It was an exhilarating year and a half, bearing the torch as your anti-war, pro-health care, pro-labor, pro-environment, protect-the-Constitution candidate. From the election results, we know that almost 110,000 of you share my view of the America we want to live in. That's a lot of people! Thank you all for those votes, and thank you all for all your individual efforts, to pull in those votes for me and for our shared vision.



November 5, 2006 - New TV Ad - Click Here
What is the Maine Press REALLY saying about Olympia Snowe?

Maine's Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Saturday questioned the extent of Sen. Olympia Snowe's involvement in the posting on the internet of directions on how to make a nuclear bomb, as revealed in a New York Times article Friday.



Maine's Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jean Hay Bright Friday proposed federal legislation that would require standardized paper ballots for all federal offices - President, U.S. Senate and U.S. Congress - all across the country. Hay Bright made her comments prior to casting her absentee ballot at the Dixmont Town Office.



November 3, 2006 - New Radio Ad - Click Here
Hear what the Maine Press is saying about the U.S. Senate race.

November 1, 2006 - Time to pull out all the stops
With just days to go, it's time to get every last sign up and every last piece of literature distributed. A complete list of Democratic Party offices is listed below. Head over to your local office and find out how much Jean Hay Bright material they have. If there isn't a solid plan in that office as to when and where the material will be distributed by the weekend, please take as much as you feel you can distribute on your own and get it out now.



...There are many moderate Republicans in Maine increasingly opposed to the Iraq occupation. They could send a clear signal both on their position and on the centrality of the war by voting for Jean Hay Bright...



October 30, 2006 - Valley native runs for Senate
The Youngstown Vindicator, Jean's hometown newspaper. Mom tells us this story appeared on the front page!



October 28, 2006 - What is going on here?
This week, both the Bangor Daily News and the Brunswick Times Record praised me profusely, criticized Snowe for her stances on basic issues like the Iraq War and protecting the Constitution -- and then both p

I've written op-ed rebuttals to the BDN and the BTR. You can read them here (below), I hope you will be able to read them in those papers in the next few days.

October 28, 2006 - How's That Again?
...But most disconcerting in this endorsement is the BDN's dismissal as just "troubling concessions" Snowe's willingness "to suspend habeas corpus rights for some detainees in the war on terrorism and to allow the president to define acceptable treatment." Those "concessions" are not minor issues. They speak to the very fabric of our nation.



...But most disconcerting in this endorsement is the BDN's dismissal as just "troubling concessions" Snowe's willingness "to suspend habeas corpus rights for some detainees in the war on terrorism and to allow the president to define acceptable treatment." Those "concessions" are not minor issues. They speak to the very fabric of our nation.



October 20, 2006 - Campaign Update
Topics:
  1. Join us at a fun campaign fundraiser TONIGHT!
  2. The Debates Start Sunday! -- Join Us!
  3. Jean's profile in the BDN, and honorable mention in The Nation
  4. Help Put Our TV and Radio Ads on the air
  5. Policy Briefs

    1. Military Tribunal bill signed (with Snowe's support)
    2. Snowe's Iraq War Switch (Colin Powell 2003 column)
    3. Snowe and Slavick fail "choice" test
    4. Hay Bright and Slavick differ on immigration
  1. Help the Campaign, Reach Out NOW!


There is no larger issue facing the country than the Iraq War debacle that has dragged on for more than three years. The war has cost the lives of nearly 3,000 U.S. military personnel and caused life-altering injuries to many thousand more. This disastrous path can be changed only by electing new members to Congress. Maine has the chance on Nov. 7 to elect someone who will shift the direction Congress has paved during the past four years. Jean Hay Bright is that candidate.



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.



The war in Iraq is all encompassing this election season, as it should be. A war economy leaves everything and everyone behind except for the "Military-Industrial Complex" that President Eisenhower warned us about in 1961.



October 2, 2006 - Campaign Update
Topics:
  1. Congress votes U.S. to be totalitarian state
  2. Dennis Kucinich is Coming Oct. 9!
  3. Help frame the debate
  4. Bangor anti-war rally
  5. Money update, TV Ads & Houseparties
  6. Volunteers needed NOW!
  7. Upcoming events


Former Presidential candidate and current progressive Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich will be the featured speaker at a campaign rally and fundraiser for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jean Hay Bright on Monday, Oct. 9, at South Portland High School, 637 Highland Ave., South Portland.



September 25, 2006 - Campaign Update
Topics:
  1. Policy Briefs

    1. Torture
    2. Reimportation of prescription drugs
    3. Cuts in veterans benefits a threat to our national security
  1. Dennis Kucinich is Coming Oct. 9!
  2. Money update
  3. Volunteers needed NOW!
  4. Recent events
  5. Upcoming events


Our returning veterans deserve better than they are getting from the current administration. They - like ALL of us - deserve decent health care - national health care. They - like all of us - deserve decent jobs so we can support our families and ourselves. And they - like all of us - deserve a government that follows the Geneva conventions, a government that does not detain its prisoners of war without charges or legal counsel, a government that does not use torture to extract information, a government that honors and upholds the United States Constitution.



Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jean Hay Bright has received the unanimous endorsement of the Maine State Building & Construction Trades Council. The council, representing more than 5,500 Maine workers from 14 different trades, took the vote Thursday, according to John R. Hanson, the council's executive director. The council is affiliated with the AFL-CIO.



Democrat Jean Hay Bright Thursday cautioned Maine voters to "listen between the words" in the television ads run by her opponent Olympia Snowe in this year's U.S. Senate race.



Maine's Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jean Hay Bright said Wednesday that Lincoln Chaffee's win in Tuesday's Rhode Island Republican primary bodes well for her race against Republican incumbent Sen. Olympia Snowe.



September 13, 2006 - Campaign Update
Topics:
  1. Chaffee RI win bodes well for Maine race
  2. Snowe hires Swift Boat media firm
  3. Subject -- The Debates
  4. House Parties
  5. Signs, lapel stickers, palm cards, oh my!
  6. Calendar of upcoming events


BANGOR (Sep 8): The Democracy for America (DFA) chapter in Bangor representing hundreds of DFA members throughout Northern Maine endorses Jean Hay Bright for the United States Senate. DFA/Bangor unanimously voted Wednesday night, September 6th, to endorse Jean for U.S. Senate.



...We need a Democratic House and Senate so we can provide universal health care, so American manufacturing can once again be competitive in the world market, so entrepreneurs can follow their dreams while protecting their families. so our returning veterans and seniors can get the health care they've earned and deserve.



September 4, 2006 - Labor Day Statement
On this Labor Day, I want to thank all workers, in Maine and across the nation, for doing the jobs you do every day. Labor Day is the day when we recognize that, collectively, the workers of America are the driving force in this country.



September 3, 2006 - MainePulse Survey: Snowe at 53%
Results of a MainePulse survey, released Friday, showed Maine's incumbent Republican Senator Olympia Snowe with only 53% of likely voters saying they would vote for her. Snowe's numbers in the latest MainePulse survey were significantly lower than her job approval rating of 72% in a March MainePulse tally, and were also down considerably from three Rasmussen polls taken this summer, in which her likely-vote totals hovered around 66%.



September 3, 2006 - Blog Entry: Endorsement Update
Last week a couple of blog items on some national sites discussing support - or lack thereof - for this campaign showed that there is some confusion as to who's on board with us. For the record: We are receiving solid support from within the state, from individuals and from the Democratic Party structure.



September 3, 2006 - Campaign Update
Topics:
  1. MainePulse Survey: Snowe at 53%
  2. Join us Tuesday at Maine Victory 2006 Campaign Season Kick-Off
  3. Labor Day Events
  4. Endorsement Update
  5. Signs, bumper stickers, cards, oh my!
  6. Calendar of upcoming events


August 27, 2006 - Rude Awakening
I spent most of Saturday, Aug. 26, in Kennebunkport protesting the Iraq War with about 1,000 other concerned citizens, who used the occasion of George W. Bush's visit to the Bush compound on Walker's Point to stage the very powerful rally and march.



Kennebunkport, Maine, Saturday morning (August 26, 2006)
President George W. Bush will be at the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport this weekend. Drop what you are doing -- rearrange your schedule, change your plans, do whatever it takes -- and join with me and other people of conscience from all around the region, to protest the Iraq War and the destructive Bush agenda.


August 22, 2006 - Campaign Update
Topics:
  1. Campaign and Fundraising Basics
  2. Action Alert: Internet Buzz
  3. Olympia Snowe: War Hawk
  4. Two Presidents, Two Judges, Two world views
  5. Israel/Lebanon update
  6. Calendar of upcoming events


August 17, 2006 - Blog Entry: Civil Liberties
I was startled to read in yesterday's paper (Bangor Daily News, Maine, Aug. 16, 2006) that a federal judge thinks our civil liberties are extravagant and need to be reexamined.


War has taken central focus again, particularly since last week's primary in Connecticut. People are tired of the violence, tired of our good military men and women getting killed and wounded for reasons that keep changing and never quite ring true. We are tired of not seeing any progress in an ill-advised and ill-fated war that didn't have to happen.


August 10, 2006 - Blog Entry: Middle East update
The phone started ringing early this morning (Aug. 9, 2006) with people enthusiastic about what yesterday's Democratic primary vote in Connecticut portends for Maine this fall. The callers agreed with me that as bad as Sen. Lieberman is on his support of this immoral and unjust war, Olympia Snowe is worse - much worse.


It has been a month since the Israel/Lebanon conflict began, and three weeks since I signed on to H. Con. Res. 450, the cease-fire resolution submitted by Congressman Dennis Kucinich. And, sadly, the violence has only intensified on all sides.



July 20, 2006 - Campaign Update
Topics:
  1. Jean calls for Cease-Fire in Middle East
  2. Barbara Boxer's PAC for Change
  3. Pro-Union and Pro-Labor
  4. Stem Cells
  5. Flag Pledge & the U.S. Supreme Court
  6. Democrats are Fiscally Responsible
  7. We need your help, now more than ever
  8. Calendar of upcoming events


Jean Hay Bright, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Maine, has endorsed the Joint Congressional Resolution (H.Con. Res. 450) submitted by Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) this week, calling for an immediate cease fire of violence in the Middle East and a commitment by the United States to diplomatic, multi-party negotiations with no preconditions.


July 12, 2006 - Campaign Update
Topics:
  1. Action Alert - Barbara Boxer's PAC for Change
  2. The Parades, the Peas Candidate
  3. Dueling protests in Blue Hill
  4. Reading of the Names in Portland
  5. Don't Waste Your Vote on Republicans
  6. We need your help, now more than ever
  7. Calendar of upcoming events


June 30, 2006 - It's time to start marching
For those of us who came out of the Vietnam era, these are troubling times in two ways. The invasion of Iraq, and all its ramifications of deaths overseas and while domestic policy fails is one thing. But it's also troubling to many that so few people are willing to express their outrage over the war.

Perhaps it's because there is no draft, and the troops who are dying are "volunteers" - although serving in Iraq is likely not the college education or one-weekend-a-month, two-weeks-a-year they had in mind when they signed up.


Maine's Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate has criticized Senator Olympia Snowe for her public support of a flag-desecration amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Another vote on the perennial measure may be held in the Senate this week, and news reports say that the vote will be close.


June 23, 2006 - Campaign Update
Topics:
  1. Events in Washington
    1. Out of Iraq
    2. Election Year and the Minimum Wage
    3. Estate Tax
    4. Flag-Burning Amendment
  1. Post-Primary Overview
  2. Calling All Momentum!


I became a U.S. Senate candidate a year ago because I was deeply concerned over the direction the Bush administration and the Republicans in Congress were taking my beloved country. The devastating, illegal and immoral Iraq War, the Patriot Act, the Guantanamo Bay detainees held without habeas corpus rights, the lies being fed to the American people, were more than I could bear.


June 17, 2006 - Maine AFL-CIO Convention
I'm proud to be on the November ballot with John Baldacci, Tom Allen and Mike Michaud. I've known John since he beat me in the 1994 Congressional primary. That same year Tom Allen was running for governor in a crowded field, and our paths would cross time and again on the campaign trail. And of course, I'm proud to claim Mike as my own Congressman in the Second District.


BANGOR - Late returns in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate showed Jean Hay Bright of Dixmont edging out her opponent for the party's nomination to challenge Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe in November.


With 99 percent of precincts statewide reporting, Hay Bright led Mehnert with 51 percent of the votes cast. The margin is greater than 1 percent of the total cast, meaning Mehnert would have to pay for a recount if he wants one.


Democratic U.S. Senate Candidate Jean Hay Bright begins a full-time campaign schedule Thursday after a review of the primary election vote showed she has won her party's nomination.


My heartfelt thanks to all of you who voted in the June 13 Democratic primary. You understood how important it was to work for change in Washington.

My deepest appreciation goes to my many supporters, from the hundreds of volunteers and campaign contributors, to the many thousands who saw in this campaign a hope for the vision for America that we share.


See our new campaign television ad, which makes it very clear that Jean is the candidate who wants to get us out of Iraq. The ad features a statement by WWII vet Dick Bernard of South Portland, and a clip from Jean's powerful convention speech. It was filmed by Martha Spiess and produced by Kane-Lewis Productions.

June 9, 2006 - Campaign Update
Topics:
  1. Primary Election June 13, 2006
  2. Bangor Daily News Endorsement
  3. Dennis Kucinich personal endorsement
  4. Convention a Huge Success!


"...Jean Hay Bright, on the other hand, is already well-known among Democrats, and she has a firm grasp of Maine politics and is a strong defender of her party's ideals. ...Jean Hay Bright is a good choice."


"We all know that the Bush administration and the Republicans in Congress are making a mess of this country," Hay Bright, 58, told the crowd that was nodding in agreement. "And those of us who have been paying attention know that Olympia Snowe is complicit in all of it."


Thanks go out to everyone who made the Maine Democratic Party convention this weekend a huge hit. My speech Saturday was well-received, people loved our booth with the long and constantly growing list of supporters, and our hospitality suite both Friday and Saturday nights at the Holiday Inn, featuring Maine grown and organic food and drink, was a great success.


PLEASE NOTE: This sentence in this story is inaccurate:
"Hay Bright said it was disingenuous of Snowe to talk about civil protections when she co-sponsored a bill that would restrict warrantless NSA eavesdropping to 45 days."

What I told the reporter was that it was disingenuous of Snowe to talk about civil protections when she co-AUTHORED the DeWine/Snowe bill which would make the NSA eavesdropping legal retroactively, and would set up a paper tiger committee for the future that has no subpoena powers and has a built-in gag order that says members of the committee can't tell anyone if they learn something that may be illegal, unconstitutional, or warrants further investigation.

I said nothing about 45 days, that has never been a focus of mine, and furthermore the comment as written doesn't make sense.

The PPH/MST refused to run a correction. The reporter and two editors said it was clear from the sentence that the explanation of what the bill would do was the paper's characterization of the bill, not my characterization of the bill. You decide.


Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jean Hay Bright has received a convention-eve endorsement from Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH). In urging Maine Democrats to support her nomination in the June 13 primary, Kucinich said, "Jean can win in November because Maine is ready to vote for peace and sustainability."


May 31, 2006 - Campaign Update
Topics:
  1. Convention Update
  2. ImpeachPAC Endorsement
  3. Read the Maine Sunday Telegram Profile on Jean
  4. Gen. Hayden's endorsement a cause for concern
  5. Primary Election June 13, 2006


"The so-called 'Marriage Protection Amendment' to the U.S. Constitution is indefensible, and flies in the face of the religious and personal freedoms embodied in that great document," Jean Hay Bright, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, said in a statement today.


ImpeachPAC, a federal PAC funding pro-impeachment candidates for Congress, has announced its first endorsement of a candidate for the Senate, Jean Hay Bright of Maine, who is seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican incumbent Olympia Snowe.


We have an Administration seizing power it has no right to seize, openly violating national and international laws and the Constitution, refusing to divulge, even to members of Congress, what it is doing. And we have a complicit Congress sitting there with one eye closed, not doing anything about it.


Read the Maine Sunday Telegram stories about Jean and the U.S. Senate campaign


The Senate's confirmation May 26, 2006, of Gen. Michael Hayden to be the new CIA director is the latest troubling example of a weak and ineffective Senate willing to look the other way in the face of strong evidence of Constitutional wrong-doing by the Bush Administration.


Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jean Hay Bright Thursday criticized Sen. Olympia Snowe's support of Gen. Michael Hayden's confirmation as the new CIA director, calling it "another example of the Senator Snowe's tendency to say one thing but do another."


We need to put Iraq on the "don't go there" list for all American corporations, forbidding any American company from owning any assets in Iraq, or operating a business within that country.


"Sen. Snowe is in step with the President. She would have us believe that securing the borders is the way to fix this problem, when in fact this is a problem of American employers, not of foreign workers." Hay Bright said.


Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jean Hay Bright of Dixmont, Maine, said Monday night she was disappointed President George Bush said little about actually enforcing the laws pertaining to the hiring of undocumented workers.


At the fourth public hearing of Maine's Citizen Trade Commission last week in Lewiston, speaker after speaker was eloquent in detailing how the current trade agreements, such as NAFTA, CAFTA, GATS, have devastated their businesses and farms, or damaged other segments of the economy. Most foresaw the same results with trade policies now in the pipeline for Congressional approval, such as agreements with Oman or Peru.


In 1870 Julia Ward Howe, who had written the Battle Hymn of the Republic, was so saddened by the deaths and injuries being caused by the Civil War that she decided to rally mothers on both sides of the conflict to stop the war and bring peace to the nation. She wrote her Mother's Day Proclamation, which resulted in many cities celebrating the Mother's Day of Peace.


"This is not the time to be widening the income gap in America," says Sen. Olympia Snowe.

So, bad timing, not bad fiscal policy, was why Sen. Olympia Snowe voted yesterday (May 11, 2006) against a federal budget bill that contained $70 billion in tax breaks, primarily benefiting the rich.


May 9, 2006
Our hearts go out to the families of the military guardsmen from Maine killed and injured last weekend in Iraq. According to the Bangor Daily News, Staff Sgt. Dale James Kelly Jr., 48, of Richmond and Staff Sgt. David Michael Veverka, 25, a University of Maine student from Jamestown, Pa., were killed. The soldiers were members of B Company, 3rd Battalion of the 172nd Infantry regiment based in Brewer. The third soldier, Pvt. Christopher Fraser, 19, of Windsor, was seriously injured in the attack and was transferred to medical facilities in Landstuhl, Germany.

May 9, 2006 - Campaign Update
Topics:
  1. Slavick to split progressive vote with US Senate candidacy
  2. Deaths in Iraq
  3. Immigration policy posted
  4. Campaign Finances
  5. Calendar of Upcoming Events


In the May issue of the Aroostook Democrats, published monthly for the Aroostook Democratic County Committee, editor Roger Roy personally endorsed Jean.


May 3, 2006 - New Radio Ads!
Three new ads will start airing on Air America Radio (870 AM) in Portland on Thursday, May 4, 2006. For the full text of these ads, and for a listing of all the ads we've run so far, visit our Radio Ads Page. Or, you can hear the new ads below:

Vision
Health Care
True Homeland Security


The scripts of these ads are available here.

May 1, 2006 - Campaign Update
Topics:
  1. Olympia Snowe is losing momentum
  2. Iraq War Town Meeting April 21
  3. It's been busy around here
  4. Web Page Redesign
  5. Campaign Finances
  6. Calendar of Upcoming Events


...Thursday's Bangor Daily News, (had) a report about a Parade Magazine/White House Project online survey of eight possible women candidates for president in 2008. Both of Maine's Senators, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, were among the eight women -- and only eight women -- on that list. That online survey, in which 400 Mainers "voted," Collins received 48 percent of the Maine vote, while Snowe got a mere 21 percent from her constituents.


More Campaign Stops
The campaign schedule, always heavy, is actually picking up. I'm really putting the miles on my 1993 American-made Saturn. It now boasts more than 305,000 miles under its belt, and it's still getting between 35 and 40 miles per gallon.

On Wednesday, April 26, I joined former Senator George Mitchell in welcoming the newly elected Maine Democratic Party Chairman Benjamin Dudley, at the Home of State Rep. Elizabeth Mitchell, Portland.

On Thursday, April 27, I dropped in on the Veterans for Peace chapter in Brunswick, at Peoples Plus Center on Noble Street, Brunswick. They were showing the powerful film "After the Fog: Interviews with Combat Veterans," produced by Kingdom County Productions in Vermont, a series of interviews with WWII, Korean War, Vietnam, and Iraq War veterans.

On Friday, April 28, I headed for the Workers Memorial Day Safety and Health Meeting and Remembrance, on the South Lawn of The Blaine House in Augusta.

"...That being said, the real criminals in this situation are the employers who willingly violate U.S. labor and tax laws by hiring undocumented workers. These American employers are preying on the immigrants' desperation, greedily gaming our legal, labor, and tax systems which are designed to keep our nation's economy running smoothly and fairly."


April 24, 2006
Candidates Forum, hosted by Saco and Biddeford Democratic Committees - Biddeford, 7 pm.
Our fifth candidate debate in this primary season was held at the J. Richard Martin Community Center. The event was taped for playing on the Public Access Cable Channel in that area. Watch for it! At least two other debates have been scheduled, and two others are possible if scheduling will allow. Check out the Calendar for the updated schedule.

University of Maine Field House - Orono, 10am-4pm
This annual event is a wonderful place to network with all kinds of peace, justice, and environmental organizations, with about 60 different outfits setting up this year in the spacious field house.


April 21, 2006 - Iraq War Town Meeting
University of Southern Maine, Portland
Billed as a listening session for our political leaders, this event was hosted by about 40 organizations, and more than 400 people turned out, to listen and to talk about their frustrations, their hopes, and our options.


I was honored to be given time to speak to three labor union organizations this month:
  • The Southern Maine Labor Council in Portland on April 5
  • The AFL-CIO board meeting in Augusta on April 19
  • The Maine Labor Council United Steelworkers convention in Bangor on April 27


Portland City Hall, 7 pm
The Maine Civil Liberties Union, of which I am a member, held two Town Meetings on the Patriot Act, in Portland on the 18th, and in Bangor on the 20th. Both of these informative sessions, highlighting the active threats to our civil liberties from the Bush Administration, played to packed houses. I attended the one in Portland.


April 17, 2006 - Campaign Update
Topics:
  1. Portland Press Herald reader poll: WE'VE GOT MOMENTUM
  2. Welcome Home 152nd Maintenance Company
  3. Four candidate "debates" already under our belts
  4. Labor Position Paper
  5. Web Page Redesign
  6. Campaign Finances
  7. Calendar of Upcoming Events


April 14, 2006 - We've Got Momentum!
On Friday, Portland Press Herald ran a news story about Senator Olympia Snowe's Campaign Kick-Off. Adjacent to that article was their Reader Poll Question of the Day, which asked "Who is your choice for U.S. Senate?"


I was at the Augusta Armory Thursday morning, in the crowd welcoming home the Guard unit, returning after a year in Iraq. It was a wonderful, happy and emotional event for the hundreds of family and friends who turned out to greet them.


The first week in April was busy, with four candidate "debates," held in:
  • Bethel (hosted by the Oxford County Democratic Committee),
  • Portland (hosted by Citizen Salon),
  • Belfast (hosted by the Waldo County Democratic Committee) and
  • New Gloucester (hosted by the Cumberland County Democrats and the New Gloucester Democratic Committee).
Things to read:
Jean's prepared responses for the Belfast Debate
Jean's opening & closing statements for New Gloucester
Debate story in The Monument Newspaper

"...So I see the abortion debate not just in terms of Constitutional rights, or even fundamental human rights, but also in terms of religious freedom."


Presented to Southern Maine Labor Council, Portland
"...The concept of labor in America is nothing short of a national recognition that, collectively, the workers of America are the driving force in this country. Individually, what we do for work often defines who we are. At its best, that work involves using our talents and skills to do productive work that is respected and appropriately compensated..."


"...We feel Jean will best address the Veterans' issues we have expressed throughout our entire campaign both statewide and on a national level," said Bob Mills of Biddeford, chairman of the Veterans Party in Maine. "Our members will work to help send Jean to D.C. We endorse her 100 percent."


March 28, 2006 - Maine Council of Senior Citizens John Marvin Awards
I would like to congratulate this year's recipients of the MCSC John Marvin Awards, which are given annually to Maine citizens who have shown courage, commitment and leadership in working to help Maine Citizens in general and Maine senior citizens in particular. This year's award recipients are Charlene Rydell and Attorney General Steve Rowe. Presentations were made by MCSC President John Carr at the Elks Club in Augusta. The program included an address by Governor John Baldacci.
-Jean Hay Bright

Portsmouth Herald story by Deborah McDermott
KITTERY, Maine - A Who's Who of Democratic leaders from Maine as well as York County were in Kittery Sunday night for a house party that was part social gathering, part clarion call to action for November and beyond.


Democratic Candidate for U.S. Senate Jean Hay Bright joined about two dozen people a press conference Wednesday outside Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor in support of union organizing activities by health care workers in that medical facility.



At the regular monthly meeting of the Sagadahoc County Democratic Committee, Jean talked about the Iraq War and its aftermath, and passed out copies of her updated campaign brochure.


Jean was a keynote speaker at the rally, attended by about 200 people who stood in the bitter cold for two hours to hear all the speakers and the live music.


March 16, 2006 - Campaign Update
This update was emailed to our campaign list. If you want to receive these updates via email, sign up here.

Topics:
  1. The primary has begun - Send Money
  2. Issues updates
    1. Snowe's caving in on President's wiretapping
    2. Dubai ports deal
    3. Food Safety law passed by House
    4. Add depleted uranium to Iraq War issues
    5. Impeachment, censure, yes



Imagine would have you imagining a strong, outspoken, pro-choice, pro-labor woman Democrat representing Maine in the U.S. Senate.

Inside/Outside Strategy explains the dual processes of getting us where we want to be politically.

Wiretapping takes George Bush to task over the illegal wiretapping of American citizens, and Senator Olympia Snowe's "disappointing" complicity in stopping a Congressional investigation.

The scripts of those ads are available here.


March 13, 2006 - NEWS FLASH!! We got a flood of verified nominating petitions in the mail late last week, after our March 8 initial filing with the Secretary of State (see news release below), but before the March 15 filing deadline.

Rather than just set them aside, we sorted through them, and on Monday morning, March 13, we took 29 additional petition forms, containing 225 more valid signatures, to Augusta and added them to the campaign's pile. Our new total is 2,985, just 15 shy of the 3,000 upper limit we are allowed to submit.

Many thanks to the hundreds of circulators and thousands of signers who made the completion of this critical step possible. We couldn't have done it without you.


Sunday, Feb. 26, 2006, was Maine Democratic Party Caucus Day. Caucuses mark the first time that many rank-and-file Democrats begin to engage for the coming campaign season. Jean spoke at caucuses in:

Auburn, Lewiston, Portland, Westbrook,
Freeport, Falmouth, and Yarmouth

"Imagine a strong, outspoken pro-choice, pro-labor woman Democrat representing Maine in the U.S. Senate. Imagine that woman Democratic Senator voting to end the war in Iraq. And voting to start national single-payer health care...."


As a Bangor Daily News reporter and Bureau Chief in the 1970s and 80s, I covered countless town and county government meetings and hearings on state/town issues. Over those years I watched local and state office holders constantly wrestle with the delicate balance between essential community services and a fair tax structure.


Senate hearings began Monday on the President's failure to comply with the FISA law, which oversees presidential authorization of wiretaps on American citizens. Even more than when Judge Alito testified at his confirmation hearing last month, the testimony of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in the Senate hearings has been an exercise in obfuscation...


May 3, 2006 - New Radio Ads!
These ads have been running on Air America (870 AM) in the Portland, Maine area. If you are in that broadcast area, listen in. If not, click on one of the links below to hear each ad.

Feb 08 - Organic Farmer
Feb 08 - Balanced Budget
Feb 01 - Working Families
Feb 01 - Iraq War
Jan 27 - Alito Pre-Vote


The scripts of these ads are available here.

Jan. 31, 2006 - Alito Vote
Senator Olympia Snowe voted Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2006 to confirm Judge Samuel Alito Jr. as a United States Supreme Court Justice. She was one of the last Senators to cast a vote, and she did not announce her decision until just before her vote was cast.

Ever since George Bush nominated Judge Alito to fill Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's seat on the Supreme Court, I have come out strongly and repeatedly against the confirmation of Judge Alito. I see him as a real threat to reproductive rights, civil rights, and the balance of powers in our three branches of government, among other things.



Jan. 26, 2006 - Alito Forum
Sponsored by Maine Women's Lobby and 40 other organizations - USM Lewiston Campus
"A President already grasping at power unheard of in our nation's history, and a complicit Supreme Court stacked in the President's favor, does not bode well for the continuation of freedom and democracy in America."


FARMINGTON (Maine) - Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jean Hay Bright said Sunday that Olympia Snowe's indecision about her vote on the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court has destroyed her long-standing reputation as a pro-choice politician.

"Look at the millions of dollars being spent on ads and organized persuasion, on both sides of the Judge Alito issue, to convince Olympia Snowe to vote one way or the other," Hay Bright, said in remarks to the Franklin County Democratic Committee on the University of Maine Farmington campus.


Olympia Snowe is NOT a moderate. She lost claims to that label years ago. She voted for the Iraq War resolution, for the Patriot Act, for the Nuclear Bunker Buster Program. She voted to deny habeas corpus rights to Guantanamo Bay detainees. In one ranking she voted favorably on Peace Action issues 13 percent of the time in 2004, which was a great improvement over 2003, when she got a zero rating. That's not moderate.


Dropping bombs on civilian homes because someone suspects a bad guy might be in there is not the way to win friends. Anymore, it's not even shoot first and ask questions later. We're not asking questions later.


If the Supreme Court rules that the President of the United States can issue orders that are automatically lawful by virtue of his position as President, no matter how much or badly they conflict with laws passed by Congress or even provisions in the U.S. Constitution, then how useful is it to know that Judge Alito thinks not even the President is above the law?


I just learned this morning that the revised Patriot Act, postponed from before Christmas to a vote in early February, contains a couple of clauses that are truly frightening. The worst one would allow a person to be thrown into prison for a year for holding up an "unauthorized sign" at a Democratic or Republican national convention, at an appearance by the President or Vice President, or at any other event designated by the Secret Service as a "national security event."


Statewide meeting of Maine Campaign for a U.S. Department of Peace - Curtis Memorial Library, Brunswick
Peace is not just the absence of war. Peace is an active verb, not a passive verb. Diplomacy is difficult, particularly across cultures and national boundaries. Conflict resolution is an art and a technique that does not come naturally to most people. Domestic violence must be confronted directly, in our courts and in our schools. Bullying must be dealt with as the violent and anti-social behavior that it is.


(Analysis per Irregular Times)
A Progressive Score of 9 means that Sen. Snowe has acted to support 9% of a slate of progressive policies in the 109th Congress. A Regressive Score of 71 means that Senator Snowe has acted to support 71% of a slate of conservative, wrongheaded policies in the 109th Congress. Her ratings last Fall (2005) were 10 and 67.


Labor issues define who we are as Americans. There are many issues involved, and they are all connected. It is not just union versus non-union. It is the minimum wage and illegal immigration on one end of the spectrum, and corporate outsourcing of high-paying jobs on the other. It is pensions and Social Security. It is education and national health care, NAFTA and CAFTA. It is also a national recognition that the workers of America are the driving force in this country.