I met Jonathan Fulford decades ago on a bus to Washington, D.C., to try to stop the Gulf war. I had left a career designing and marketing military electronics after learning first-hand the horror of war. Our conversations focused on how to build a sustainable society.

Jonathan Fulford has the ethics, vision and temperament to replace the out-of-place, out-of-time Mike Thibodeau who scored a rating of 25 percent with the League of Conservation Voters, 0 percent with AFL-CIO, and 100 percent with Maine's Right to Life Committee.

I'll buy one of the snow shovels Mike Thibodeau manufactures in Maine to see if it can make it through a season, but I don't buy his antiquated ideas about controlling women's bodies, and his cut and run conservatism. I was raised conservative, but in my family it had a different meaning than Thibodeau's conservatism.

First, conservatism meant getting government out of our bedrooms. Thibodeau thinks he should decide who you can marry and how a women controls her fertility. How can a man think he has anything to say about a women's decision on when to bring another life to earth? Fulford's clear respect for women's reproductive freedoms and LGBT rights demonstrates not only an understanding of basic civil liberties, but also a commitment to get government out of our bedrooms!

Second, conservatism meant conserving nature – the "Way Life Should Be." Sure, with Thibodeau, we could keep Maine "Open for Every (Dirty) Business," send our forests up the smoke stacks to generate a bit more cheap dirty power, and offer our rivers and air as receivers of toxic industrial outputs, but Maine deserves better. Jonathan has been investigating the back room plans to run fracked gas pipelines through Maine, and he fights for renewable and clean energy alternatives that will deliver more dignified work to citizens.

This past weekend at the Common Ground Fair I had to pinch myself, feeling so fortunate to be raising a family in Waldo County. I don't think there is another event of this scale in the world that features organic and sustainable ways of life. There is a new crop of young wholesome, fiddle-playing organic farmers taking the place of massive smelly chicken houses that delivered life in a trailer and guts in the river.

There are people coming to hike, bike, boat and enjoy the beauty of Waldo County while they spend some money in local businesses. And when they leave, we still have a great organic quality of life.

Fulford has been living this organic lifestyle since I met him nearly two decades ago. This new life resonates with even more than the estimated 60,000 fairgoers. Maine's beauty deserves Fulford in the State Senate— I just wish he'd run for Governor.

Jim Merkel lives in Belfast