Following up on my initial story, speculating that former Democrat challenger to Olympia Snowe Jean Hay Bright may enter the race for Maine’s 2nd congressional district, this afternoon I received a response to my original inquiry from Hay Bright.

In her extremely thoughtful response, she expressed to me her thought process about everything – ranging from her defection from the Maine Democratic Party, to her feelings about several key issues facing the state and the nation, to the possibility of her entry into the race.

Long story short, Hay Bright says she will have to do some serious thinking on the implications of her entering the race, but that it is in fact a possibility.  Judging from her tone and language, I would certainly hesitate to say “she’s in”, but I think it is pretty clear that she is or will be “seriously thinking about it”.

Whether that thinking will translate into an actual run for congress is far too early to tell, and is at this point anybody’s guess.

Here is her response to me, reprinted with permission:

Matt,

Your email came in yesterday as my husband and I were taking advantage of the warm, suddenly sunny weather to work on the new woodshed addition to our house. By the time I checked my email several hours later, you had already posted your article.

Since then, I have been trying to figure out who your “birdie” may be, since my defection from the party was not connected, even in my own mind, to launching a political campaign for any office, let alone that specific one. The conclusion I came to is that the prospect of me being a 2nd CD candidate is wishful thinking on the part of Jason Levesque and/or the Maine Republican Party. FYI, your email was followed in short order by a note from one of our Dixmont neighbors, Scott Fish, editor of As Maine Goes, telling me that the prospect of a three-way race was making at least one Democratic Party operative nervous. I know not whether that nervousness was a reaction to your posted rumor, or whether they were talking to the same “birdie.”

Frankly, I was surprised, and a bit flattered, by all the attention. Three years out from my last race, which most political analysts described as a “wipe-out,” I did not expect that strong of a reaction from any quarter. But, that being said, I have to compliment you — your analysis of the dynamic that a three-way 2nd CD race would set up was point-on.

Stepping back, I need to expand upon my decision to leave the Democratic Party. It was not done in a fit of anger, but more with a sense of sadness that the political party that I joined decades ago because I thought it shared my values and hopes for America had, bit by bit, in small ways and large, violated the trust I had placed in it. With “Democrats” now holding the White House and making up majorities in both Houses of Congress, it is inexcusable that single-payer health care was taken off the table. Inexcusable that we can’t “look back” and hold any members of the Bush Administration accountable for any number of gross human rights violations. Inexcusable that a few loud-mouths at August town meetings around the country could derail real health care reform. Inexcusable that we are still “fighting” two incredibly expensive wars of choice against a nefarious and undefined “enemy” at a time when we desperately need that money and those resources to help rebuild America.

Apparently I am not alone in my sadness. Rob Kall, an editor at OpEdNews.com, wrote this week about one survey report that 40 percent of Democrats intend to sit out the next election. That’s a high level of disillusionment that will have far-reaching consequences. On the other hand, if no candidate matches your world view, or even when they say they do and you find out too late that they lied to you, why bother going through the motions?

The quote “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference,” attributed to Elie Wiesel, is at play here.

Many people in the lower echelons of the Maine Democratic Party are wonderful, sincere, hard-working folks who, like me, have or had high hopes for a better America, and worked hard to elect leaders of that party, toward the goal of seeing those hopes realized. It was a pleasure to work with them in all of my campaigns over the years (including primary runs for 2nd CD in 1994 and U.S. Senate in 1996).

But I’ve learned the hard way that the upper echelons of the Democratic Party, both in Maine and nationally, are a different matter. I do not hate the Democrats in power. I just know I can’t trust them anymore. I can’t trust them to function as responsible adults, to do what is best for the country. They, all the way up to President Obama, have demonstrated they do not deserve my trust. And I am greatly saddened by that realization.

Obviously, while I can no longer tolerate the dithering of the Democrats, the Republican outrages are even worse. Their push to bring down the Obama administration, even if that means the destruction of America, is very troubling, and is not something that can be tolerated or ignored. But how does one go about countering the rants of Limbaugh, Beck and O’Reilly, and the deliberately misplaced focus of the mainstream media — this week on party crashers and Tiger Woods instead of exploring the deep national controversy around a major escalation of an unnecessary and costly war?

The United States of America is not in a good place politically, and I frankly worry about it long-term viability.

Back to my non-party status. The path toward my departure from the Democratic Party has been building for years from a foundation of disappointments and counterproductive behaviors by Democrats in authority toward other candidates (some D’s, some not) who shared my world view — Ralph Nader, Dennis Kucinich, Herb Hoffman, Ned Lamont (CT), Chuck Pennachio (Pa), to name a few. In 2006, I was one of those candidates. I don’t know if you read OpEdNews.com, but you should. Here is what it’s editor Rob Kall had to say Dec. 1, posted before the President’s speech, about the Democratic Party betrayal:
Unfortunately, some of the leaders in congress didn’t trust we the people. Rahm Emanuel, Chuck Schumer, Hillary Clinton, Harry Reid– conservative, right wing Democrats sabotaged the campaigns of real, liberal Democrats and funded Blue Dog conservatives with figure grants in primaries. Now, the congressional democrats have been hobbled, their power drastically decreased, made impotent, by right wing faux Democrats who actually serve the other side….

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Failure-to-Embrace-Power–by-Rob-Kall-091201-583.html

In 2006, I was among those “real, liberal Democrats” across the country whose campaigns were sabotaged by the Democratic Party hierarchy. In my case Sen. Chuck Schumer, who was then head of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, led the charge. No financial support, no phone calls returned (despite direct pleas from John Baldacci and Mike Michaud), not even an email blast to their list mentioning my campaign. A stunning hint of what was to come was when the DSCC posted Olympia Snowe’s name and contact information on its national web page in 2005, but posted absolutely no information about Maine’s primary, or about me as their official nominee running against Snowe, until about two months before the November 2006 vote.

I have to say, with my defection, I am finding a newfound freedom. I don’t have to waste any of my time trying to figure out why the Democrats are doing all those irresponsible things. I don’t have to try to understand their convoluted explanations, or figure out excuses for them. They have no excuses for their actions. They are who they are, and they will continue to do what they are doing. But I don’t have to continue to be an enabler. I have extracted myself from that politically co-dependent relationship. It’s not total indifference, but it’s close.

Dawn Gagnon, the BDN reporter (any relation?) asked me if I knew any other Democrats who were pulling their party registrations as a result of the President’s speech on Afghanistan. I know of none, mine was a solitary decision. But that might be a question you can put to Secretary of State Matt Dunlap, who maintains the statewide voter list. What were the enrollment numbers for Democrats on Dec. 1 in Maine, and what will those numbers be by the end of the year? Will I be the sole departee, or, like the 100th monkey phenomenon, will lots of Democrats spontaneously come to the same conclusion I did?

Which leads us finally to the real question behind your query. What, if anything, is next for me? The answer is — I haven’t figured that out. Any next step I might take, if there is one, was not part of my decision on what my ultimate tipping point would be in my relationship with the politically dysfunctional organization that is the Democratic Party.

I’m a full-time organic farmer now, planning for a reduced planting season next year because hubby David Bright will be busy elsewhere. I don’t know if you are aware, but he’s campaign manager for Lynne Williams’ run for governor as a Green Independent, and that campaign is shaping up nicely.

So, presented with your scenario, and agreeing with your posted analysis, apparently I have to decide if it is worth my time and effort to present a progressive alternative to voters in the very conservative 2nd CD against a Blue Dog Democrat whom I happen to personally like, in what would in all probability be a losing effort. My candidacy in such a race would give progressives a “none of the above” choice, a validated way to register their electoral sentiments. It might even prompt a few of them to vote in an election they might otherwise skip. But is that enough of a reason to turn my life upside down next year?

Let me think on that.

In any case, thanks for asking.

jean

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