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.
On 10/6/08 at 8:34 AM,
DavidBright wrote:
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Laurie Dobson makes excellent points about the problems faced by voters who want to support non-party candidates. Because the major party candidates often are on the same page (the Allen-Collins votes on the bailout boondoggle are a prime example) the party candidates often don't want to have to answer to issues raised by the independents. The Hoffman and Dobson campaigns are examples of this.
But voters can still vote for them by checking the box next to the write-in line on the ballot and then writing in the name and town of the candidate. Hoffman is from Ogunquit, Dodson from Kennebunkport.
There is a legal procedure to become a declared write-in candidate, and Hoffman has filed the necessary paperwork. Thus, according to the Secretary of State, he is just as valid a Senate candidate as is Allen and Collins, except that his name is not on the ballot. If Dobson has filed the same paperwork, the same is true of her candidacy.
In the Hoffman ballot access case, there is still a federal court case pending on the constitutionality of the actions taken by the Secretary of State -- at the insistence of the Maine Democratic Party -- against Hoffman.
In Portland this afternoon, prior to an appearance by Ralph Nader -- another reform-minded campaigner whose right to ballot access has been attacked by the Maine Democratic Party -- Hoffman will hold a press conference at Portland City Hall to detail new information about the methods used by the Maine Democratic Party to put Tom Allen on the ballot.
Hoffman will present the details of a review of the Allen nominating petitions showing that had the Allen campaign been subject to the same ruling of the Secretary of State as was imposed against Hoffman, Allen likely would not have qualified for a position on the June primary ballot, and therefore would not now be on the November ballot.
Hoffman had qualified for ballot access but was later removed from the ballot after the Maine Democratic Party convinced the Secretary of State to impose a new rule on how signatures must be collected, then apply it retroactively to Hoffman's signatures, but not to Allen's. Thus Hoffman is now running as a declared write-in candidate.
In researching the Allen petitioning process in advance of a pending federal court case, the Hoffman campaign has learned that 97 percent of Allen's nomination signatures were collected at the hectic and often disorganized Democratic Party caucuses in February, and it's likely that many of the signatures collected that day would not be valid using that same standard for the nominating process imposed against Hoffman because these Allen signatures were not properly witnessed by the circulators. The analysis shows that under the standard of integrity advocated by the Democratic Party, its own candidate could have fallen more than 400 names short of the required number of signatures.
It's sad that the Democratic Party will stoop to this kind of attack against a candidate who they fear will raise issues the Democratic candidate would rather not be raised. In a more perfect world the party candidates would welcome full participation in the democratic process and agree to state their positions and let the voters decide.
By raising issues that the party candidates would rather ignore, Hoffman and Dobson are an important part of the political process.
On 10/6/08 at 12:25 PM,
lauriedobson wrote:
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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.dobsonforsenate.com
Laurie Dobson
Write-In Independent Candidate for Maine's U.S. Senate
On 10/6/08 at 6:11 PM,
RevGerald wrote:
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It is an absolute shame that independent candidates are not given the respect they deserve. Instead the two ruling class parties do everything they can to prevent the people of Maine from having truly fair and open campaigns and debates so that we can hear a variety of points of view. Other countries have dozens of political parties. In the US as Gore Vidal has said we have one political party with two right wings. We need parties of loyal oppositon. The Democrats don't provide that; the Green Party and the candidates running as independents do.
I like the clear principled positions that Laurie Dobson has taken.
On 10/6/08 at 8:18 PM,
Johninphilippines wrote:
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Laurie...do what Hillary Clinton did...simply force to write-in your name on the darned ballot! If there were improprieties in the states (Maine) process to issue those who meet criteria and time values to be entered to the ballot...and you and the other independent candidate were eliminated, this truly is an unconstitutional move on the state (Maine). Sue them. Force an injunction and write your name on the ballot. It was done on the federal level...and that preempts state levels. Maybe you have already done that, but don't get pushed around by the primary party controllers, anywhere. I, too, am Independent, and more power to you.
On 10/6/08 at 10:26 PM,
cherylv wrote:
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Laurie, you have made more sense in your column then any other I've read this past year. You keep it up and let everyone know. Don't be silence about the way you feel. The other parties get mad and holler and get ugly but stick to your guns. If I was 20 years younger I'd be there to support you anyway I could.
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