Dear Eliot Cutler: Please do the right thing.

I like you, I really do. I even voted for you in the last election. I share your frustration with the two-party system. Unfortunately, it is the only system we have to work with at the moment.

Now I’m not a political blogger. I leave all the heavy hitting facts and figures to my good friend Amy Fried. I’m more of a common sense blogger. I like to talk about that thing that everyone is thinking and no one else has the guts to say.

So, I’m here to ask you to do the right thing and please, bow out of this race.

I represent an important demographic in the State of Maine. I’ll call us the Cranky Middle-Aged Moms. Do not underestimate our influence! We may not be huge donors but we are faithful voters, passionate volunteers and the mothers of the generation that has been leaving Maine. Like all Mainers, we are hard-working and have spent years trying to just get by. Yet, we always found time to work hard for our state in one way or another.

In between raising the next generation of Maine citizens, we found time to coach baseball teams, to hold spaghetti supper fundraisers, and to stand in protest lines holdings signs! We took our kids with us when we gathered signatures, or campaigned for marriage equality. They joined us when we walked for cancer or MS or to remember the homeless. We took them with us to make meals at shelters and to clean up playgrounds.

We’ve worked hard Eliot to make our state, our home, a better place for them! We’ll be damned if we are going to sit by and watch them all move to Massachusetts for jobs while this state continues to circle the bowl.

Maine has a proud history of electing independent candidates! A lot of us left-leaning voters supported you in the last race. You were, by far the best candidate. This time around, however, the race has changed.

This time around, Mike Michaud is the strongest candidate. Cranky Middle-Aged Moms support Mike. He knows about hard work, he understands hard times and he’s worked tirelessly for this state. He has supported our veterans. Eliot, my son is a combat veteran. Mike has made real change to the VA system in Maine and because of him my son can get most of his services right in Bangor now.

Mike Michaud is the best choice for the 2014 gubernatorial race and he will have my support and my vote!

Now we can go back and forth about your ideas and his ideas. You both have some great ones! We can go back and forth about your similarities and your differences but honestly Eliot, we just don’t have time for this. Please don’t wait until the last-minute. We’ve got to join forces and focus on the real enemy here! We cannot continue to let the buffoon who won in the last election drag our state into the mud. You know this, I know this, we can all agree on this.

If you stay in this election and he wins, many of us will never, ever, dare to vote for another independent again. We simply won’t risk it.

If you do bow out, you will gain the respect and loyalty of many. You will, in fact, be a hero. Take that money you would have spent and donate it to a local charity. Take the time you’ll save and help us win this for Democrats, Greens, independents, progressives, moderates and fed-up Republicans. Help us save this state Eliot, and you’ll guarantee your overwhelming victory in the next race. Your time will come Eliot but the time is not now.

Now is the time to elect Mike Michaud as governor of the State of Maine! Join us Eliot, it’s the right thing to do!

Photo Credit: Jeff Kirlin

Photo Credit: Jeff Kirlin

Karen Foley

About Karen Foley

Karen Foley, has successfully been writing her blog for the BDN since May 2011. By successful, she means a few people read it, and she has not been sued, stalked or fired since starting it.