The Races - Rosa Scarcelli

This Democratic candidate has made accessing her website easier than the other candidates not on the Republican ticket (Alex Hammer, I mean you!). Here is the link to her issues page: http://www.rosaformaine.com/splash/Issues

Now, some say the colors are bold, and indeed they are. However, who cares? On to the actual issues. Lets take an excerpt:

State government can’t create jobs, but we can create a climate for businesses to grow and expand – and support the businesses that are the backbone of Maine. We do that by continuing recent efforts to make our tax rates more attractive, and by making state government more cost effective and efficient in order to have the needed resources to make strategic investments in education, workforce development, health care, transportation and alternative energy to lower our heating costs for homes and businesses.

Excerpt over. That is the clarity I have been looking for in a candidate. Knowing the limits, but also giving a plan (tax rates lower, better government) and what to do with the gains made by that plan. All in one paragraph. However, the detail I've been looking for is lacking.

I want to be clear, this is not perfect. However, it condensed the big thinking and philosophy other candidates always have, into a single paragraph. She continues:

We can offer the world what no other state can. That means focusing on our natural resources. We can embrace and revive our great traditions in wood and wood products, boatbuilding, agriculture, seafood, and recreation – but do it smarter and better than in the past, with new technologies, new products and new techniques.

Excerpt ceased. We have plenty of trees, but I doubt we can revitalize our logging industry to compete with Brazil. Otherwise this is a good statement. If only it had details. Her website lacks even facts to support having knowledge of the current situation in Maine.

The education segment and healthcare segment lack details and make a good speech. It however only gives a philosophy to a solution that isn't complete.

She does urge energy independance through weatherization. Otherwise she has little plans other than proposing green energy solutions. This could be hamsters on a wheel or solar energy, she just doesn't say.

Then a twist. She urges the promotion of eating locally grown foods and increasing farm production (and thus jobs, while using less energy transporting it.) This is the first I've heard of making the growth of farming in Maine as an issue of its own. She finishes by giving the clean air, water, earth line of every politician since "The Jungle".

Note: Still searching for other candidates websites. I check once a week. If it doesn't exist with an issues page, I don't bother. To Alex Hammer: give up already. You are the Al Gore of Maine's governor elections.