle and, yes, I do see him there. We don’t have time for incremental change right now.” Ledue, whose last professional post was as an administrator of Noble High School in North Berwick, said he joined this particular race because there was a “poverty of ideas.” The heart of his campaign lies in a single concept, Ledue said. “Thinking locally has to become a national strategy,” Ledue said. “Local energy generation, supporting local agriculture and local industry, are absolute essentials in creating the economy that we want for the future. It’s not rocket science, but it has to be talked about.” Because states like Maine are “fighting for crumbs off the federal table,” Ledue said, many people forget how much money the country has to spend. Ledue said by emphasizing the role of local economies, not just in Maine but across the country, Congress could address larger issues like the national economy, fair trade and energy independence. “We’re a wealthy nation, but the mentality is that we’re not,” he said. “We can spend $275 million a day or more in Iraq, we can subsidize big oil and big agri-business and our largest corporations. …We need to reassess where those investments should go.” It’s one thing to make campaign promises and quite another to get the job done, but Ledue thinks he’s ready for the challenge. “We need to be slightly impatient and we need to plan ahead,” he said. “If we want to have a strong future, we need to invest in our resources and our people and our communities. If we do that, we can develop a stable and sustainable economy, and it’s hard to argue with that.” See “In their own words” for the second part of this article. |
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Sunday, June 1, 2008 Lewiston Sun Journal Tom Allen and Tom Ledue on six issues. (All quotes are taken from the candidates’ Web sites, public statements or direct interviews.) Iraq policy Allen: “I was against this war from the beginning, and I believe we must set a safe and responsible deadline for withdrawal of our troops.” Ledue: “We need to allow the Iraqis themselves to be real clear on self-determination and what they want, not what we want for them. We need to transition our own role from one that is primarily military to one that’s primarily diplomatic.” Economy Allen: “(Bush’s economic policies) have created a huge national debt. They gave the wealthiest people of this country enormous tax breaks that left the middle class behind. They’ve crippled our ability to grow this economy at a grassroots level.” Ledue: “We need to reassess where our investments should go. I believe they have to go into supporting the foundations of our people - in health care, education, environmental security and in our towns in our local economy.” Health care Allen: “People in small businesses, but even in big businesses, are paying so much today for their health insurance that they are struggling to compete with people in businesses in other countries. That has to change.” Ledue: “Our country is never going to be reflective of its greatness because one-sixth of us are completely vulnerable every single day and a whole lot of others are less cared for than they need to be.” Education Allen: “A college education is the foundation of economic mobility in America. We’re frequently reminded that our state’s future will be more and more about the skills and creativity of our citizens.” Ledue: “We need to recognize that the best business investment we can make in our country is education. … Right now, not everyone has equitable access to the educational system, which, beyond not being consistent with our ideals, is also bad business.” Energy Allen: “Our government has sat on the sidelines for too long and we need to change how we are doing business when dealing with energy prices.” Ledue: “The great opportunity that we face within our current energy crisis is that necessity is the mother of invention. We have tremendous opportunities in this state and across the nation with green energy. We simply need to fund them.” Environment Allen: “Since I entered Congress in 1997, reducing poisonous mercury emissions from utilities and industry has been one of my top environmental priorities.” Ledue: “The status quo is heading us in a direction where we are starting to do irreparable harm in the environment and we’ve got a very limited time to lower our carbon emissions. We need to commit to lower carbon emissions by 10 percent in three years, on track for 80 percent by 2050.” |
