When the BDN recently endorsed Sen. Susan Collins for re-election, it described her opponent, Shenna Bellows, as “energetic and passionate about helping the working class and fighting for equality and civil rights.” To a working man like me, that sounds like the best endorsement a newspaper can offer a candidate.
The working people of Maine need that kind of energy and passion from their next senator. We need someone who’s willing to say out loud that our economy isn’t working for the middle class, that too many jobs are going overseas and that wages for most of us are stuck in the mud. We need a senator who understands that the richest 1 percent of Americans control 40 percent of the country’s wealth, which is not sustainable.
According to BusinessWeek — not exactly a working-class publication – our nation’s wealth is more concentrated than China’s, the country with an official ruling party full of economic elites who benefit from a rigged system. We’re supposed to be the land of opportunity, where everyone who works hard and plays by the rules can make it if they try. Somehow we’ve switched positions.
Unfortunately, we haven’t seen Collins fight very hard to make things right. She too often has voted against working people’s interests — against a reasonable minimum wage, against equal pay for working women and even against campaign finance reform that would help get big money out of our politics.
Bellows stands with working people, which this paper acknowledged. Consider this — Bellows hasn’t taken a single cent from corporate PACs during this election. She doesn’t owe corporations any favors, any quid pro quos or any special deals once she gets into office. She has raised more than $2 million, mostly from individual donors and much of it in small-dollar contributions.
Where does Collins stand? She has taken more than $1.9 million from corporate PACs — more than enough to pay for her air-conditioned campaign bus tour of the state. Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer the way Bellows did it when she walked across Maine this summer to meet people in their front yards, diners, businesses, homes and town squares.
Endorsing an incumbent is easy when there hasn’t been a major scandal. You can always point to the grant money that came in — most of which would have happened no matter who held the office — and the popular votes they cast. But a voter who really needs to know what to expect for the next six years doesn’t just want half the story. Look deeper, and it’s clear Bellows is the right choice.
Collins wants to cut taxes for people who absolutely don’t need it. In 2010, she voted to cut taxes, even on the very richest Americans, and said she did it to help small businesses. No way would Bellows cast that kind of vote, let alone hide behind small business owners to do it.
Collins keeps silent when we need leadership, like she did when Gov. Paul LePage vetoed the minimum wage increase and the Medicaid expansion, both of which would have helped tens of thousands of Mainers all over the state. When she says she doesn’t weigh in on state issues, it’s an insult to the people she represents who need an advocate when they’re struggling. Collins should have told LePage why he was wrong and done everything in her power to fix the situation.
Just as seriously, Collins stands with Washington Republicans instead of working Mainers far too often. She herself voted against increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour earlier this year and insisted she couldn’t go higher than $9 an hour, which, she said during last week’s MPBN debate, “clearly … is not a living wage.” Bellows supports going to $10.10 now and increasing it regularly to keep up with inflation.
That’s the kind of sensible leadership working Mainers need. That’s why I’m supporting Shenna Bellows for Senate and why I hope you will too.
Don Berry of Sumner is president of Maine AFL-CIO.