Mehnert
to challenge Snowe for Senate seat Former New Gloucester resident
By Patti Mikkelsen
Gray -- The Cumberland County Democratic Committee
held its January meeting at Stimson Hall in Gray.
The featured speaker was Eric Mehnert who is running
for the U.S. Senate, one of two Democratic candidates
hoping to unseat Olympia Snowe in November.
Mr. Mehnert, who is a civil rights lawyer, delivered
a brief address on his background and reasons for
running for this office. He is dissatisfied with Senator
Snowe's voting record in Congress, stating that she
has voted in favor of Bush administration policies
82% of the time. Mr. Mehnert is opposed to the confirmation
of Samuel Alito, fearing that our Maine senators are
very likely to vote in favor of confirming this very
conservative judge to the U.S. Supreme Court.
As for background information excerpted from his web
site, Mr. Mehnert is a 1982 graduate of Colby College.
While in college, he worked in Senator Edmund Muskie's
office and was a member of the National Field Staff
coordinating the final push to the primaries in Maine,
NH, Illinois, PA, NY and Nebraska.
Most recently, Mr. Mehnert worked as Regional Coordinator
for the Kerry Presidential Campaign's Voter Protection
Project in Ohio. He served as a delegate to the Maine
Democratic Convention for several years. Right,
U.S. Senate candidate Eric Mehnert was the featured
speaker at a recent Cumberland County Democratic Committee
meeting at Stimson Hall in Gray. Photo by Patti Mikkelsen
For local interest, he and his family lived in New
Gloucester several years ago, where he was the town's
Democratic Committee Chair.
Mr. Mehnert and his wife of 21 years, who is also
an attorney who graduated from Colby College, have
a law practice in Bangor and reside in Orono. They
have a 14 year-old daughter and 11 year-old son. Family
recreation includes skiing, hiking, hunting and fly
fishing.
If elected, Mr. Mehnert said he would initiate policies
to strengthen and protect the employees and owners
of small businesses, while fighting the excesses of
corporate greed; promote learning opportunities and
training programs for all Maine citizens; protect
our coastline and working waterfront; develop a progressive
environmental program; commit to a strong defense
policy, ensuring that our troops are deployed only
for legitimate national security and humanitarian
issues; and explore renewable and alternative sources
of energy.
The Cumberland County Democratic Committee holds its
monthly meetings in various towns to include all geographic
regions within the county. The circuit will swing
back up to this area on Sunday, April 9th for its
monthly meeting in New Gloucester. Mike Cuzzi, Tom
Allen's campaign manager, will be the featured speaker.
More details to come in a future issue.
