The Sad Mind of Charlie Webster

As election season winds down Maine things have gotten quieter but there is still news hear and there to be commented on.

State Republican Chairman Charlie Webster of Farmington seems determined to go slithering out of office with everyone thinking he is a crackpot. Two years ago Mr. Webster was concerned about college students committing voter fraud in large numbers. After his subsequent investigation, costing who knows how much, we saw no proof to justify his worries.

It should then have been no shock to see him yesterday claim an investigation was needed to look into " large numbers of unrecognizable black people who appeared to vote on election day"

When pressed as to where this took place Webster stated " in rural areas." I suppose it is possible that there was a concerted effort by out of state groups to ship in large numbers of black folks to vote in Maine, presumably to alter the state senate races and such. Anyone worth his salt knew far in advance that Obama's victory was not in doubt. Still it seems unlikely. A look at the Maine Senate races shows that for the most part Republicans win up north, were these the Republican races these black folks were tampering with.

The Maine Republican party has some fine folks in it. My guess is that several of the folks, such as Nichi Farnham who were voted out, will rue their strict allegiance to Governor LePage and hopefully make efforts to gain reelection at a different time. Maine needs a strong, rational, Republican party. Maine politics have never been in the extreme on the right or the left. Paul LePage's thirty nine percent election changed all that. We can hope for that to change.

One capable person the party has put in a position of power for the upcoming legislature is Ken Fredette of Newport. He is a fine, decent, man who is, while naturally conservative, fair minded and pragmatic. I expect that he will be a key delegate to this coming legislature accomplishing anything and having known him for twenty years I believe this is a name that we will be hearing and seeing for the next twenty years or more.

Certainly he would not be one to call incoming presumed Maine State Senate Leader Justin Alfond a socialist. Charlie Webster " we are NOT going to miss you. " It is clowns like you that give all politicians a bad name.