The following alphabetical listing shows Tom Ledue’s positions on specific issues. For additional detail take a look at some of Tom Ledue’s responses to the “Political Courage Test” questionnaire by Project Votesmart here. At www.votesmart.org you will also be able to compare Tom Ledue’s responses to other candidates from Maine running in the 2008 race for the U.S. Senate.

Abortion
Tom Ledue believes that the best way to support life is to keep abortion safe and legal while working to create conditions in society that make it increasingly rare. Making abortion illegal is unlikely to lower the numbers of abortions and will not solve the core of the problem. We must support women and create more opportunity for all people in our society. By doing so we can make the need for and number of abortions significanlty decrease, while keeping it legal.

Agriculture
Tom Ledue believes that supporting sustainable agriculture combined with a natural, more “Local” approach to our food system is essential to improve the quality of our food, our local economies, local job opportunity and our national food security. He is opposed to large commodity crop subsidies that distort our food market, making farmers compete on an uneaven playing field while giving consumers too few food choices. He advocates “truth in labeling” and caution when it comes to GMO foods, pesticides, food additives, and processed foods; he believes that consumers deserve better information in regards to contents of their food so as to make more informed choices.

Civil / LGBT Rights
The foundation of Tom’s politics is Abraham Lincoln’s statement that, “We are one Nation, conceived in Liberty, dedicated to the proposition that ALL (people) are created equal.” Thus, Tom believes that ALL people deserve equal protection under the law, regardless of their race, religion, sexual orientation or gender expression. All people are import and should be respected. He supports affirmative action. He thinks the right to marriage is a basic civil right and believes the government should recognize civil unions and/or gay marriage (it’s up for the couple to decide what works best for their situation) and extend the same rights offered heterosexual couples. What he doesn’t support is the federal government telling people how to conduct their personal relationships, or telling people what love and commitment is.

Constitutional Duty
As your Senator, Tom Ledue would uphold his solemn oath, working diligently to support the Constitution and our Bill of Rights; especially in regards to maintaining the balance of power in the federal government by excersising strong oversight over the executive branch. At the same time Tom will work to protect the inalienable rights and civil liberties of ALL Americans.

Economic Prosperity and the Economy
Tom Ledue believes that we need to build a stable and sustainable economy through investing in Energy Security, Environmental Security, Educational Security, Health Security, Job Security and Fair Trade. “By making the conscious choice to invest in our people and our communities and by dealing with the challenges before us in healthcare, energy, education, the environment, trade, and foreign policy WE CAN create a prosperous future!”

Education
Tom has been a leader in educational reform throughout his career. He is a strong supporter of providing universal access to education for all students from preschool through college. Beyond access, Tom supports increasing the quality of education by supporting teachers and instructional best practices. The best investment that we can make for our country, and government decision making, is to make sure that every citizen has a genuine opportunity to be well educated, regardless of income or their parents’ income.

Energy

• Nuclear Fuels
  Tom Ledue does not support the increased use of the uranium fuel cycle or the widespread use of nuclear power based on fission processes, which as we all know can release radioactive bi-products either accidentally or intentionally. These materials have the potential to contaminate our environment and our bodies for generations to come. He finds that it is too expensive both by direct measures, in costs that go largely unseen by the public, and in risk. While he acknowledges that using nuclear power and nuclear materials may have its place in specific circumstances on smaller scales, such as in basic science research, nuclear medicine, energy for tactical uses, or space exploration - it is not the answer to the world’s energy needs. Tom Ledue does not support subsidies to the nuclear industry to build new plants and does not believe the federal government should guarantee the industry’s insurance. Furthermore, he believes we should not replace the nuclear power plants currently in operation around the country when they are retired. Like many others, Tom is concerned about the storage and containment of nuclear wastes, and is interested in ways we can work to most responsibly handle them. While Tom Ledue has optimism for aneutronic fusion; nuclear power processes that use boron and appear to be inherently safe, producing zero dangerous waste biproducts, or contamination issues, these are not yet commercially viable or even successful in the laboratory at this time. As for our energy needs right now, Tom believes we the real answer lies in taking full advantage of our safest and most reliable fusion reactor - our sun.
• Clean Energy
  Tom Ledue has stated that WE NEED BOLD ACTION NOW! We don’t have time to wait another 20 or 40 years years for a silver bullet. He acknowledges that we already have plenty of technologies that can fix the energy crisis today, all we need to do is fund their mass production. Tom calls for bold leadership within the United States Government to foster a rapid transition to a decentralized clean energy infrastructure in this country and abroad as a measure to profoundly increase our national, economic, and environmental security. He believes that as a nation we deserve no less that a 100% clean and sustainable energy infrastructure based on solar, wind, hydroelectric, and geothermal power generation combined with significant energy efficiency measures such as the transition to a fully electric or plugin hybrid electric transportation system. Such measures would not only make us more secure at home, but have the potential to improve foreign relations, boost our exports, and strengthen local economies. Cost effective energy technologies currently exist to implement such a system, Tom Ledue would supply the political will and federal spending priorities necessary to mass produce them and effect change.

Environment
Tom Ledue sees our environment and the indispensable and interdependent web for all life as an all important, absolutely critical issue as our country moves forward into the 21st century. He believes we should seek to protect and nurture its health so that it can support us broadly and indefinitely. An experienced outdoor wilderness guide, Tom Ledue has a special connection to the forests, mountains, and rivers of Maine. He’s shared that perspective with his family and students throughout the years, working to foster within them a special connection to the outdoors and Nature. Tom believes we need to set our economic vision for this country to work in balance with Nature not against it, balancing economic and environmental needs so that they both thrive, rather than improving one at the expense of another. He advocates clean energy, sustainable forest management, wilderness conservation, a strong national recycling program, international wildlife and fisheries management, clean and green industry, trade policies that even the playing field in order to help our domestic businesses who have to compete against foreign industries that do not adhere to our environmental standards, drastic cuts in carbon emmissions to mitigate climate change, smart growth development strategies, and educational opportunities that demonstrate the need to be good stewards to our only planet.

Fiscal Responsibility & Government Accountability
Tom supports efforts to eliminate earmarks and would advocate for “truth in legislation” norms to simplify legislation. Tom knows that making government more transparent and accountable to the American People is key to setting our nation on a course to a better future.

Healthcare
Tom is making an unwavering commitment to develop and fund structures that will provide Universal Equitable Access to Quality Healthcare for every American when elected in the fall. We need swift and substantive action for the 47 million people that are currently uninsured and the millions of others who are underinsured. We must first take the most expeditious path to provide everyone with healthcare. This will require a blend of the single payer and market driven strategies that are currently being debated. After we get ALL Americans equitable access to our current system we will have the liberty to take the time to explore other models of supporting healthcare for our people that makes the most health and economic sense for the American People. We can learn from a variety of single payer systems currently in existance in Europe, Asia, and the rest of the industrialized world, and improve upon them.

Illegal Immigration
Tom Ledue believes that illegal immigration is an issue that needs to be dealt with on both sides of the border. While he strongly believes we need to hold people accountable to the laws of this country, he recognizes that global trade policies have damaged traditional economies in Mexico. Tom has stated that “We need to look at the root causes as to why Mexican people uproot themselves and risk their lives to come here. While creating fences and stationing troops at the border might make us feel like we’re fixing things in the short run, it does not solve the root cause of the problem. On the other hand, practicing fair trade and working to help stabilize and protect the local economies of Mexico such that individuals do not feel the need to leave their homes in the first place is a lasting solution.” Tom recognizes that for the vast majority of us, our own families were immigrants at one point or another and questions where would we be as a nation if at that time there was a fence keeping our grandparents away. As a beacon for those who seek liberty and greater opportunity for themselves and their families, shutting people out is inconsistent with the ideals of this country. Tom believes that current levels of border enforcement do work well at protecting the American people from potential threats, and is not in favor of open borders. However he believes we do need to regulate this issue in a more realistic fashion; finding ways to see that those individuals seeking to become part of American society are assimilated into our culture by making the process of legal immigration more fair and reasonable to those of modest means or special circumstance. For those illegal immigrants living peaceably within this country, Tom supports providing paths to permanent residency or citizenship an a way to regulate this issue.

Impeachment
Tom believes that significant evidence exists to warrant an investigation in to the actions of both the president and the vice president for violation of their Constitutional obligations. He believes that our Constitution demands we hold our government officials accountable and that efforts to do so are important to the integrity of the federal government.

Jobs
Tom Ledue believes that this country needs to lead the world in the green technology revolution by investing in our job base and our future energy security. As a start, we could make a national commitment to redirect at least $25 Billion per year, (the rough equivalent of 2.5 % of all military spending), for ten years into the mass production clean energy generation and use. As one possible example, this commitment spread evenly throughout the states would equate to a $5 Billion dollar clean energy manufacturing center of excellence that could increase the manufacturing capacity of photovoltaics, wind, hydro, or geothermal turbines so as to drastically drive down costs to the consumers. This money could also be used to spur demand by offering ultra low interest community loans and block grants to install clean energy at the community, small business, or household level. Beyond directly stimulating domestic manufacturing of clean energy, we can increase job growth by leveling the playing field for all domestic manufacturors by requiring green and fair labor certification for products imported to our markets. Lastly, Tom believes we need to expand national investment in our infrastructure needs, which the ASCE estimates to be $1.6 trillion is needed over a five-year period to bring infrastructure to good condition. By investing in our bridges, roads, water systems and other infrastructure needs now he sees the possibility for thousands of additional jobs in every state and lower long term costs for the country.

Poverty
Tom believes that through the combined efforts of universal healthcare, universal education, affordable housing, forward thinking economic stimulus, and a small redirection of government priorities towards helping the poor, we can reduce poverty in this nation by 50% within 5 years. Such an endeavor would not seek to institute greater government bureaucracy, but rather seek solutions at the local community or regional level.

Small Business
Tom sees small business as an integral part of our nation, and the engines of our local economies. We must support local industry that uses and adds value to local resources as a key strategy in bulding a stable and sustainable economy.

Social Security
Tom believes that we can continue to make our social security system work. Modest corrective measures, such as increasing the ceiling on social security taxes beyond the current cap of $94,200, or increasing the retirement age slowly at one month per year, capped at so that the retirement age where full benefits are received would not exceed age seventy would help. Reinvesting social security surpluses that are occurring now, rather than using them to cover unrelated expenditures, will also help cover future costs.

Taxation
Tom believes that we have enough wealth as a nation to create a future that reclaims the promise of our ideals for all Americans. While the tax code is convoluted and could use simplification, he feels we immediately need to close ludicrous loopholes, where individuals or organizations have found ways to avoid contributing a fair share. Tom Ledue stresses the importance of spending our national income more wisely and investing pro-actively in our future. While trends in specific tax rates may vary, he strongly believes that the net level of taxation should not increase, that we should seek was to use tax revenues to strengthen the economies of state and local towns, and that fairness to all people, regardless of income, is of utmost importance.

Trade

• Fair Trade
  Tom is a supporter of fair trade policies that protect Maine jobs and local economies. He advocates for strict green, fair labor, and human rights certifications on imported goods in order to minimize the exploitation of foreign peoples while also leveling the playing field for domestically produced goods that already adhere to our quality standards. Products manufactured in ways that cannot meet the same standards we set for domestic producers should not be sold in our country.
• Free Trade
  Free Trade is a misnomer that has made our economy and state soverienty less secure. Such policies have reduced this nation’s capacity to manufacture goods while at the same time the safety of imported goods is questionable. Tom supports the renegotiation of NAFTA to include fair trade protections. If not included, then NAFTA and other similar free trade treaties should be repealed in order to protect our domestic markets and minimize the exploitation of foreign lands and people. Americans can no longer afford a race to the bottom.
• Balanced Trade
  Tom believes that in order to correct the course of our economy we need a balanced trade policy that seeks to minimize the nearly $800 billion dollar annual trade deficit. We need to maximize our exports, while at the same time maximizing the value added services of domestic producers. Our industry is poised to be a world leader in the development of clean energy technology and related services. We should continue to find ways to support this green revolution.