Mainers are fired up and they expect Maine’s next senator to share in their conviction and their urgency. If the contentious GOP convention showed us anything, it is that Mainers care a great deal about the future of our state and our country.
Well, I’ll tell you this much: As a candidate for Senate, I’m with you. I’m fired up too. We’re at a crossroads and Maine needs someone who can take on D.C., put the fiscal house back in order, and restore Maine and America to the right track.
Economically, small business is the key to Maine’s economy, accounting for 97 percent of all employers in the state. We need someone in D.C. who understands the needs of small business.
I’m the only Republican candidate who fits in this category. Some of my opponents have private sector experience. Some of them don’t. But none of them know what it’s like to build a small business from the ground up.
My husband and I started PDQ Door 17 years ago when it was just four of us working out of a rented garage. Today we employ 50 Mainers in six locations.
Maine needs someone in Washington who has been an everyday business owner. I’ve never had a golden parachute. My family’s future depends on our company’s success. To spark economic growth and boost employment, government should be supporting small business, not drowning it. This is what I’ll fight for in D.C., just as I fought for lower taxes and less regulation here in Maine.
Maine also needs someone in the Senate who knows all about principled legislating. Well, with 16 years of legislative experience in Augusta, that’s me too.
I know what it means to accomplish legislative goals, whether in the minority or leading the majority. As a leader in the Senate, I’ve been working for the past two years to ease Maine’s heavy tax burden and jumpstart private industry. We’re close to giving Mainers the income tax reduction they need.
I’ve fought to bring the state out of the red and stop spending money we don’t have. I didn’t build my business on the backs of my children. Why should governing be any different? This lesson seems to be lost in D.C. And it was certainly lost on Angus King as he racked up a billion-dollar deficit as governor at a time when the economy was humming.
King and today’s Congress both could use a dose of my grandmother’s advice. “Spend every penny like you earned it digging a ditch,” she used to say.
Even in my early years as a member of Maine’s House and the minority GOP, I knew what was right, I fought for it and I won.
Family is the core of our society and so I drove legislation through Augusta forcing the Department of Human Services to try to place children removed from their homes with other family first. DHS wasn’t happy about it. They were receiving federal funding to place these kids with complete strangers. But I didn’t compromise or back down and we forced the bureaucracy to prioritize the welfare of Maine’s children above its own pocketbook.
I don’t take no for an answer in Augusta, and I won’t take no for an answer in Washington. A common refrain of my primary opponents is there’s not enough compromise in D.C. today. But how can we compromise on our children’s future?
As Maine’s senator I will stand by my conservative principles and come hell or high water I will not back down. This doesn’t mean blind partisanship. When the GOP is wrong, I’ll tell them so. And it doesn’t mean refusing to work across the aisle. In the real world, we talk out our differences and find common ground. In Washington, I’ll do the same.
I’ve come too far as a legislator and business owner to surrender my beliefs now. Throughout this campaign the people of Maine will see who I am and hear what I believe, whether it’s popular or not. I’m eager to hear your response.
Debra Plowman is assistant majority leader in the Maine Senate and represents 17 towns in Penobscot County. She is seeking the Republican nomination in the race for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Olympia Snowe.
She’s ALEC’s little darling and will represent corporate interests over her constituents needs.
In that case she needs to go back to the door business and not let it hit her on the way out!
This silly little ALEC conspiracy ain’t selling, so please stop peddling it.
Senator Plowman is a principled politician who sees this country heading off a cliff and wants to appropriately intercede. She has done some great work in Augusta, and has built a business from scratch in a tough business climate. Well done, Senator!
That said, I’m voting for Charlie Summers, whose credentials and vision far outpace any of the other candidates. Just go to a debate and see this for yourself.
Why don’t you go back to sleeping under a rock in Norumbega Park?
Is Plowman giving you a job in her new militia?
http://youtu.be/llLmRwqPzk0
Actually the idea of a militia was a great idea, back around 1775. Something tells me that a bunch of old guys in three cornered hats with muskets might not do very well against today’s modern military. Unfortunately too many of Mrs. Plowman’s ideas are still rooted in the 1700’s.
Charlie’s idea of governing is nothing more than governing thru the consent of those folk’s that he consider’s his constituent’s, not the whole of Maine. His recent attempt to restrict the voting rights of ALL Mainer’s, thru his using his office as SOS and the manipulation of the driver’s liscense program, is beyond question the most visible indicator of just what and where he’s headed. That Charlie got the ‘fannysmack’ of his life when his little voting scam got exposed should have taught him, and his backer’s something. Apparenty it didn’t take. Well, here comes Round 2 !
But what’s really disturbing is his seemingly complete lack of understanding as to just what his responsibility’s are as a U.S. Senator. As a Navy Commander, Charlie should have realized that as a Naval Officer, as will a U.S Senator, he has a responsibility to the whole of his Command, and the Country if elected, not just to those he agrees with or support him. What’s the old saying “You don’t have to like the order. You just have to carry it out” . That a Naval Officer, a full Commander (an 0-5 no less ) has openly failed to grasp just what the principle’s of basic government, the democratic process that it’s based on, leadership, command and the responsibilities are that are an integral part of that makes me wonder, and a whole lot of scared, just what is going thru Charle’s head right now. More importantly is who put these idea’s there and for what purpose. It’s time for Charlie, even now, to make up his mind just who he’s going to represent, the whole State of Maine or just those folks who he likes and support him. And given the time element, Charlie, you had better get on it double quick before the public’s CPO starts asking you why you’re still sitting on your brain’s when you are supposed to be using them for more than a seat cushion !
I haven’t decided on anyone yet, but I don’t get that read at all. I’ll bet he understands what it’s like to command everyone—folks he likes and doesn’t. So he likely understands how to govern that way.
Cynthia Dill, on the other hand, certainly wants to govern all…but govern them the way her favorite constituents want.
Then sir, I would make the arguement that you haven’t ‘served’, and under a vindictive Commanding Officer to boot. Charlie’s last foray into the use of State Authority was when he, as Secretary of State, tried to restrict voting rights here in Maine by administratively outlawing Same Day Registration under the guidance of the State GOP and Tea Party’s. When it happened Maine voter’s dammed near rose up in open revolt over this clearly ‘My way or the Highway’ tactic of keeping ‘those kind of people’ from voting here in Maine even though they were clearly entitled to under current Maine law. Charlie got his ‘keester’ kicked, and good, when this nonsense was voted out, by a no less than 4 to 1 majority if memory serves me correctly, when Same Day Registration was brought back. If this GOP tactic of voter registration is any indicator of just how he intends to represent Maine then I suggest that we all get ready for a real quick turn around in Senator’s should he actually get elected. Being a U.S. Senator calls for a balanced and ‘service first’ attitude, more so in the face of a clearly ‘sit on my duff and do nothing’ House. The Senate is supposed to be above that kind of thing. To this date, that I’ve seen, Charlie would have been better off running for a House seat if he wants to go play GOP toadstool.
Since you don’t know me, whether I’ve served in some way, and under whom, I’d submit you can’t make that argument. I am actually for restricting same day voting registration and requiring people to provide ID before they vote. I disagreed then as now, however, as to how much of a problem it is here in Maine (little if any) and whether the then-new R-administration should waste its time on it.
As for his commitment to service I believe Mr. Summers understands ‘service first’ quite well.
I like Charlie Summers too.
I’m especially heartened to see that he doesn’t buy into the AGW con.
And this ALEC Derangement Syndrome has gone way beyond tedious, the Koch Bros. garbage, too.
George Soros and the Progressive States Network is A-OK, though.
Oh yeah you are absolutely right…things that are true can’t be conspiracies…good catch.
Can someone please check her coffee ! She has got to get off that Starbucks or Horton’s espresso ! That or someone have an ambulance ready for the iminent stroke she clearly is headed toward. That last thing that DC needs is a fanatic-driven politician who is clearly a Party mouthpiece. The Tea Party already has enough of that in Grover Norquist, Hensearling, Ryan and King (Iowa). No, Maine needs reasoned and balanced representation, not another ‘Screaming Chicken’ that’s determied to raise a ruckus just to show that it can be done, with nothing to either come out of it, or to drive anything needed.
No, the last person we need to send to DC is an unprincipled hack who can’t wait to spend other people’s money, such as Angus King or any of the Dem candidates.
She forgot to mention her desire for a militia to defend citizens from the government:
http://youtu.be/llLmRwqPzk0
The only good thing about her is that she has no chance of winning and she will be out of state government. Of course it would be nice to have her out of Hampden. Oh and lets don’t forget how worldly and open minded her views are…my favorite was her daughter going to school in Alabama then coming back because she was sooo scared of all those “dark-skinned” people.