After eight years of Bushenomics we were all ready for change, yes? Obama got more votes for president than any other candidate in history, because a lot of people were ready for change, and Obama made change the central pillar of his campaign. But two years later have we gotten it? We are still fighting wars in the Middle East we can not win; we are still handing blank checks to businesses that went bankrupt; we are still treating environmental disasters like inconveniences for a corporation rather than the natural disaster it is (According to the August 2010 issue of Harper's Magazine, citing The Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, Obama received more contributions from BP than any other politician between 2004-2009.) We are still the only country in the industrialized world that does not provide health care for its citizens. And the unemployment rate is approaching ten percent. Change? Yes, there have been changes. But in real terms, as measured against the crises threatening the stability of the planet, the only real change has been the names on the doors. No, I'm not running for president. Or the US Senate or House or even Governor. But I am running for office. Anyone running for office has the ability to want change or not want change. To promise to work for change or not. To show signs that he means change, or to say one thing but act in ways suggesting that if he had twelve fingers he'd have six pairs of fingers crossed. A person running for dog catcher can see how the job can be done better. A person running for Maine Legislature can see lots of ways the Legislature can work better!

Mommy, am I being foolish?

I'm going to get this saying wrong. But you've heard it, you know what I'm trying to say. The sign that we're idiots is that we do the same things that didn't work last time and the time before that and the time before that and we expect things to turn out differently this time. Sometimes we don't have a choice, and we don't necessarily "expect" things to turn out differently but we hope like crazy. Like voting for Obama in November 2008. The signs were there that he was not going to be all that we wanted - look at the contributions he received from BP, which, also according to Harper's (here citing the U.S. Department of Labor) was responsible for 97% of the "willful" violations committed by oil refiners in 2007; look at the similar contributions he received from the investment industry! - but what were we to do? Vote for McCain? Vote for Pallin, who would have been one McCain heart attack away from having to ask someone where Canada is? In November 2008 we did what we needed to do because we needed to do it.

But voting for a Democrat got us little more than the opportunity to say that we did not vote for a Republican. Because while the Republicans have not been the Peoples' friends the Democrats have not been much better. You like having huge numbers of American jobs now being performed by child labor in sweatshops overseas? The "Free Trade" acts made their entrance during the Clinton administration. You like the way your pensions and your stock portfolios became worth less than your pet rock collections? Bank deregulation was another one of Clinton's projects. Do you think there might be better ways of making friends in the Muslim world, better uses of our tax dollars than spending billions of dollars per month in blowing up dirt farmers? The Democrats supported our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and two years into the Obama presidency this is no longer the Bush war, it is the Obama war. For six years of Bush the Democrats cried powerlessness because they lacked the votes. The Democrats gained control of the House and Senate in 2006, and added the White House in 2008. What's the excuse now?

When I was collecting clean elections funds an indignant householder told me that Greens stand for chaos and he'd never, ever vote for a Green Party candidate. Really? The green Party has enough power to cause chaos? Yes, some Green Party members did get elected to the Portland City Council and the Portland School Board, and perhaps some of those Greens did not vote or debate in ways some people would have preferred. But people will hold a candidate responsible for what some members of his Party did? or might do? You're head over heels in love with what the Democrats as a monolithic entity have been doing? I don't claim to be perfect; I do claim to have principles. Hold me accountable for my principles and my failure to uphold them, if that should happen (and I promise you I will try not to let it happen!) But opposing me because I have chosen to identify myself with a party that does have principles does not make great sense to me.

There is change, and there is change. And some change is no change at all. Many candidates claim to stand for change, but it is a very small "c" change. And this has been true not just at the federal level, it is true at the state and city level as well. I am not going to run one way and govern another. I will not run away from issues, I will tell you clearly what I think is important and why. Read my position papers to learn what I want to do in Augusta. I don't just say that I want changes, for over 25 years I have been working for those changes in Maine. You are going to get what you expect from me, and that is commitment and integrity.

There are two other candidates in this Legislative race. Do you know what they stand for? Do you know what kind of leadership the incumbent has provided? Has he worked hard for issues important to you? If you don't know what he stands for, or don't like what he stands for why would you vote for him?

As I explain on my homepage there is no risk of a Republican getting elected if you vote for me, so this is not November 2008 - you do have a safe choice. It is not a good thing to continue to vote for candidates who are not working for you and expect different results than you have been getting. If you know who the incumbent is and like him then vote for him. If you don't know who your elected representative is, or can't remember anything he has done during his two years in office you might consider voting differently. For someone who will work for Real Change.

Otherwise, sometime in the next two years you are going to contact your Representative and say, "I gave you a dollar, where's my change?"