Dear Editor:

Stephanie Hawke excels as a good citizen of the district she represents. I have known her for fifty years and think well of her as a person of energy and compassion. She is, though, in my view, a state legislator with a poor voting record.

Almost without exception, she has voted against protecting the environment, against limiting money in politics, against a sensible health insurance system for all Mainers, against Medicare coverage for reproductive care; she has also voted against the national vote interstate compact to make the United States a democracy in which the candidate who gets the most popular votes wins the presidential election; she has voted for everyone’s right to carry a concealed weapon without a permit. She opposes raising taxes, whatever the reason.

Her voting record lines up with those who oppose government regulation of almost any sort without rational regard for whether it is good or bad regulation. As far as I can tell, she has supported every one of Governor LePage’s legislative vetoes (some of which many Republicans opposed) and is always counted on in Augusta as a vote for LePage (who bought distressed property in Boothbay cheaply and has now flipped it for a profit, probably in preparation for his movement to his year-round tax-free Florida home).

You may want to vote for her because she is your neighbor, your friend, and a good citizen. But the voting record is what counts.

Fred Kaplan

Boothbay