Voters in House District 38 (Brooks, Knox, Jackson, Monroe, Swanville, Thorndike, Unity, Waldo, and western Frankfort) have a clear choice for their State Representative to the Maine House.

Voters can choose Steve Ellis, who has the vision, knowledge and skills to make progress for all of us on the environment, accessible healthcare, affordable housing, good jobs with fair wages, and more.

Or they can choose extreme MAGA Republican Benjamin Hymes, who can only claim an alarming and consistent record constantly voting NO against dozens of bills that would benefit ALL Mainers and promote our good community values.

Steve Ellis is fully and unequivocally endorsed by Maine People’s Alliance, Maine Conservation Voters, Planned Parenthood of Maine, Maine Young Democrats, Maine Education Association, Equality Maine, Maine Service Employees Association (SEIU 1989), and Maine AFL- CIO.

Hymes, on the other hand, has received among the lowest ratings, including ZERO, from the following Maine organizations for his alarming and consistent record voting NO:

Maine People’s Alliance ranks Hymes as 93% unfavorable for his negative votes on 12 of 13 bills MPA considered important to Mainers, including voting NO on ALL these bills: income and corporate tax fairness, reforming the juvenile incarceration system, keeping prescription drugs affordable, taking steps to finally acknowledge Wabanaki tribal sovereignty over its criminal jurisdictions, drinking water & land regulations, and lastly Hymes voted NO (in a small minority) against a popular bipartisan bill banning bump stocks, which passed by a wide margin, but not enough to override the Governor’s veto.

Maine Conservation Voters ranks Hymes as 87% unfavorable on the bills it follows on our climate future. Hymes’s score would have been ZERO or 100% unfavorable on both MPA and MCV scorecards, save for his ONE vote in favor of a single bill, LD 2004 Restoring Access to Federal Benefits for Wabanaki Nations. He and Steve do agree on that one! 

AFL-CIO Maine labor unions ranks Hymes as ZERO or 100% unfavorable for his NO votes on fair wages for construction workers on state projects, paid family medical leave, and other worker protections.

Planned Parenthood of Maine ranks Hymes as 100% unfavorable for both 2023 and 2024. He voted against ALL the bills it considered critical to women’s healthcare.

Unique to Hymes however, is the bizarre Freedom Index, an extreme right-wing legislative scorecard sponsored by the shamefully infamous John Birch Society, whose scorecard was proudly and openly displayed on Hymes’ official legislative Facebook page, until it was mysteriously removed only after Steve Ellis chose to run against Hymes.

The Freedom Index, removed without explanation from Hymes’s official Facebook page, still questionably self-promoted as “based on the U.S. Constitution,” actually gives Hymes high scores on bills suppressing Constitutional freedoms. JBS is long known for its far-right extremism, blatant racism, mysogeny, antisemitism, and fringe conspiracy theories. JBS gives Hymes high marks for voting NO on campaign finance reform, NO on protecting medical doctors who offer reproductive health care to women, NO on increasing Maine’s minimum wage to $15, and NO on increasing access to energy saving rebates and grants, ironically rating Hymes 83% favorable!

Steve Ellis decided to run because he believes Mainers deserve a clear choice. If you also believe that Steve is the better choice, VOTE to ELECT Steve ELLIS on Tuesday Nov 5th to faithfully represent your best interest in the Maine House as your State Representative!

For more information.

Jeff Smith lives in Swanville

630 words
Submitted as an Op-Ed