Dear Editor:

I’m a resident of Wiscasset; House District 87. I have a STEM background, an undergraduate degree in chemistry, and an MBA; I’m an “old white guy,” two children, middle class, generally conservative. In many ways I fit a classic American Republican profile to a tee, and I am in fact a registered Republican.

For the better part of this decade I’ve watched Maine, along with a significant (but not majority) part of the national body politic drift in a direction I can’t quite wrap my head around. Reasonable, constructive and resolution-oriented discourse has become dogmatic posturing. Somehow the lowering of all taxes under all circumstances has displaced the maintenance of civil infrastructure, public education, and reasonably available health care as a political imperative. Look around and pay attention to see the results of that shift, and the real cost to the long-term well-being of the working and middle classes. Shockingly, parochial views and political agendas are similarly displacing sound scientifically-based processes in political, economic, and social contexts. I’ve come to wonder what the next step backward could possibly be, and I’m sorry to say I’m consistently disappointed. I want to reverse this decline so my children will have a better world to live in than the one we’re evolving into.

I want to see a change. The way for citizens to effect personal change is through their own actions. The way to effect political change is to vote. In House District 87, my choice is between a Republican incumbent who has consistently voted in a manner that has produced the circumstances we’re in today, and Jason Putnam, a new (but not inexperienced) face in Maine politics. I’ve known him for a number of years; Jason and I work out together at a local fitness facility, and we’ve had many long conversations over a range of topics, many political. It’s clear to me that he’s fiscally conservative, very concerned with public education, and centrist in most respects. In my opinion, he’s a far superior choice for my District than the incumbent. I don’t want any more of the same; I’ve had enough. This Republican is voting for Jason Putnam in November.

James R. Crowley

Wiscasset