Everyone – making sure you saw the huge news last night. Past Democrat special election wins have been thoroughly covered, so we want to make sure you have the opportunity to do the same.
Maine Republican Abden Simmons has won the special election for Maine House District 45. HD 45 is a true swing district: Republicans have a small advantage in voter registration, and the district has been represented by Democrats and left-leaning Independent recently.
Please see the following quote from Maine Republican Party Chairman Joel Stetkis:
“Congratulations to longtime Maine fisherman Abden Simmons on his election — this is massive news for Maine. His deep community roots and staunch advocacy for this district’s way of life clearly resonated with voters. We’ve said from the beginning that Maine Republicans are putting together a reinvigorated, bottom up, grassroots team effort and I want to thank our volunteers and local party chairs because this was a great example of everyone working together for a common goal. Abden and the Republican team were great, but I’ll also point out that Joe Biden, Janet Mills, Troy Jackson, and Rachel Talbot Ross have made consistent headlines in recent months for proposing and supporting far, far left wing policies. Mainers in this battleground district today said ENOUGH. Enough of the spending increases, enough of the extreme left-wing agenda in Augusta, enough of the broken promises. And they picked Abden Simmons to deliver this message.” For more information about Rep.-Elect Simmons, here’s his website.
Recent news poll indicates more than 80% of Mainers support common-sense proposals
AUGUSTA – The Maine Republican Party is today urging support of proposals to require voters to show identification before voting in Maine’s elections.
“This is exactly the type of common-sense proposal Maine people expect from their legislators, and a Voter ID law should be passed in this session,” said Maine Republican Party Chair Hon. Joel Stetkis.
Maine is one of only 15 states that does not require or request voters to provide a photo ID before receiving their ballot at the polls.
“Maine’s local election officials do an outstanding job managing Maine’s elections, but the legislature’s previous refusal to end the Voter ID vulnerability ties their hands. It is inexcusable,” said Chair Stetkis.
A recent WABI poll showed that 83% of respondents supported a Voter ID law, with only 17% opposing. The poll received nearly 3,400 responses. (Link to results)
Senator Matt Pouliot with Senator Jeff Timberlake and Rep. Joshua Morris have proposed legislation to enact a common sense Voter ID requirement, LD 34, which can be viewed at this link.
“The aim of my bill is to restore trust in our elections by implementing a common-sense measure already in place in the vast majority of states,” said Senator Matt Pouliot, the sponsor of LD 34. “The people of Maine widely support a Voter ID requirement and we can do this in a bipartisan fashion if Democrats will act according to the will of the people.”
Representative Reagan Paul, the sponsor of another Voter ID proposal that has yet to be released from the Revisor’s Office, said, “The purpose of my bill is to ensure confidence and trust in our election system. Requiring photo ID is a perfectly reasonable and easily met requirement to protect our elections. My goal is for the Maine people to feel confident that their vote was perfectly counted without any risk of fraud or dilution. The majority of Mainers and Americans support securing our elections through a photo ID requirement.”
House Republican Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham has been a strong supporter of a Voter ID requirement, with a Citizen’s Initiative Referendum to put a Voter ID requirement out to a vote of the Maine people in an upcoming election.
“I urge Maine people to raise their voices in support of requiring Voter ID and strengthening the confidence of Maine people in our election process. We are lucky to have a good system here, but let’s put this one piece in place for the integrity of our elections,” said Stetkis. “If our counterparts in the Democrat Party truly want to ‘protect our Democracy’ as they claim, let’s start here.”
AUGUSTA – The Maine Republican Party on Saturday, January 28, elected a new state party chair to lead the party in the coming election cycle.
“I’m honored and humbled to receive such strong support from the members of the state committee,” said Hon. Joel Stetkis, a builder from Canaan who recently finished serving four consecutive terms in the Maine House.
Stetkis’ involvement in Maine Republican Politics extends back nearly two decades, as a grassroots member of the party who rose to serve as Assistant Republican Leader and a voice for hardworking Mainers and their families.
“On day one, we are getting to work, with the well-being of Maine’s working people as our top priority and the best intentions of Maine’s grassroots Republicans near and dear to our hearts. This is a new day for Maine Republicans. Electing waves of Republicans at the local level and growing our party with an eye to the future begins now. Working to bring together our grassroots, elected officials and state committee in one united effort to restore a brighter more prosperous future for all of Maine.”
Stetkis also took aim at Governor Janet Mills’ destructive agenda.
“As a legislator, I witnessed firsthand the destruction Janet Mills’ progressive agenda is doing on Maine people. Our primary policy objective right now has to be putting the brakes on the destruction and moving Maine to a place of commonsense conservative policy. I am calling on all Maine people who care about this state’s future to join us.”
Janet Mills said Friday that she’s not going to follow California-style electric vehicle mandates. She said: “Make electric vehicles available, rebates available — but not a mandate.”
That’s false — she’s already pursuing a California-based mandate, which will hurt Maine consumers.
As Maine Public said, “The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has proposed adopting another California regulation, known as the California Advanced Clean Trucks Rule, that would require commercial truck and van manufacturers to sell an increasing number of EVs in the state beginning with 2025 models. If adopted, manufacturers could face penalties for failing to live up to the rules.”
Mills’ Clean Transportation Roadmap (which, by the way, is the much-cited report where the Mills admin calls for a gas tax hike to fund EV expansion) shows anticipated EV adoption following the truck rules listed above. The roadmap refers to the truck rules as “The most important regulatory driver in the electrification of Maine’s light-duty vehicles in the next two decades will be through Advanced Clean Cars II (ACC II) standards, which have been adopted in California and are expected to be adopted in Maine in 2022.”
If this isn’t a California-based electric vehicle mandate that will directly affect Mainers, what is?
Mills shouldn’t get away with this lie.
Maine GOP Executive Director Jason Savage said: “Here’s the bottom line: Janet Mills has advocated for and passed policies that made energy more expensive for Mainers. It’s election season and she’s a career politician, so she’s going to try and run away from her record of cost hikes and crazy left-wing energy policies.”
There’s been a lot of discussion about our signs that say “Vote Troy Jackson — Defund the Police.”
We’re very thankful for that — many, many more County voters and Mainers know about Democrat Senate President Jackson’s ties to a Defund the Police group, including calling the group his “strongest ally.”
While regular Mainers seem to understand the situation, the Maine media appears to be quite confused. Much of the media coverage has been inaccurate or hopelessly slanted (as much as we appreciate the media telling Mainers about their Senate President’s tight relationship with Team Defund the Police).
We want to make sure people have the facts.
1. Troy Jackson called a Defund the Police group his “strongest ally.” That means he’s accepting their support and supporting them. It’s impossible to divorce Jackson’s efforts from this group’s efforts. The group’s page linked just above is dedicated to Maine with a graphic that glorifies their relationship with Senator Jackson.
2. This Defund the Police group advocated for legislation that would defund police, as Virginia news reports confirm.
3. This Defund the Police group, then-called Future Now Fund, spent about $200,000 funding Maine Democrat candidates in elections.
4. These signs had Maine Republican Party disclaimers on them. We were not hiding where they came from.
5. The initial news report from the Press Herald was a hit piece. It was intentionally written in a misleading way. The Press Herald ignored the evidence (see points 1 and 2) and ultimately misled its readers.
6. Other print and TV Maine news outlets followed the Press Herald’s inaccurate lead.
In short: it is absolutely accurate to tie Troy Jackson to Defund the Police groups.
By and large, Maine press got it wrong.
Yesterday, Maine GOP went on the WGAN Morning News to discuss Jackson’s ties to the Defund the Police group. Reporters who parroted the Press Herald’s inaccurate coverage may want to listen — they’ll likely learn some facts that they didn’t pick up from the early inaccurate reports.
Sadly, this episode gives Mainers another reason to be skeptical of political press coverage. As the news website Axios noted, trust in media is now at historic lows. The percentage of Americans who say they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in newspapers and television news is down to 16 and 11 percent respectively. That’s not an accident — episodes like this are the reason for Americans losing trust in media.
We look forward to a flood of corrections from the Press Herald, Bangor Daily News, NewsCenter, WGME, and all the others who parroted the Press Herald’s mistakes. And again, thank you to the statewide print, tv, and radio outlets who helped us to tell Troy Jackson’s constituents and Mainers statewide about his ties to this Defund the Police group.
Janet Mills’ Gambling Control Board, Maine’s gambling regulator, appears to have an ineligible member.
Mills appointee Joseph Hanslip is running for House District 142 in Sanford and also serves on the board.
The statute (Title 8: AMUSEMENTS AND SPORTS; Chapter 31: GAMBLING CONTROL BOARD; Subchapter 1: GENERAL PROVISIONS) governing the board plainly states “An elected official or candidate for elective office may not serve as a board member.”
As a serving member of the board, Hanslip registered to run for the Maine House on Feb. 6, 2022, which, according to statute, should be the date he became ineligible to serve on the board. But he kept serving. Since Hanslip became ineligible, there have been multiple board meetings. The next board meeting will be held on June 21.
While Hanslip was ineligible but still serving on the board, Maine also adopted rules governing sports betting.
Maine statute governing the Gambling Control Board
Hanslip’s Maine Ethics Commission profile showing his House campaign is active
Hanslip’s biography on the Maine Gambling Control Board website showing his active service on the board
“This appears to be yet another example of Janet Mills’ inability to run the Maine government,” Maine GOP Executive Director Jason Savage said. “We can’t have this kind of sloppiness calling important policy decisions into question. Which other Mills appointees are ineligible to serve yet have stayed in their positions and are affecting Mainers’ daily lives? It’s time to clean up Augusta. Also, Mr. Hanslip should pick one job or the other. He can’t do both.”
Everybody, You’re not going to believe this one. I can’t believe it myself. As a mother and grandmother, I’m shocked. Warning: graphic content below.
Sara Juli is a Democrat candidate for the Falmouth school board, and Falmouth voters need to know how deeply unqualified she is to be working with your kids.
She’s on the June 14 ballot along with two strong Republicans, Scott Booth and Emily Hinman. Please vote for Hinman and Booth over Juli — keep reading to see why.
School Board Candidate Juli has a show called “Sara Juli’s Tense Vagina.” As you can see, you can buy a shirt featuring the name of her show for $22 on her website. She also publicly, graphically describes her exploits and the promotion of her show. This information (and much, much more) is all publicly available on the internet.
Please let your friends in Falmouth know about this, and make sure they vote FOR Scott Booth and Emily Hinman instead. And please, please do your research on all school board candidates!
AUGUSTA — The Maine Republican Party today announced the launch of a statewide TV and radio ad blitz holding Janet Mills to account for using federal taxpayer money to fund and share sexual education and anti-doctor transgender content designed for kindergarten students. This is the first TV ad of the 2022 Maine gubernatorial race.
Click the image to watch the TV spot
TV ad transcript:
Nearly 2.8 million dollars That’s how much Governor Janet Mills spent of your tax dollars To create radical school lessons Watch this actual Maine Department of Education lesson plan This is intended for children in kindergarten: “A transgender person is someone who the doctors made a mistake about when they were born When a baby is born the doctors will tell the parents what gender they think that baby is They’ll say we think your child is a female or we think your child is a male But some people when they get a little bit older realize what the doctor said was not right” Is this really what our kids should be learning in kindergarten Instead of math, science, and reading? Janet Mills’ radical agenda is just wrong for our kids and for Maine
Radio ad transcript:
Nearly 2.8 million dollars That’s how much Governor Janet Mills spent of your tax dollars To create radical school lessons Listen to this actual Maine Department of Education lesson called LGBT+ activism This lesson is intended for children in kindergarten: “A transgender person is someone who the doctors made a mistake about when they were born When a baby is born the doctors will tell the parents what gender they think that baby is They’ll say we think your child is a female or we think your child is a male But some people when they get a little bit older realize what the doctor said was not right” Is this really what our kids should be learning in kindergarten Instead of math, science, and reading? Janet Mills’ radical agenda is just wrong.
BACKGROUND:
The Mills-funded video, which is titled “LGBT+ Activism” and tells 5-year-olds that sometimes doctors make “mistakes” in designating gender at birth, is on the Maine Department of Education website (slide 51 in the lesson). The person speaking in the video is a teacher at Whitefield Elementary School.
The video also tells kids that there are “a lot of people in the world who want to love in a way that the world says they’re not allowed to,” which is a disturbing thought to put into the mind of a vulnerable young child. The Mills administration announced in Sept. 2021 that the state program that disseminates the video, the Maine Online Opportunities for Sustained Education (MOOSE) program, was funded by money from the partisan federal American Rescue Plan.
Click to watch the Youtube version of the Mills-funded video for kindergarteners
Mainers from across the state spoke out last week about Mills using taxpayer money to fund this type of information being taught to kids as young as 5:
Maine mom, grandmother of a kindergartener, and Maine GOP Chair Dr. Demi Kouzounas said: “Janet Mills is clearly comfortable with kindergarteners being taught this type of information, but I’m shocked by this. I have a granddaughter in kindergarten and I’m extremely concerned after viewing this video. A kindergarten classroom is not the place for this type of discussion. I’m also concerned about the mixed messages that are obvious to anyone who has had kids: we teach them about “stranger danger” and that their bodies are their own but this video talks about “people who love in ways that society hasn’t always allowed” — that could be very confusing to 5 year olds who are essentially babies at that age. The fact that Mills used federal taxpayer money to fund this program is also beyond the pale. Just like Mills has failed our small businesses, nursing homes, and health care facilities, she has also failed parents and students. She needs to explain herself immediately.”
Alicia Lawson, Winthrop school board candidate and mom, said: “Parents, not Janet Mills, should be making the decision about how to approach topics like this. But Mills is clearly very committed to pushing kindergarteners to learn this — she spent taxpayer money on funding this effort. I’m running for school board because I want to get this type of ideology out of young kids’ classrooms. Janet Mills should not be at the front of the class teaching kindergarteners this type of information.”
Jenna Lee Leonard, past candidate for South Berwick school board, said: “Janet Mills’ school lockdowns hurt kids and parents, and now she’s pushing information like this on kindergarteners. I think Maine parents should know about this because I believe that these topics shouldn’t be taught to young kids by a teacher or at the behest of the Governor. It’s not right, and I urge all concerned parents and Mainers to keep this in mind when they vote in November.”
Haily Keezer, Hermon school board candidate and mom, said: “Janet Mills choosing to fund this project makes her agenda blatantly clear. To encourage the use of this material in our educational system is unacceptable, inappropriate and harmful! This situation shows why Maine parents need to have a voice in the room. After my voice was silenced, I decided to run for an open seat on the school board in the upcoming June election. I want to take an active role in ensuring we provide the best education to this and future generations. This taxpayer-funded video does not live up to those standards. These projects are flowing into the school curriculum, often without parents’ knowledge. Maine voters need to hear about this video and similar projects — and start asking questions. We must advocate for our innocent children! Join me in asking Janet Mills why she used our tax dollars to fund such inappropriate and damaging instruction to our children.”
“Now, you might have never heard that term before, LGBT. Well, let me tell you what it means. The L stands for the word lesbian. Lesbians are women who love other women. G stands for gay and gay men are men who love other men. B stands for bisexual and bisexual people are people who love both men and women. And the T stands for transgender. A transgender person is someone who the doctors made a mistake about when they were born. When a baby is born, the doctors will tell the parents what gender they think that baby is. They’ll say we think your child is a female or we think your child is a male. But some people, when they get a little bit older, realize what the doctor said was not right. They might say that the doctors told me I was a man but I’m really a woman or they might say the doctors told me I’m a woman but I’m really a man. And so, when they grow up and they can tell people that the doctors made a mistake about their gender, then they can transition to be the gender that they actually are.”“…there are actually a lot of other people who love in ways that society hasn’t always allowed.”
AUGUSTA — A group of concerned Mainers today blasted Janet Mills for using federal taxpayer money to fund and share sexual education and anti-doctor transgender content designed for kindergarten students.
The video, which is titled “LGBT+ Activism” and tells 5-year-olds that sometimes doctors make “mistakes” in designating gender at birth, is on the Maine Department of Education website (slide 51 in the lesson). The person speaking in the video is a teacher at Whitefield Elementary School.
The video also tells kids that there are “a lot of people in the world who want to love in a way that the world says they’re not allowed to,” which is a disturbing thought to put into the mind of a vulnerable young child.
The Mills administration announced in Sept. 2021 that the state program that disseminates the video, the Maine Online Opportunities for Sustained Education (MOOSE) program, was funded by money from the partisan federal American Rescue Plan.
Click to watch the Youtube version of the video
Mainers from across the state are speaking out about Mills using taxpayer money to fund this type of information being taught to kids as young as 5.
Maine mom, grandmother of a kindergartener, and Maine GOP Chair Dr. Demi Kouzounas said: “Janet Mills is clearly comfortable with kindergarteners being taught this type of information, but I’m shocked by this. I have a granddaughter in kindergarten and I’m extremely concerned after viewing this video. A kindergarten classroom is not the place for this type of discussion. I’m also concerned about the mixed messages that are obvious to anyone who has had kids: we teach them about “stranger danger” and that their bodies are their own but this video talks about “people who love in ways that society hasn’t always allowed” — that could be very confusing to 5 year olds who are essentially babies at that age. The fact that Mills used federal taxpayer money to fund this program is also beyond the pale. Just like Mills has failed our small businesses, nursing homes, and health care facilities, she has also failed parents and students. She needs to explain herself immediately.”
Alicia Lawson, Winthrop school board candidate and mom, said: “Parents, not Janet Mills, should be making the decision about how to approach topics like this. But Mills is clearly very committed to pushing kindergarteners to learn this — she spent taxpayer money on funding this effort. I’m running for school board because I want to get this type of ideology out of young kids’ classrooms. Janet Mills should not be at the front of the class teaching kindergarteners this type of information.”
Jenna Lee Leonard, past candidate for South Berwick school board, said: “Janet Mills’ school lockdowns hurt kids and parents, and now she’s pushing information like this on kindergarteners. I think Maine parents should know about this because I believe that these topics shouldn’t be taught to young kids by a teacher or at the behest of the Governor. It’s not right, and I urge all concerned parents and Mainers to keep this in mind when they vote in November.”
Haily Keezer, Hermon school board candidate and mom, said: “Janet Mills choosing to fund this project makes her agenda blatantly clear. To encourage the use of this material in our educational system is unacceptable, inappropriate and harmful! This situation shows why Maine parents need to have a voice in the room. After my voice was silenced, I decided to run for an open seat on the school board in the upcoming June election. I want to take an active role in ensuring we provide the best education to this and future generations. This taxpayer-funded video does not live up to those standards. These projects are flowing into the school curriculum, often without parents’ knowledge. Maine voters need to hear about this video and similar projects — and start asking questions. We must advocate for our innocent children! Join me in asking Janet Mills why she used our tax dollars to fund such inappropriate and damaging instruction to our children.”
“Now, you might have never heard that term before, LGBT. Well, let me tell you what it means. The L stands for the word lesbian. Lesbians are women who love other women. G stands for gay and gay men are men who love other men. B stands for bisexual and bisexual people are people who love both men and women. And the T stands for transgender. A transgender person is someone who the doctors made a mistake about when they were born. When a baby is born, the doctors will tell the parents what gender they think that baby is. They’ll say we think your child is a female or we think your child is a male. But some people, when they get a little bit older, realize what the doctor said was not right. They might say that the doctors told me I was a man but I’m really a woman or they might say the doctors told me I’m a woman but I’m really a man. And so, when they grow up and they can tell people that the doctors made a mistake about their gender, then they can transition to be the gender that they actually are.”
“…there are actually a lot of other people who love in ways that society hasn’t always allowed.”
