Dear Editor:
 
I had the privilege of driving Rep. Holly Stover as she knocked on doors in South Bristol this week. The experience of riding and chatting informally with Holly and witnessing her interaction with voters only deepened my commitment to this champion of working people.
 
While I was familiar with the broad strokes of her resume – 23 years working within our state’s Health and Human Services agency, currently Executive Director of Lincoln County Dental, a small grassroots dental agency that delivers oral health services to those who need them most (and if you’ve ever had a toothache, you understand how critical dental health is to our mental well-being!) and also Program Director for a Boothbay peninsula-focused addiction outreach council – three hours of lively conversation as we drove from house to house to house only increased my appreciation of her work on behalf of me and my neighbors.
 
She’s done it all, from dealing with teens at the Lincoln County Group home to bathing elderly adults. She’s been spit on (literally, not figuratively) and she’s developed and helped to implement important state-wide programs that have helped hundreds, if not thousands of Mainers, navigate challenging journeys of substance abuse or difficult, even life-threatening health issues.
 
As we drove and talked I realized that, always, always, always Holly’s focus has been on making certain that the people of Maine, our neighbors, you, or me, have the best shot at making a decent – not an extravagant, not an unearned – but the best shot at making decent life for ourselves. And what more can any of us ask? Holly understands and works from the point of view that folks don’t need (and don’t want) a hand-out but that sometimes the best of us needs a “hand-up.”
 
I urge you to make certain you vote for Rep. Holly Stover in our upcoming June 14 primary election. We need her to continue her service to the people of the Midcoast and all of Maine in Augusta.

Geoff Bates

South Bristol