Penobscot Bay Pilot has posed questions to each candidate running for U.S. Congressional seats, providing the opportunity for the public to better understand their position on issues important to the state and nation.

Candidates responding with their individual written answers will have their responses stored in the Pilot’s 2020 Election Resource Guide.

Lisa Savage, Independent, is seeking election to represent Maine in the U.S. Senate.

Perhaps no place in Maine epitomizes the state’s schizophrenic political character more than the Somerset County town of Solon (pop. just north of 1,000, about an hour’s drive west from Bangor). Somerset County is Trump Country. Barely a third of its voters chose Hillary Clinton in 2016, and though Clinton narrowly won statewide, Trump swept the wilderness of northern and western Maine, earning the only electoral vote he got in New England.*

Yet Solon is an outlier. Since the late 1960s it’s been home to an eccentric collective of politically radical, back-to-the-lander artists, most notably the painter Abby Shahn. Every Fourth of July, in addition to fireworks and a patriotic parade, the community improv-theater group In Spite of Life Players stages a leftist protest play against war and greed, using gigantic, brightly painted sets and props, a la Vermont’s Bread and Puppet Theater.

August 26th marked the centennial anniversary of the federal government ratifying the 19th amendment, granting women the right to vote. Even as we celebrate that hard-fought victory, however, we must remember many women were not able to exercise that right because of a pernicious web of laws and regulations designed to disenfranchise voters based on race and country of origin.

A series of reforms through the following decades gradually expanded the right to vote to citizens of all races and nationalities, culminating in the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

• Upcoming Events, Volunteer for Hawkins/Walker, Our Recent Activism

We have lots of news this month from the North Carolina Green Party. Check out our events coming up soon, how to volunteer for the Hawkins/Walker presidential campaign, and some of our recent activism!

"Why the Democrats Are a Dead End for People of Color" Event with Angela Walker

BOSTON – As you may know, volunteers from Voter Choice for Massachusetts, the Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) campaign, made history last fall when they submitted 111,000 certified signatures to the Secretary of the Commonwealth; the most ever by a Massachusetts ballot initiative campaign. The Green-Rainbow Party was an early supporter of RCV, and we are proud to be part of this historic effort to give more voice to voters.

Climate activist Bill McKibben took to the New Yorker recently to advise me and the Green Party to stand down our presidential campaign and instead work for ranked-choice voting (RCV) so we don’t “spoil” the election for Joe Biden (“Instead of Challenging Joe Biden, Maybe the Green Party Could Help Change Our Democracy,” April 15).

The problem with McKibben’s advice is that the Green Party’s demand for replacing the Electoral College with a ranked-choice national popular vote for president will not even be raised in the presidential campaign if the Greens are not in the race.

FLANDERS, NJ – “And now there is only one candidate Booker, ... the candidate for U.S. Senate” said Madelyn Hoffman. “We get why he dropped out. If anyone knows about the difficulties of competing on a level playing field in the U.S. electoral system, it’s the Green Party. We know all too well the story of being left out of important debates, presidential or otherwise, because we haven’t raised enough money or scored high enough in ‘polls’. These polls can be manipulated by corporate or special interests in our cases to even fail to include us. 

December 19, 2019 – ALBANY, NY – The Green Party of New York announced its four top state legislative priorities for 2019: enact Single-Payer Universal Healthcare through passage of the NY Health Act; move towards a Green New Deal with an initial $10 billion annual investment, a halt to new fossil fuel infrastructure including in homes and buildings, and a declaration of a climate emergency; Marijuana Legalization and Criminal Justice Reform and Electoral Reform, starting with overturning the Public Campaign Finance Reform Commission's ballot access thresholds, reform of the campaign finance system they constructed, alongside ranked-choice voting and proportional representation to ensure democratic elections in New York State.

November 6, 2019 — The Green Party of New York (GPNY) congratulated all of its candidates today, especially Carol Sandy Przybylak, who received 25% of the vote in her race for a seat on the Cheektowaga Town Council. Green officials also celebrated the success of the Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV) ballot proposition in New York City, and the Independent Redistricting proposition in the City of Syracuse.

The Green Party of the United States (GPUS) congratulates all of its 2019 Fall General Election candidates on their hard-fought campaigns, including civil rights attorney and National Lawyers Guild member Kat Bruner James for her election to Ferndale (Michigan) City Council in a partisan election.

“I look forward to serving on the first female-majority City Council in Ferndale,” Kat announced in a Facebook post to supporters. “I have many people to thank.”