LCRC Chair Patty Minerich opened the May 22 meeting at the Wiscasset Community Center to a full house of over 60 attendees with the introduction of our first guest speaker. Representative Heidi Sampson the Ranking Member of the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee, with decades of experience in child education. She started her address by noting that a generation ago, Maine was a leader in education and that performance has been declining to a point that we are at or near the bottom in the performance of our students. Legislators and educators have taken a proactive role in introducing changes to our systems starting with Common Core, then followed by Critical Race Theory (CRT), and more recently emphasis on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Changes are coming into the system on an almost annual basis and, according to Sampson, are a textbook of what not to do. 

“One national measurement puts our kids at the very bottom of the other states and DC with a rank of 51st. Maine also often changes their testing making it difficult to compare year over year and now are using grade inflation to ‘pass them and get them out of the system,’” said Sampshon. It gets worse, not only are children failing reading, writing, and arithmetic, our educators are now taking special interest in the sexuality of students at the expense of traditional learning. The result is our children are not prepared for either higher learning or the workforce, but rather, are unhappy, frightened, and confused. In the 2021 Integrated Youth Health Survey (MIYHS), 27.2% of those polled identify themselves as other than heterosexual and 48.1% of females describe themselves as feeling hopeless. She went on to note that 77% of voters in a Maine poll want to go back to the basics, reading, writing, math, science, history etc. She finished by saying constitutionally, parents, through School Boards, have the power to change this. Nothing ceded parent’s rights to either the Federal or State Governments. Both are claiming rights they do not have. It is time to step up and save our children. The next speaker was then introduced.

Ron Russell, running in the Congressional District 1 primary to challenge Shelly Pingree then spoke. He was born and raised in Aroostook County, the son of a potato farmer. Working on farms he learned the value of hard work and honest labor. He graduated from West Point as a commissioned officer, was a Ranger and Special Forces Green Beret. After thirty years of service, he retired from the army and started a successful small business. He lives very close to the Canadian border and noted that recently a surprising number of Romanians and Chinese have been caught crossing our border. He considers our open borders a national security risk that should be stopped immediately. He believes our U.S. energy policy is forcing Europe to depend on Russia gas and that weakens the EU and the free world. He believes we should stop subsidizing illegal immigration.  He supports our freedoms as stated in the Constitution including the Second Amendment. He believes both our military and young people are weaker, not stronger, due to CRT and DEI and we must get back to the basics in both our education system and military. In closing he noted that our country is struggling economically, our people are struggling to get by, and the U.S. is facing multiple military challenges. Congress will be making important decisions.  He believes his decades of military service around the world and his start-up and sale of a successful business have given him knowledge and insight that is badly needed in Washington.

Pam Felice spoke about the Maine Voter I.D. initiative. Voter I.D. is almost a universal requirement around the world and is required by all countries in the European Union. She believes the requirement will protect our elections from fraud and give the voters more confidence that their vote will count.

Our candidates then spoke, Bill Hunt is running for House District 48, a seat currently held by Holly Stover. Mary Lou Daxland is running for House District 46, a seat currently held by Lydia Crafts and Congressman Ed Polewarczyk, House District 47 running as the incumbent. Ed serves on the Education Committee and notes that neither our students nor their parents are being well served by our Democratically controlled legislature. The necessary change will not happen in Augusta until representatives voting against change are replaced.

At the meeting closing, Minerich reminded all that local elections will take place on June 11 and to make sure to vote. She then announced the Lincoln County Republican Headquarters, located at 241 U.S. Route 1, Damariscotta, near N.C. Hunt Kitchen and Bathroom Showroom, will soon be open Thursday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Information is available on lincolncountyrepublicans.org website.