Next week, our hard-working 2nd District families will go to the polls to elect the person they want to represent them in Congress. Frankly, parts of this race have disappointed me.
My opponent, Emily Cain, and her agents have spent nearly $2 million on nasty TV ads and mailers personally attacking me. For months, she has attacked my successful professional career, which was earned with many years of hard work and sacrifice. She’s even attacked my record of always paying all property taxes in full (thousands of dollars), always!
Cain has also been untruthful about my unwavering support for our senior citizens.
With these attacks burning up your television and mailbox, it’s been hard to talk about my 35 years of experience creating jobs, and my record as state treasurer of eliminating wasteful government spending and reducing debt that led to lower taxes and more jobs.
Although I have proudly discussed my record, Cain has been trying to rewrite hers.
Thankfully, facts are stubborn things.
Cain says that she has worked to cut taxes. That’s simply not true. As the lead partisan for the liberal Democrats in the Maine House, in 2009, she helped push through 102 new sales taxes. With no Republican support, she ushered through new taxes on car repairs, haircuts, movie tickets and other goods and services used every day by Maine families. The next year, an outpouring of angry Mainers repealed the 102 new taxes in a people’s referendum at the ballot box by the wide margin of 61 percent to 39 percent.
During the 2011 debate for Gov. Paul LePage’s first budget, Cain crowed to the Portland Press Herald about her ability to water down the income tax cuts included in the budget. After the tax cuts passed, she told the newspaper how much she and her liberal allies “hated those tax cuts.” Now, running for Congress, Cain is trying to take credit for the tax cuts she hated.
Voters are tired of this kind of political spin.
Last year, Cain helped ram through another tax increase on Maine’s working poor. Our families now pay a 10 percent increase in the sales tax when buying new winter coats for their kids, and a 14 percent meals tax increase when they celebrate a pizza party birthday at their favorite restaurant. That’s just not fair.
Cain keeps saying that her voting record helped grow our state economy. The facts just don’t bear that out.
During her 10 years in the state Legislature, Cain voted repeatedly to expand welfare to able-bodied childless adults while thousands of disabled and elderly sick fellow Mainers were stuck on waiting lists to receive help. This piled up nearly $500 million owed to our hospitals when Augusta simply decided not to pay them for the services provided to the greater number of welfare beneficiaries.
These imprudent votes by Cain have helped to kill Maine jobs and drive away our young families. Similar irresponsible behavior in Washington has resulted in our $17 trillion national debt. Maine can’t afford Cain’s voting record of reckless overspending in Washington.
I believe the federal government should control our borders.
Cain has a different view. She supports amnesty for millions of people who are here illegally.
That extreme view makes it more difficult to keep our kids safe from terrorism and contagious illnesses here at home. It also displaces our own American workers still struggling through the worst recession in 70 years. We all know that’s not right.
The person who represents our 2nd District families in Congress should share their values. I was born and raised to a Catholic, working-class, Franco-American family right here in central Maine. I scrubbed toilets to work my way through college. For 35 years, I helped grow the economy and create jobs.
I’ve been endorsed by Sen. Susan Collins and Gov. Paul LePage. I’ve also been endorsed by the National Rifle Association.
Cain is from Kentucky and New Jersey.
She doesn’t understand our state and our traditions. She has no experience creating jobs and has voted against Maine small businesses nearly 70 percent of the time. She would be a rubber stamp to continue Barack Obama’s extreme liberal big government policies that kill jobs.
And, Cain has a D rating from the NRA.
I ask for your vote on Nov. 4. I’ll work hard and do what’s right in Congress. I’ll fight for Maine’s families and small businesses. I won’t let you down.
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