When Shenna Bellows was in fifth grade, she took up the trombone because the man who brought the instruments to the classroom said girls don’t play trombone.

It turned out she didn’t have the height to reach the sixth position; but the same attitude toward doing things that others say are not done served her in the eight years she headed the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine. She worked to get Maine on board with marriage equality; reject driver's license rules tied to homeland security; and require a warrant before police see phone and email records. Much of her work crossed party lines to get an issue the support it needed to succeed.

Now the Hancock-raised Democrat is going for her first political office, starting big as the party's pick for the U.S. Senate seat that Susan Collins, R-Maine, wants for a fourth term in November. Bellows, 39, graduated Middlebury College in 1997, the year Collins began her first term.

Why would Maine swap out Collins for a newcomer to the beltway?

“We need new leadership. We’re not going to change the status quo by electing the same people and hoping for different results,” said Bellows, who walked 350 miles in Maine, in connection with her senate run.

“Right now we have record gridlock and obstructionism ... What I bring is fresh energy, courage, vision for how we confront these challenges, and experience building unusual coalitions to solve what people thought were impossible challenges.”

As she sees it, the win itself would be a first foothold in working toward the things she wants to get done.

“Upsetting an 18-year incumbent would be a feat worthy of respect in Washington,” Bellows said.

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Bellows sat for more than an hour with reporters and editors of the Boothbay Register, Penobscot Bay Pilot and Wiscasset Newspaper in the Register newsroom on Aug. 19.

She maintained that a first term doesn't translate to a lack of pull. Elizabeth Warren and Rand Paul are two of the senate's most powerful members, and two of the newest, she said.

The former Subway sandwich artist and Peace Corps volunteer wants to expand Social Security benefits, allow refinancing of high-interest student loans; hike the minimum wage, and scrap some of the mandates on public schools.

She also wants to legalize and tax recreational amounts of marijuana; get the country on renewable energy, including wind; and grow public transit.

Bellows acknowledged her opponent's “well-deserved” reputation for constituent services. But she said they have differed on Iraq (Bellows would have opposed the U.S. entering the war); and on women's issues like the paycheck equality bill Bellows said she would have passed.

She has thought a lot about which committees she would try to get on, including the judiciary, environment and public works, and appropriations committees.

Bellows said she is not out to build name recognition; she's in to win, and expressed confidence when talking about one factor that could help her get on those committees.

“Particularly for a small state, playing a role in budget … decisions (is) very important. And when I beat Susan Collins and Maine is the state that guarantees Democratic control of the United States Senate, I think there will be the ability serve in that way.”

On Iraq: Bellows supports a political path, not a military one, to end the crisis in Iraq. She called the rise of ISIS a direct result of the decision by President George W. Bush's administration to enter the Iraq War. “It created a vacuum of power ... I think it has cost us, by conservative estimates, over two trillion dollars.

“And we talk about investment in education, and we talk about investment in infrastructure, and those needs right here at home, and we have to make difficult choices. I don't think that the United States can afford to be the world's military policeman .... What we've seen is a decade of a military solution leading to increased chaos on the ground.” Instead, Bellows said she favors coalition-building with allies.

On energy and the environment: “We really need to build an energy policy that moves away from fossil fuels,” Bellows said.

She favors investing in solar, tidal and geothermal energy with input from the communities where it would be in place, even for the unorganized territories.

When asked about the prospects for wind power in Maine after recent attempts near the Midcoast have stalled, Bellows stressed the importance of community input and a transparent public process.

“And sometimes projects will be defeated and that will be OK. If we make sure that the conditions and competition (are) open and fair, I think that's how we move forward.”

Bellows supports strong standards on carbon emissions, and favors strengthening and expanding the use of rail and other public transit, such as commuter vans, with user fees to offset the cost to taxpayers.

“That can reduce the wear and tear on our roads and confront climate change in a small but important way.”

Public transit from Portland to Augusta and Bangor makes sense, she said.

On education: If it weren't for the good public schools she went to, she wouldn't be running for U.S. Senate, Bellows said. But public education has run into problems in the last couple of decades, partly due to No Child Left Behind, she said.

“We are in a vicious cycle of testing and austerity,” she said.

Bellows favors increasing federal aid to public schools, including in the area of early childhood education.

She is concerned that testing requirements and the Common Core are undermining public education.

“They are top-down mandates without top-down funding. I would repeal many of these and increase the federal funding to level the playing field because otherwise you're going to increase the burden on local property taxpayers and you're going to see increasing inequality among communities based on local ability to support the schools.”

On hospital consolidation: Bellows said preserving services in local communities, including hospitals, post offices and schools, is important to building strong local economies.

"Quite literally, if people ... have to go a half-hour or 45 minutes or more, depending on traffic, to get emergency services, then they could die." At the federal level, services are getting consolidated into the larger communities, she said.

"And rural communities are getting left behind. We’re not spending enough money on development of rural infrastructure .... Communities aren't asking for huge handouts. They're asking for some support."

On marijuana: “The lock 'em up and throw away the key approach has not worked,” she said. “We need to invest in prevention and we need a system of tax and regulation.”

“I think there is something fundamentally wrong in our country when the last three presidents publicly acknowledge recreational use of marijuana while our government is spending literally billions of dollars nationwide and incarcerating primarily young men, primarily young men of color, for the same offense.”

On Social Security: Bellows wants to remove the cap that keeps those who make more than $117,000 paying no more than others do into Social Security. That would help finance the cost-of-living increase, she said.

A woman who Bellows met in Madawamkeag told her that her social security check often doesn't last the month, so she puts off filling a prescription and has forgone house repairs. “She said in a very poignant way, 'I figure my house won't fall down before I die.'

“If we were to increase the social security benefits for her, she could hire that carpenter in Madawamkeag, then he could spend that money in the local community ... and we'd have an economic multiplier effect.”

On the minimum wage: Raising the minimum wage has not been shown to shutter small businesses, and paying workers more accomplishes a number of things, Bellows said in support of an increase. It would lessen the need for people to seek out taxpayer-funded assistance, she said; and it can mean lower turnover. A lot of Maine businesses already pay more then the minimum, she continued. 

“So raising the minimum wage, when you look nationally, I think would have the greatest impact on the Walmart’s and the McDonald’s of the world, and I think they can afford it.”

If Bellows loses her senate bid, she said she will keep trying to make the world a better place. The issues she wants to address are really important, she said. 

“That’s why I’m running. That’s why I walked across the state and that’s why I spend every day from when I wake up until I go to bed thinking about this campaign and working to win.”

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