I want to tell you how Senator George Mitchell changed my life.

There I was, blithely sharpening my sword getting ready to vanquish Olympia Snowe. I was the first woman ever to announce against her. I was going to out-walk her, out-talk her, out-think her, and then sink her.

Mary, and Shawn, jumped in, too, and we had a nice little primary going there.

But just like that, things changed when Senator Mitchell found his love in the game of tennis.

Suddenly, Olympia Snowe is out of this race and into another, against my old boss, Tom Andrews. And I look around and count seven people in the primary.

I am delighted that Tom Andrews is running for the Senate. I worked for Tom Andrews last year, and I think we need more people like Tom in Washington. But I'll tell you, I miss Olympia Snowe. She is just such a wonderful target, and I was primed.

Tom is clearly the exception in the U.S. Congress. He thinks. He acts on principle.

And while he's been good to this state, he has never felt a need to waste one dime of federal money – our money – just so he could gain another vote in the next election.

Like Tom, I am not a tax-and-spend Democrat. I am dead serious about balancing the federal budget, because the interest payments on the national debt are lowering our standard of living. But we must make sure that we send to Congress someone with the right priorities. My priorities in balancing the federal budget are people and the planet.

We must remember the tale of King Midas. All the jobs in the world, all the military hardware, all the special corporate tax breaks, mean absolutely nothing if we can't breathe the air, can't drink the water, and can't eat the food because it's contaminated with chemicals.

Or if we can't hug our children because they've been shot and killed on the way to school.

I will not advocate the construction of new superhighways, at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, while roads and bridges we already have are falling apart and killing people.
We simply can't afford it.

And I will not vote to spend our hard-earned tax dollars to keep open military bases that the military says it no longer needs for a strong defense.
The military budget is for defense. It is not a jobs program.

If we want a jobs program, we should make a jobs program, call it a jobs program, and fund it as a jobs program.

People who have been watching this race know that I am a different kind of candidate. I say what I think, not what I think you want to hear. I call them as I see them.

My campaign is built on the cornerstones of respect for diversity, sustainability and common sense.

I believe in peace, and in the right of all peoples to live in peace. I think we are diminished as a nation when we consider our economic interests to be the only interests we have in our global community.

If our government won't link human rights issues to trade issues, we as citizens must do it ourselves, as we did in South Africa.

I believe in universal, single-payer, health care for all Americans, and if it's still waiting when I get there, I will sign on to the Wellstone-McDermott plan. When people are no longer tied to welfare or to jobs they hate, just because they need health care benefits, we will see an economic revitalization you will not believe.

I am 100 percent pro-choice – for all woman of all ages. Any national health care plan must include contraceptives, pre-natal care, and abortion services. And it must include preventive procedures such as mammograms – as often as a woman and her doctor deem necessary.

I am 100 percent in favor of gay rights, and I leafletted last fall in support of Equal Protection Lewiston. I think the ban on gays in the military is ridiculous.

I believe we must, as a free nation, know as much as possible about the candidates when we go to the polls.

I urge you to look closely at those who say they stand on their record, but then charge ''dirty politics'' when someone points to particular parts of that record.

My own political background has something in it that some in this room might consider off-color. That color is Green.

I am proud to be a Democrat, but, like most people in this state, I support the candidate who I think will do the best job. Usually, but not always, that candidate is a Democrat.

The best way to elect Democratic candidates is to make sure we have Democratic candidates that Democrats, Greens, independents, and even Republicans can support. In the state that gave Ross Perot 30 percent of the vote, and Jonathan Carter nine percent, if we insist on nominating someone who can only appeal to dyed-in-the-wool Democrats, we will lose this race to the Republicans.

I learned a lot the few months I worked with the Greens. One thing I learned was that, if I wanted to see some real progress on the national scene, the Green Party at this point in history is not the mechanism to make that happen.

On the heels of that experience, I went to work in Tom Andrews' office. Tom did not see my background as a problem, probably because many years ago he was a third-party activist himself. Maybe you didn't know that.

I am running my congressional campaign the way I as a voter have always wanted to see one run. I have gone after the issues. I have done my homework. I have talked to thousands of people across this district. I have drawn from my broad perspective as a newspaper reporter, my more focused perspective as a mother, and my humbling experience as a farmer.

The volunteers in my campaign have been incredible. Real down-to-earth people who have given of their time and expertise because they believe not only in me, but in our political process.
Letters, press releases, and things like the little newspaper I distributed here, were created by volunteers, on their own computers.

Our $400 used copier has come to respect the firm-but-gentle hand of a volunteer whom I met as she washed dishes at a potluck supper I attended at the H.O.M.E. co-op in Orland.

We've had hot-shot photographers donate their professional services. We've used volunteer time and equipment to make those oddball ads we've run on cable TV in Bangor, Lewiston and The County.

I'm the one with the talking horses, the one on my old Ford 8N farm tractor, the one standing in the manure pile, the one playing Lois Lane. If you haven't seen them, come on up to our hospitality room tonight at the Holiday Inn and we'll play them for you.

And Mary Falcone. She's one of those gray-panther types who keeps this party running, collecting signatures, doing the phone work.

And doing the buttons. As fast as we can cut out the circles, Mary is hauling on the handle of that button machine.

I think Mary Falcone and all the unsung volunteers like her on all of our campaigns, deserve our thanks.

I am not good at raising money. I don't have a large circle of wealthy friends. We burned out two volunteer fund raisers, and I have always agreed with those who feel there is something wrong with the way we finance political campaigns. But when the funds ran low, I had to make a decision.

I applied for my home equity loan the day after I saw the film ''Shindler's List.'' At the end of the movie, I was struck by Shindler's lament that if he only had a little more money, he could have saved one more person.

It was then that I realized that mortgaging my farm – even though it would be too late to plant should I lose this election – was something I had to do. Because if I didn't, I would always wonder if I had traded off my own personal security for the real chance to make this world a safer and healthier place for us all.

It was not a step I took lightly. But it was my commitment to the cause of changing the world for the better, and a statement about how seriously I view the problem.

So here I am on the stage at the Augusta Civic Center, speaking to the Democratic convention, hoping you will see why, of all the seven Democratic candidates on the ballot, you should get aboard my band wagon – or, if you prefer – my Hay wagon.

Respect for diversity, sustainability, common sense. By making our party diverse, we make it sustainable. With our party strong, we can begin the real work of making our schools and our towns, our state and our country, and our world, a better place to be.

I'm asking for your help now, so I can help you later, to get that important job done.
Thank you.
 

– MUSIC: Take the Hay Train
(With apologies to the Count Basie Orchestra)