Maine Senate: Mod Fraud Declawed? Bellows Fire And Our Match

A generous Blue America supporter who matched contributions to Maine US Senate Democratic nominee Shenna Bellows in this year’s first quarter, is back again to match the first $1,000 contributed to Bellows through the our ActBlue page between now and Monday night at midnight.

This supporter says "with Bellows’ fire making Collins’ sweat, the least I can do is offer another match," and goes on to highlight the following evidence of Collins’ sweat and Bellows’ fire:

Mainstream media-labeled "moderate" Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine has "evolved" more in the last 12 weeks than in her prior 18 years in the Senate, on:

•        Marriage equality
•        CIA torture disclosures,


and faking compromises more energetically than usual on

•         Minimum wage

Collins repositioning on the above issues is too little and too late, and is so transparently linked to obtaining re-election endorsements that it goes beyond "transactional" into the realm of "mercenary."

That linkage clarifies that Collins is sweating under heat and light generated by the energetic Progressive and "Civil Libertarian" campaign of Democratic nominee Shenna Bellows. In Maine they are calling this the "Shenna Effect."

Collins says she is simply following the logic of her own "moderate" compass-- the same one that, for 18 years, caused her to evolve:

•         from “moderately” enabling Bob Dole to obstruct President Bill Clinton,
•         all the way to “moderately” enabling Mitch McConnell to obstruct President Barack Obama
-- both of whom won Maine’s Presidential votes.

Collins’ moderation (and Collins’ popularity) never matched that of now-retired Maine Senator Olympia Snowe. The last two Democratic challengers to Collins, the “Mod Fraud,” got clawed-- but Shenna Bellows has made a good start to de-clawing Collins, and exposing her as a "Paper Tiger."

It is no coincidence that Democrats who depended on Tea Partiers to push Snowe into retirement then lost Snowe’s seat to the Independent Angus King in a 3-way race. Moving a seat from the Republican to the Democratic column entails heavy lifting of the type that Shenna Bellows is doing now.

At this rate, before the November election, Collins may evolve on many more major issues, to preserve an appearance of moderation on:

•         Bellows’ signature civil-libertarianism, which is encouraging many Maine Libertarians to consider casting their first-ever votes for a Democrat, and
•         Healthcare, on which Collins has so far evolved even less that Mitch McConnell from the failed arguments in their joint lawsuit to invalidate the Affordable Care Act including its Medicaid expansion.

…but Collins has a history of swerving back into the Republican embrace after being re-elected.

For real progress, Maine and the nation both need to see Shenna Bellows keep shining light and heat on Collins’:

•         unprincipled positioning,
•         favors owed and repaid to big money contributors, and
•         enabling of Mitch McConnell, along with endangered Maine Republican Tea Party (39% 3-way election mandate) Governor Paul LePage, and other Republicans, such as Mitt Romney and John McCain, whom Maine voters have seen through and voted against.

Shenna Bellows is already having an "effect" on the US Senate by pressuring Collins. If we provide the financial resources to continue expanding her exceptionally principled, energetic and well-organized campaign, and to complement her retail campaigning with advertisements in Maine’s low cost television and radio market, then Shenna Bellows can:

•         bring us even closer to a solidly Blue (and regionally cooperating) New England,
•         send a message that voters will penalize “moderate” enabling of CIA and NSA abuses, and
•         shake up the Senate and the nation in the manner of Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Again, help activate the $1,000 match by contributing whatever you can right here on our ActBlue page. And, remember, there's no contribution that's too small. In grassroots campaigns like this, they all add up.

Who Will Protect Us From The NSA If Not Congress?

The new letter to Blue America members earlier today is all about electing a progressive U.S. Senator in Maine, Shenna Bellows. If you contribute to Shenna, or any Blue America candidate-- any amount-- you'll be a member too… and you'll get the e-mail blasts long before they're up on our blogs. Overall, we see Shenna as a fearless and proven fighter, someone of the calibre of Elizabeth Warren. Her big issues can be summarized into 5 easy categories that she has consistently brought up to us as we've gotten to know her:

• Restoration of our constitutional freedoms, particularly in the areas of criminal justice, LGBT rights, privacy, and reproductive freedom
• Poverty reduction, a fairer tax system, protection and strengthening of the social safety net, and corporate accountability
• Democracy building, including campaign finance reform and voting rights
• Public education and reduction of our student debt
• Environmental protection and addressing climate change

This blast we sent out is titled:

Maine Senate: Bellows Messages How Loud? Amplifying Early Contributions

Most or all of the following messages can be delivered by Maine U.S. Senate candidate Shenna Bellows with our urgent support:

1. ...that a low-income public-interest-salaried carpenter’s (and nurse’s) daughter, who achieved a $50,000 fundraising target before recently declaring her candidacy against a “millionaire incumbent” with more than $2 million in cash on hand, can quickly raise enough small contributions from Progressive donors to prove her viability.

2. …that incumbent Susan Collins’ quickly discredited public assertion, that the NSA’s phone data collection program "has defeated and thwarted dozens and dozens of terror plots both here and overseas," has created a new crack in the armor of Collins’ “carefully crafted reputation as a moderate conservative.”

3. …that Shenna Bellows’ experience spending the past 8 years protecting civil liberties and building coalitions as executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine has equipped her with the credibility and skills for campaigning and legislating “to repeal the Patriot Act, to stop NSA surveillance on ordinary Americans and to halt indefinite detention[s]” and the “war on drugs”, reminiscent of Senator Elizabeth Warren’s credibility and skills in addressing banks’ fraud, impunity and consumer victimization.

4. …that a coalition of Independents, Libertarians, Democrats and many Republicans in the fishing ports, forests and mountains of America’s Northeast frontier can join together to defend privacy and liberty from abusive security-intelligence bureaucracies, especially in support of a candidate like Shenna Bellows, to whom “Many libertarians have warmed up”, because of “issues such as the drone legislation,” against what one “Libertarian-leaning Republican” describes as “the totalitarian stances of a woman [Collins] who has refused to take a courageous stand against a number of tyrannical pieces of legislation.”

5. …that the 99% can and will use their votes to demand and achieve not only corporate accountability, fairer taxes and economic safety nets, but also a protected and preserved natural environment, especially in this very rural state were everybody can see the deepening impact of climate change.

6. …that, when national media attention is drawn to a small state, to cover the story of Maine’s likely first-ever election of an openly Gay candidate for Governor of any state in the U.S., this attention can benefit other local candidates -- especially one like Shenna Bellows, who was a leader of Maine’s successful effort to pass 2009 legislation, and then to pass a 2012 state referendum, recognizing same-sex marriages.  (This recognition is still opposed by incumbent Senator Collins, who is evolving too little and too late to catch up with Maine’s voters on LGBT rights.)

7. …that Maine’s electorate will continue trending more Democratic, populist and potentially Progressive after its overwhelming vote to restore same-day voter registration by overturning recent Republican legislation, at the end of a campaign co-chaired by Shenna Bellows.

8. …that Maine’s expanded pool of registered voters will reward energetic personal campaigning, like Shenna Bellows’ campaign activities in each of Maine’s 16 counties within her first week of campaigning, and her intention to continue an intense pace, which will be hard to match for Collins, whose appetite for the campaign trail could be reduced by her age (61 next month) and her recent (first) marriage.

9. …that voters appreciate candidates who remain close to the state they represent, more than Senators who become primarily residents of Washington DC, like Collins, who recently married a long-time DC-resident consultant-lobbyist and former advisor/employee of Republican politicians Lisa Murkowski, Fred Thompson, and-- as national manager of presidential campaign-- Elizabeth Dole, in contrast with Shenna Bellows, whose husband works as Schools and Curriculum Coordinator of the Civil Rights Team Project of the Office of the Maine Attorney General.

10. …that 18 years is long enough and 24 years is too long in the Senate, especially for a candidate like Susan Collins who previously promised to serve no more than 12 years.

  11. …that "Phony Moderate Insider" incumbents need to worry about the risk of being defeated by challengers from their Left, especially in alliances with outsiders, in the same way they already worry about challengers from their Right.

12. …that Maine voters’ 2012 replacement of Snowe with Democratic-caucusing Independent Angus King has not prevented continuing emergence of a trend towards Democratic policy preferences, which must eventually result in mainly electing Democratic candidates.

  13. …that young Progressive challengers to entrenched Republican incumbents (who have beaten or deterred challenges from older established Democratic and Independent politicians) can accelerate generational turnover, and can acquire the campaigning and governing experience needed to become future national leaders.

Impressed? Shenna's the real thing. Please contribute what you can, here, through ActBlue.

Two Great American Authors Come Out For Shenna Bellows

Yesterday Marianne Williamson endorsed Shenna Bellows for the U.S. Senate seat occupied by Susan Collins. "We desperately need candidates who carry the banner of new possibilities for America,” she wrote to her supporters, “and we need to support them in every way possible when they appear. Shenna Bellows represents such a banner. Let's help her get to Washington, so she can do the things we want to see done there." There were 5 specific points Marianne seemed most enthusiastic about after meeting personally with Shenna.

• As Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine for eight years, Shenna Bellows built strong coalitions of Independents, Republicans, Democrats and Green Party members alike to advance civil rights and civil liberties protections.  She worked successfully to block legislation that would have infringed upon our constitutional freedoms.


• Shenna has been a widely recognized leader in the fight against the unchecked and unmonitored use of drones to spy on ordinary Americans. She has led the charge against warrantless drone surveillance in Maine and successfully blocked efforts to invade our privacy.


• During the national debate over U.S. involvement in Iraq and Syria, Shenna was one of the only voices to publicly criticize President Obama's plan for the use of air strikes. Shenna believes the path to lasting peace and security lies in strong coalition building and a more targeted and thoughtful approach to our foreign policy.

• Shenna has vowed to make repeal of the Patriot Act one of her first missions as a U.S. Senator, believing that this law has been an unprecedented attack on Americans' freedoms as part of a misguided war on terror that has succeeded only in making us less safe while threatening our privacy in the name of false security.


• The National Security Agency has wasted billions of dollars of taxpayer money spying on the American public. Shenna has been an outspoken critic of the massive surveillance-industrial complex that has threatened our civil liberties again and again by scooping up email communications, text messages and phone data of millions of innocent Americans. Shenna will continue her work to dismantle the outsized powers of the NSA and restore our freedoms and privacy.

The video just above, though, is not Marianne, but another author… it’s probably the best-known Mainer living today— yes, better known even than Patrick Dempsey: Stephen King. He cut a TV ad for Shenna’s campaign. King was born in Portland, lives in Bangor and has sold more than 350 million books. Many of his books and films were set in Maine or inspired by Maine. In May he wrote an OpEd for the Bangor Daily News, For this lifetime Mainer, Bellows is the clear choice. He pointed out that Collins “is considered a moderate who compromises a lot. Sounds good, but when it comes down to casting votes that serve Mainers, she always seems to end up with her Republican colleagues, led by Mitch McConnell— the hardline block that shut down the government last year and has since neglected many urgent issues (including better care for our veterans) in a near maniacal effort to repeal an Affordable Care Act that is already working.”

Collins supports the Patriot Act, and has repeatedly voted for its renewal. She has repeatedly voted to authorize (and legalize) NSA spying. Shenna Bellows advocates repeal of the Patriot Act, and so do I. Obviously we need to keep an eye out for terrorists on American soil, but in the age of drones and mega-surveillance, it’s way past time to restructure this thing. And although Collins claims the NSA spying program is fair, it looks to me too much like a doorway to that world George Orwell wrote about in 1984.

Bellows supports raising the minimum wage. Collins opposes it, which makes me roll my eyes in exasperation. A $10.10 per hour wage in an America where gasoline costs $3.65 a gallon— and where a great many Maine workers have to travel long distances to their place of employment— seems fair to me. The idea that 10 bucks an hour will flatten the economy is basically an idea promulgated by rich greedheads who don’t want to pony up what’s fair to hard workers who are struggling to make ends meet.

Collins supports the Keystone Pipeline. This just makes me sigh, but not because of the pipeline per se. It’s where it comes from. This is tar sands oil, and according to the National Wildlife Federation, it’s “one of the dirtiest, costliest, and most destructive fuels in the world.” It lays waste to fragile ecosystems, emits more of the pollutants associated with global warming when burned, and creates lake-sized reservoirs of toxic waste. It’s a lethally short-sighted quick fix, and the supporters of the Keystone are its enablers.

Bellows believes that genetically modified foods (known as GMOs, and called “Frankenfoods” in my house, but that’s just us) should be labeled. In 2013, Collins voted against a law that would have mandated labeling these modified products, more or less turning her back on all the organic farmers here in Maine who were in favor.

I could go on. Collins voted against the Paycheck Fairness Act, mandating that women get equal pay for equal work (and you thought Lincoln freed the slaves). She voted for the Iraq war, and OMG, what a horrible idea that was. Her personal views on same-sex marriage are unclear to me, while Bellows is frank and up-front on the subject, stating her belief that gay folks should have the same rights under the law as straight folks (and the same responsibilities, of course).

Collins has shown leadership, at least within her own party, which hasn’t always been easy. She shows up, she does the job, she interacts with her constituents. All good. For this lifetime Mainer, however, she’s on the wrong side of too many issues to deserve re-election. I’m voting for Bellows. No smart money there, just smart ideas, idealism and youthful energy.

If you'd like to help with Shenna's Get Out The Vote operation, here's the place to contribute.

There's No Legitimate Reason To Assume Shenna Bellows Can't Defeat Susan Collins In Maine

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee seems content to waste their resources on reactionary Blue Dog Travis Childers' hopeless attempt to win a Senate seat in deep red Mississippi (where Obama lost with 44%) while ignoring the best Democrat running for Senate in years, Maine's Shenna Bellows-- and in a state Obama won with 56%. This week, Brad Dayspring, communications director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said Bellows is "way too far outside the mainstream" for Maine and that "if the Daily Kos declares statehood, Shenna Bellows would fit in well." Bellows, of course, is proud of the support she's gotten from Daily Kos and other online activists. And she asked which of the policies she's running on are outside of Maine's (not DC's) mainstream. Shenna:

• Most Mainers I know support raising the minimum wage to $10.10;

• Most Mainers care about climate change;

• Most Mainers believe in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

These are issues where my opponent, Republican Susan Collins, and I honestly disagree… My opponent has sided with Mitch McConnell and Ted Cruz over Maine voters on the minimum wage, the Keystone XL Pipeline and just yesterday, she voted against restoring veterans’ benefits."

One of Blue America's most consistent contributors asked us to express to all our other members some of his own thoughts on why now is the time to contribute to the Bellows campaign. First off, he points out that this is crunch time. The next few weeks is when Bellows’ campaign can benefit most from increasing contributor headcount and dollars, in order to earn more attention from national media and support from national political organizations and contributors. Her campaign is on the verge of this kind of “lift off”-- or “critical mass”-- after its surprisingly fast start-up in fundraising, organization-building, endorsements and visibility-- culminating last week in national publicity from ABC.

The message of Bellows’ success would be all the louder because Susan Collins has been a very popular incumbent in prior elections and recent polls. But this popularity depends largely on Collins diverting attention from her positions on privacy, law enforcement drones, marriage equality and other issues, which on which she is not evolving fast enough to keep up with public opinion among Maine’s voters, who gave Obama two emphatic wins. Small-town native daughter Bellows is well-equipped to win over even more of these voters.

And, for many of us, the most important issue-- on a par with Climate Change-- is the increasing scope of the surveillance state. Its becoming a plausible campaign issue. We believe that a successful campaign by the ACLU-veteran “civil libertarian” Bellows can send the loudest possible message to every politician and government official in Washington, DC that the ongoing Snowden disclosures are a serious concern to voters of every stripe, including swing-voting independents and potentially Democratic-voting libertarians. Bellows’ opponent Collins, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, has done virtually nothing to advance surveillance supervision or transparency, and has uncritically amplified quickly-discredited assurances about the efficacy and limited scope of surveillance. Maine’s voters include many independent thinkers who will not be impressed by Collins statements that: "the program, in which the NSA collected information on the phone calls and emails of millions of Americans 'has defeated and thwarted dozens and dozens of terror plots both here and overseas ... We should not assume a trade-off between liberty and security…'"

Let the DSCC waste their time and resources on anti-Choice, anti-equality, antigay, anti-environment, pro-NRA goons like Travis Childers. Let's see what we can to elect a real progressive fighter. Shenna Bellows is going to be just as astounding and essential a U.S. Senator as Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders. Let's help make it happen.

League Of Conservation Voters Sells Out Again

LCV Climate Change poster child, Susan Collins

The Establishment-oriented LGBT organization, HRC, endorsed Republican Senator Susan Collins, who has an record of studiously ignoring gay equality issues in Maine and voting precisely 50% of the time with conservatives and 50% of the time with normal senators on gay issues in DC. Yesterday Digby explained the tragedy of HRC abandoning one of the LGBT communities most dedicated advocates, Shenna Bellows, on behalf of Collins.

They say that no good deed goes unpunished and nothing illustrates the truth of that old trope more vividly that the Human Rights Campaign endorsing Maine Senator Susan Collins over her Democratic opponent, the stalwart defender of human rights and civil liberties, Shenna Bellows. It wasn't the first time Republicans have been unjustly rewarded with endorsements from national liberal organizations, unfortunately. But there are few Republicans who have been more lauded by people for whom she has consistently done so little than the bucket of lukewarm water known as Susan Collins.

This endorsement was particularly galling. Shenna Bellows is not just another Democrat who supports marriage equality. She has devoted her life to expanding civil rights and civil liberties. In her capacity as the Director of the Maine ACLU she helped lead the way for marriage equality in Maine and was instrumental in getting the Maine Human Rights Act passed. It's a truly bold piece of legislation, one of the strongest anti-discrimination laws in the country, which Bellows promises to bring to the national level. She has said:

The important thing we learned in Maine was to aim big and be persistent. Frankly, Congress could benefit from our example. The debate in Congress has focused for too long on weak versions of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which only covers employment decisions and now has such a big religious-exemption loophole that many activists no longer support the bill. As Ian Thompson wrote for Slate in April, the loophole "opens the door for religiously affiliated organizations to engage in employment discrimination against LGBT people-- for any reason." That's not the stuff big civil-rights advances are made of.

I'm proud to say we've done better in Maine, and I'll do better in Washington. We need a national Human Rights Act along the lines of the Maine Human Rights Act. We need to outlaw discrimination in employment, housing, credit, public accommodations and educational opportunity on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation-- once and for all, nationwide, no exceptions. Sen. Al Franken has done good work on this issue, and I can't wait to join him. The LGBT community isn't alone in worrying that its Washington allies are aiming too low.

Many immigration-reform groups rightly wonder not only why Republicans won't support them but why too many Democrats supported a weaker House bill in this Congress than the one they introduced when they were in the majority. We can't fall victim to lower expectations or lesser ambitions, no matter who controls what branch of government. Good policy is good policy, and fighting the wrong legislative fights won't get us where we need to be.

That's the kind of leadership we need so desperately in Washington --- leadership that understands that we are all in this together. If you agree, you can donate to Shenna Bellows' campaign here.

You will not be surprised to learn that Senator Collins is all for that "religious exemption." And her definition of courage is to wait until the nation has largely moved forward before she reluctantly leads from behind: it was only last week that she could summon the nerve to support marriage equality even in principle, much less to act to make it a reality.

As you can see from Shenna Bellows' comments, her approach to basic human rights and liberties stems from her clear, strong set of principles. She doesn't put her finger in the wind, she kicks up a storm and makes things happen. Maine would not have the strong protections and rights available to LGBT citizens that it has today if not for Shenna Bellows. Yet the thanks she gets from the National Human Rights Campaign is an endorsement for her opponent. With friends like these…

Moments after Digby's post appeared, another DC Establishment suck-up group like HRC, League of Conservation Voters, stabbed Shenna in the back and endorsed Collins, just as they had done in 2008 when they backed her against a much more environmentally friendly Democrat, Rep. Tom Allen. Collins won and continued voting against the issues most important to LCV want. Perhaps LCV donors will wake up some day and realize that scam LCV has become.

According to ProgressivePunch, Collins has a lifetime crucial vote score of 39.77 on environmental issues that have come before the Senate. Yes, she's better than Ted Cruz. Is that why LCV donors send checks to the organization? Shenna responded to expected endorsement by reminding LCV that they had just placed Maine State Sen. Troy Jackson on their Dirty Dozen List for a record that isn't even as bad as Collins'!

"I am running for United States Senate because we need bolder leadership to confront climate change before it's too late," Bellows said. "Climate change is one of most serious threats confronting our nation. Protecting the status quo won't protect the environment for the next generation. I've been a consistent voice for more renewable energy, stronger clean air and water standards and an end to the Keystone XL Pipeline project, and I'll proudly stack my environmental values against Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins and any other Washington Republican."

"You have to ask why in this race a lifetime D grade merits recognition," said Portland City Councilman and former State Rep. Jon Hinck. "It's disappointing to see LCV fall into the incumbent protection trap. Half-a-loaf environmentalism is not half good enough. Our air and water don't care about political parties and legacy ties. Every candidate should be considered on the merits of what he or she would do to keep our environment clean. Energy and global warming challenges make this a critical time for Maine and the entire country. Shenna Bellows, unlike the incumbent, has the vision and drive to meet those challenges."

A Huffington Post article last week pointed out many that Maine environmentalists objected to some groups' continued support of Collins despite her low lifetime rating. Emily Figdor, the director of Environment Maine, was quoted in that story saying Collins "has not had a consistent record on climate change. It's high time she really stands up and starts to lead on the issue."

In 2011 Collins introduced the EPA Regulatory Relief Act, which a June 24, 2012, op-ed in the Lewiston Sun-Journal pointed out was "roundly condemned by environmentalists as an attempt to gut EPA regulations intended to clean up the nation’s dirtiest industrial power plants-- many of them fueled by biomass, and several right here in Maine. She then tried to attach her legislation to the unrelated transportation bill [in the spring of 2012], an effort that only narrowly failed."

As far back as 2009, Collins led the fight to eliminate tens of billions of dollars in clean energy funding from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. Among other cuts, her plan would have eliminated:

• $4.5 billion in renewable energy loan guarantees at the Department of Energy
• $1.4 billion in research grants and facilities construction at the National Science Foundation
• $1 billion from energy efficiency and renewable energy projects at the Department of Energy
• $300 million in laboratory upgrades at the Department of Agriculture.

If you live in Maine, you have an opportunity to vote this November to replace Collins with Shenna Bellows. If you live anywhere else in the U.S., you can still help-- right here. Yesterday, Sean Sullivan explained to Washington Post readers how Collins can keep winning in Maine, but it's a trend that we can stop… now.

The endorsements Collins just won amount to a lesson about the power of incumbency. She is very popular back home and considered a safe bet to win reelection. By offering her their support, groups from the left such as LCV and HRC can bolster the odds that she will support their causes in the future. By opposing Collins and supporting a long-shot incumbent against her, they would do themselves no favors in the long run, assuming she wins another term.

…The general election threat-- albeit a minor one at this point-- presented by Bellows may have forced Collins to stake out a harder position on gay marriage now and roll out the LCV endorsement sooner than she otherwise would. But she was always going to emphasize her crossover appeal sooner or later.

Craven groups like HRC and LCV empower Collins and help her lay claim to the term moderate, but her friend and ally Rick Santorum put it best when he told right-wing donors that Collins may vote moderate sometimes, but at least she is a team player who "always plays with the team and never plays against the conservative side even if she has to give the liberals a vote because she's from Maine."

Michael Douglas Gets It Right

Michael Douglas has been a generous political contributor over the years. He's given to real progressives like Dennis Kucinich, Howard Dean and Russ Feingold, to conservatives like Bob Kerrey, Joe Baca, Adam Schiff and Max Baucus, and to corporate career Dems like Hillary Clinton, Tom Daschle and Dick Gephardt. Mostly, though, he just likes Democrats and has given tens of thousands of dollars to Beltway Democratic committees like the DCC, DNC and the DSCC. In a letter he sent out yesterday-- on behalf of the Council for a Livable World-- he pointed to 3 crucial Senate races. I was surprised by the choices: Shenna Bellows (ME), Jeff Merkley (OR) and Bruce Braley (IA)--n that order-- because that isn't the priority the DSCC is pushing. The flaccid DC-oriented flap-dog organizations of the Beltway Democrats-- which would rather, for one reason or another, be part of Team Blue than live up to their own organizations' principles-- are all about pushing conservatives like Mark Pryor (AR), Mary Landrieu (LA), Sam Nunn's daughter (GA), Allison Lundergan Grimes (KY), Kay Hagen (NC), and Mark Begich (AK). Races with progressives like Bellows, Merkley, Braley and South Dakota's Rick Weiland (who Douglas and the Council for a Livable World missed) have been, at best, on the back burner for a tragically-led post-Patty Murray DSCC.

"This November’s elections are just a few months away, and there is a very real chance that Republicans may win the Senate. A Republican-controlled Senate," wrote Douglas, "would be terrible news for U.S. national security. Imagine what the GOP could do to reverse all of the progress made in the last few years-- kill the New START treaty, torpedo negotiations with Iran, and ramp up nuclear spending to Cold War levels and beyond."

Douglas and the Council for a Livable World then highlighted the three candidates:

SHENNA BELLOWS (D-ME) is quickly becoming a heroine for progressives around the country-- she’s been called the Elizabeth Warren of civil liberties. Bellows built a career working as a grassroots activist on issues such as marriage equality, civil liberties and limiting drone strikes. Now, she’s channeling that experience, and her strong support for nuclear arms control into an impressive grassroots campaign to beat Republican Senator Susan Collins.

JEFF MERKLEY(D-OR) was identified by Council for a Livable World in his first race for Senate as a rising progressive hero. In just one term, he’s proven that to be true, helping to pass the New START treaty, bring U.S. troops home from Afghanistan and reform the filibuster. But in a sign of the changing political tides, Merkley’s once-safe seat is now being eyed by Republican Monica Wehby, who’s making Merkley’s re-election tougher than anticipated.

BRUCE BRALEY (D-IA) is a staunch progressive who’s done great work in the House of Representatives as a champion of the middle class, veterans, and others who need a strong advocate in Congress. Now, in his first run for Senate, he’s facing a slate of far-right Republican challengers. And what’s worse, the billionaire Koch brothers are pouring money into the race in an effort to turn the seat red.

Blue America has only endorsed 5 candidates this cycle, two well-proven, progressive incumbents and three challengers including the 2 races that will determine whether or not the Republicans win control of the Senate, Shenna Bellows and Rick Weiland. If conservative voting records by vulnerable Democrats like Mary Landrieu (LA), Mark Pryor (AR), and John Walsh (MT) make it hard for you to get worked up about Democrats whining that they could lose the Senate in November, Bellows and Weiland are the antidote, two races the corporate Beltway Democrats have studiously ignored but who, much to the chagrin of laughable would-be power brokers like Guy Cecil, are breaking through the clutter anyway. Bellows, a civil liberties dynamo and former Executive Director of the Maine ACLU, and Weiland, a folksy prairie populist inspired by George McGovern, Paul Wellstone and Warren herself, have steep paths to victory. But where you would once hear only, "you're crazy; that's impossible," now you sense people are taking a second look, paying attention. Most of the Democrats in the Senate, including all of the good ones, from Bernie Sanders, Sherrod Brown, Brian Schatz, Mazie Hirono, Tom Harkin and Jeff Merkley to Elizabeth Warren, Barbara Boxer and Ed Markey have already endorsed and donated to Weiland. It is nothing but the pigheadedness of Guy Cecil that is keeping Rick from being endorsed by the DSCC. Cecil already gave up trying to hold back Bellows and finally allowed the DSCC to endorse her. Her problem is that she's running against fake "moderate" Susan Collins, who Democrats count on to help out once in a while, usually when Republican leaders don't really care that much.

Recently , writing for The Nation, John Nichols, moved the narrative along for Bellows, who has yet to be endorsed by even one U.S. Senator, but is piling up an impressive array of national grassroots organizations behind her. His first sentence should get anyone to pay attention: "The woman who could be the future of progressive politics in America is sitting at the back table of an Indian restaurant in Portland, Maine."

Bellows knows she can’t match the millions her opponent, three-term Senator Susan Collins, has banked-- or the millions that wealthy donors are ready to spend in Maine and other states to make Mitch McConnell the Senate’s next majority leader. The Democrat is satisfied if the Mainers she calls give $5. That’s because Bellows isn’t really dialing for dollars. She’s dialing for activists. “We had over 200 volunteers gathering signatures in Maine to put me on the ballot. They were talking to friends and family members about who I am and what our campaign represents,” she explains. “We then invited the signature-gatherers to speak on my behalf at Democratic caucuses. So we had 100 volunteers speak at 150 different caucuses across the state. This is the movement that we are building: a movement for social justice, environmental justice and economic justice. And it’s working.”

Bellows began her run against Collins-- who despite her “moderate” label has drifted with her party to the right on economic and social issues-- as an off-the-radar challenger. The 39-year-old former head of the Maine ACLU had no money, little name recognition, and a set of principles and positions that sometimes put her at odds with top Democrats. Bellows runs left on healthcare (she’s for single-payer) and climate change (don’t get her started on the Keystone pipeline), yet she makes common cause with libertarians on marijuana legalization and privacy rights. She speaks comfortably of building coalitions with independent-minded Tea Party activists against cronyism and corruption. Bellows believes in pushing political boundaries, and in Maine-- with its history of electing independent governors and senators-- it seems to be working. The challenger turned heads when, with those $5 donations from working-class Mainers, she outraised Collins in the last quarter of 2013. Even skeptics have begun to note the ease with which this first-time candidate-- the daughter of a carpenter and a nurse, whose home had no electricity during much of her childhood-- makes connections with disenfranchised and disengaged voters. Bellows has gained endorsements from the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (which calls her “the Elizabeth Warren of civil liberties”), Democracy for America, MoveOn and, belatedly, at the end of March, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

This year’s fierce competition for control of the Senate is generally framed in terms that make sense to Washington operatives: cash on hand, famous names, carefully crafted talking points. By those measures, Republicans are thought to have the upper hand in most of the thirty-six contests that will be decided in an off-year election where turnout is down and the Koch brothers’ spending is up. If Democrats are going to upset this calculus, they’ll need unexpected wins in unlikely states. That means they’d better start considering contenders who have tossed aside lame messaging memos in favor of grassroots organizing. Like South Dakota Democrat Rick Weiland, who is well on his way to visiting every one of that state’s 311 towns, Bellows is focusing not just on Maine’s Democratic-leaning cities but on rural areas. She’s already identified supporters in 366 small towns, and the numbers are rising.

Bellows is determined to organize her way to the Senate. With the ACLU, she got Maine Democrats and Republicans working together to pass legislation requiring warrants for access to cellphone records. When Maine Republicans eliminated same-day voter registration, she co-chaired the 2011 Protect Maine Votes coalition, which put it on the ballot and secured a landslide vote to restore it. A year later, with Mainers United for Marriage, she helped organize the referendum campaign that overturned a 2009 ban on same-sex marriage. “No one thought we could win. Outside political observers said, ‘It’s too soon-- you just lost in 2009,’” Bellows recalls. “We said, ‘We know we have the right message, we’re on the right side of history, and we have a highly organized field plan to win.’ And we did. This is a very similar campaign. It’s a David and Goliath race, but we know we have the right message. Most Mainers think we should raise the minimum wage. Most Mainers are concerned about climate change. Most Mainers think we should restore civil liberties.”

As she talks through her organizing strategy, Bellows reminds me of a former farm organizer who ran an impossible campaign for a Minnesota Senate seat in 1990. When I mention this, Bellows doesn’t miss a beat. “Yes,” she says. “And Paul Wellstone won.”

Nichols was incorrect about one thing. He described Rick Weiland as "well on his way to visiting every one of that state’s 311 towns." He completed the last town, tiny Hudson (pop. 296) on Tuesday. If you don't live in one of those 311 towns and you want to check out what Weiland is all about, you could go to his campaign website. There, the first thing you will see on the very top of the page is a this statement:

The first bill Rick will introduce in the Senate os a Constitutional Amendment that reads: So that the votes of all, rather than the wealth of the few, shall direct the course of this Republic, Congress shall have the power to limit the raising and spending of money with respect to federal elections.

Rick grounds his populist message in a clear call to get Big Money out of politics. It's a popular message with ordinary voters, if not with the Beltway Establishment.

Elizabeth Warren isn't going to transform America alone. Susan Collins and Mike Rounds are impediments to what she's trying to do to move the ball down the field. There is no doubt which team Rick Weiland and Shenna Bellows will be playing for-- the team that supports the ordinary working families in their states and this country. You can help both win these two uplifting battles here on the Blue America ActBlue Senate page. Taking our country back is a theme that can be used on both sides of the aisle, but among progressives, it means stopping the plutocrats and oligarchs from further eroding American democracy.

Elizabeth Warren has endorsed Rick Weiland-- while the DSCC fiddles

The State Of Play-- November's Maine Senate Contest

My two favorite senators are Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. They both have phenomenal records, not just on voting, but on leading. No one's perfect though. Bernie, for example, endorsed anti-choice Michigan reactionary Jerry Cannon, the former commandante of the Guantánamo gulag. What does that say about Bernie? Not much; just that he's human and makes mistakes. Sherrod Brown would be on that list too-- making it a trio-- if not for a crucial vote he took approving torture… a bridge too far. (He's still my third favorite senator.)

So what about Elizabeth Warren? Not many imperfections I've found, especially after reading A Fighting Chance a couple of times. I do wish she would have endorsed Shenna Bellows and helped her out the way she's been helping conservative Democrats. (Come to think of it, maybe Bernie could have done the same thing instead of digging up the gulag guy in Michigan.) It's disappointing Warren would have decided she doesn't want to piss of Beltway belle Susan Collins-- and "jeopardize" some supposed Maine-Massachusetts fishery pact. I was much more heartened when I noticed that Maine Rep. Chellie Pingree came out swinging on behalf of Shenna this week:

I’ve represented Maine in the U.S House of Representatives since 2009, and believe me, passing good laws is as hard as it’s ever been. That’s why it’s so important that we elect Shenna Bellows to the U.S. Senate this November. Shenna has shown herself to be a proven leader on issues that matter to American families. She’s been at the forefront of the fights for marriage equality, voting rights, and civil liberties here in Maine, and she’ll continue to show that kind of leadership in Washington. I’m standing right beside Shenna in this election… In the last decade, we’ve seen a recession, underwater mortgages, rising student loan debt, and a growing retirement crisis. I’m voting for Shenna because she has what it takes to offer real, urgently-needed solutions to our greatest challenges.

That's not something I'll forget any time soon-- just like Sherrod's torture vote. Please join Pingree (and me) in contributing to Shenna's grassroots campaign for the seat Collins is making a mockery of. In the ad up top, we take a look at the problems people, like Collins, who've lived in DC get into when they start avoiding transparency as though it was their right. She seems to have conveniently forgotten her pivotal role in voting twice with the Republican extremists to shut the government down last year. Collins' purposely misleading new ad, painting her as a heroine in ending the shut down, omits her own record, ignores the shutdown's impact on Maine's economy and glosses over her role in creating the problem she claims to have helped solve.

Last year Collins voted on Sept. 30, and again Oct. 1 in favor of a crackpot House Republican demand to defund the Affordable Care Act as the price of continuing government operations. Polls at the time showed the overwhelming majority of Maine voters opposed this ploy and the government shutdown. An OpEd in the Portland Press Herald noted that Collins "was already on record calling it flawed strategy that endangered the entire U.S. economy [but] fell in line and once again voted to keep those conditions intact."

Meanwhile, the Bellows ad at the bottom of the page features Lillian Lake, a Republican from Wilton and a former Susan Collins campaign volunteer who supports Shenna this year because of Collins' consistent and unpopular rightward turn over the past several years. Like more and more Mainers, she notes that "Collins has been voting with Washington Republicans on issues that matter most to me and my family. Collins voted with Republicans to block the minimum wage increase and against equal pay. These votes matter. Maine needs a senator who will stand with middle class families like mine. This year I'm voting for Shenna Bellows for Senate." The Bellows campaign followed up with the facts that back up what Mainers are feeling in their guts about how Collins has changed, particularly since Olympia Snowe has retired.

Lake's concerns about Collins' consistent votes against public opinion and the interests of Maine families reflect what's being felt across the state.

Paycheck Fairness Act

Collins voted in April and again in September against the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would shield employees who raise legitimate questions about workplace pay equity, among other features. Bellows has consistently called on Collins to support the bill-- which Collins also voted to filibuster in 2010, 2012 and earlier this year-- and has made support for the measure one of the centerpieces of her campaign.

A February national survey found 60 percent of voters are more likely to support a candidate who supports fair pay for women, a higher minimum wage, paid family and medical leave and paid sick days. The survey also found that women are less likely to receive paid extended leave than men.

Republicans have been uncomfortable discussing the issue all year, leading to an MSNBC story on the GOP's shifting explanation for why the bill keeps getting filibustered. Collins said in 2012 without citing evidence that it would lead to "excessive litigation."

Minimum Wage

Collins stood with Washington Republicans in April against increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, which translates to $21,008 per year for someone working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year. Afterward, Collins put out a statement bemoaning the fact that the proposal "does not have the votes it would need to pass the Senate."

Maine voters support "raising the minimum wage to at least $10 an hour and indexing future increases to inflation" by a 63-36 spread, according to a July poll by the Maine People's Resource Center.

In 2007 the Senate voted 94-3 to increase the federal minimum wage in stages to its current level of $7.25 an hour, a far cry from today's partisanship.

Campaign Finance Reform

Collins is also out of step with public opinion on campaign finance reform. A CBS poll in May found voters support "limiting the amount of money individuals can contribute to political campaigns" over "allowing individuals to contribute as much money to political campaigns as they'd like" by 71-25. Collins has voted in lockstep with Washington Republicans against both the DISCLOSE Act, which would publicize the sources of large political contributions in a timely way, and the Udall Amendment, which would give Congress and state legislatures the power to regulate campaign spending.

Bellows held a press conference before the Senate's recent Udall Amendment vote calling on Collins to support the measure. As of June 30, according to OpenSecrets, Bellows had outraised Collins in small grassroots contributions $357,713 (27 percent of Bellows' total) to $123,536 (2 percent of Collins' total).

With not much over a month to go, how about chipping in whatever you can afford to help Shenna turn out the vote with what we hope will be the biggest and most effective field operation in the history of Maine. You can contribute here. If elected, I have every reason to believe Shenna will be the single best member of the U.S. Senate.

Senate Dems Back Domestic Spying Nominee David Barron For A Judgeship

Shenna Bellows (D) and Rand Paul (R)-- a real bipartisan approach

Thank God, some of our candidates-- particularly Shenna Bellows (ME) and Jay Stamper (SC) for Senate and Ted Lieu (CA) and Alan Grayson (FL) for the House-- are taking a stand against unconstitutional domestic spying. And a few Democrats in the Senate, particularly Mark Udall (CO) and Ron Wyden (OR) are doing some actual fighting against Obama and his NSA. But, truth be told, a lot of the heavy lifting in this crucial battle is coming from libertarian Republicans Justin Amash (MI) in the House and Rand Paul (KY) in the Senate. A few Democrats-- particularly Bellows and Stamper-- have been advocating a transpartisan effort that will put the privacy interests of Americans first.

This week, in an OpEd for the Washington Post, Reining in the surveillance state, Katrina van den Heuvel gave Rand Paul his due on this critical issue. "Paul vowed," she wrote, "to filibuster the nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit of former Justice Department official David Barron, who helped write memos supporting said argument." Wednesday afternoon the Senate shut down his filibuster, every Democrat but Manchin (WV) and Landrieu (LA) voting against him. In the end it was 52-43, all the Republicans ready, as always, to just filibuster everything and anything from the administration.

Paul’s strong libertarian principles have always differentiated him from many of his Republican colleagues. It is, therefore, not all that shocking for him to speak out against a president he dislikes on a policy he disdains. Yet his outspokenness has many liberals and leftists asking a legitimate question: Why aren’t there more Democratic voices opposing the surveillance state? Protecting civil liberties should be a critical piece of the progressive platform, but too many establishment Democrats and progressives have been silent on this issue simply because one of their own is in the White House.

Some Democrats in Congress have taken bold stands. Longtime civil-liberties champion (and former House Judiciary Committee chair) John Conyers has worked to limit the National Security Agency’s collection of bulk telephone data. Reps. Keith Ellison of Minnesota and Adam B. Schiff of California have probed the administration’s drone and surveillance programs. Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California is pushing to prevent the NSA from weakening online encryption. In the Senate, Judiciary Committee chair Patrick Leahy of Vermont has held oversight hearings questioning excessive surveillance. Even Dianne Feinstein of California, chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and normally a committed defender of the intelligence community, finally spoke out after discovering that the CIA spied on Senate staffers. And last week, Sens.Mark Udall of Colorado and Ron Wyden of Oregon sent a letter to Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr., strongly criticizing a “culture of misinformation” that has resulted in “misleading statements . . . about domestic surveillance.” And Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, has proposed a bill limiting FBI and NSA spying.

Still, too many Democrats and even progressives are reluctant to challenge the Obama administration, either because they don’t want to criticize a besieged president or because they’re focused on other priorities. As they stay silent, a host of troubling policies, including the assassination of U.S. citizens without due process, the prosecution of record numbers of journalists and whistleblowers, the unaccountable growth of the surveillance state and the vast expansion of the drone program, are proliferating unchecked.

To combat the spread of these policies, we need not just outraged rhetoric but also serious, concrete actions to seek accountability. And we need more progressive elected officials who are willing to fight for change.

We need leaders such as Shenna Bellows, who is running for the U.S. Senate in Maine. In her eight years leading Maine’s American Civil Liberties Union, Bellows has consistently worked across the aisle, bringing together unlikely allies to pass marriage equality, to restore same-day voter registration in the state and to make Maine one of only two states to establish cellphone privacy protections in the wake of the recent NSA spying revelations.

Bellows is an eloquent, vocal champion of progressive values across the board. But she is particularly focused on what she calls “the surveillance industrial complex.” “I just disagree on the amount of intrusion that is acceptable in our private lives,” she recently told MSNBC. Bellows wants to repeal the USA Patriot Act and release the CIA’s 6,000-page report on torture practices after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. She has expressed an interest in working with Paul and others on anti-surveillance legislation.

According to polls, Bellows has a tough race to unseat incumbent Susan Collins, a Republican. But she is leveraging her considerable organizing skills. And while Collins has vastly more money in her campaign coffers, Bellows-- who recently earned belated support from Emily’s List and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee-- outraised Collins in the last quarter of 2013.

Bellows has been called “the woman who could be the future of progressive politics in America.” While this overstates the case, her unwavering commitment to civil liberties gives hope that progressives will soon have a champion who can help lead a transpartisan fight to rein in the national security state’s unconstitutional overreach.

You can contribute to Bellows' campaign-- and Stamper's-- here on our Senate ActBlue page.




UPDATE: Congress Authorizes More Unconstitutional Domestic Spying

Jim Sensenbrenner's Orwellian-named USA Freedom Act passed this morning, 303-121, most members of both parties eager to continue warrentless, unconstitutional bulk spying against American citizens. During the debate Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), who said, "regrettably, we have learned that if we leave any ambiguity in the law, the intelligence agencies run a truck right through that ambiguity," and Alan Grayson (D-FL) joined libertarians like Justin Amash in calling out Military-Intelligence Complex shills, Mike Rogers (R-MI) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) for their treachery against the American people and the Constitution. Amash: “This morning's bill maintains and codifies a large-scale, unconstitutional domestic spying program." 70 Democrats and 51 Republicans voted against the bill, a veritable declaration of war against the American people. Suggestion: fight back-- vote against all 179 Republicans and 124 Democrats who voted to violate our rights and the Constitution.

A bold-face lie:

The truth:

Are You Ready To Upgrade The U.S. Senate? Let's Start In Maine Where We Have A Clear Choice

It's almost the end of the quarter-- and you know what that means-- hundreds of e-mails from the DCCC and DSCC and their careerist candidates begging for money. Please tell them you already gave-- through Blue America-- to individual candidates whose agendas you believe in and whose values you share.

As you probably know, we’ve supported Shenna Bellows' entirely grassroots campaign for Senate in Maine this cycle more than any other candidate, and now we’re asking you to step up again. She’s running as an outspoken, unapologetic progressive in a blue state that voted for President Obama twice. Her opponent, Susan Collins, is out of step with Maine’s economic needs and won’t tell voters where she stands on the big issues. It’s time for Shenna to join progressive champions like Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Merkley, Sherrod Brown and Bernie Sanders in the U.S. Senate and give Maine a big upgrade in representation.

Shenna is running the kind of campaign that makes progressives stand up and cheer. She’s outraising Susan Collins more than three to one in small-dollar donations, according to OpenSecrets, and she hasn’t taken a nickel of corporate PAC money. She walked 350 miles across the state this summer to hear from real Mainers and bring their stories to Washington where they need to be heard. She’s running full steam ahead on universal health care, investing in our economy, a higher minimum wage, student loan reform, and a national Human Rights Act that extends Maine’s strong LGBT protections to every American man, woman and child.

In other words, as a first-time candidate, Shenna Bellows is setting a standard a lot of incumbents should be trying to meet.

Shenna’s a strong candidate because of her values and her background-- she’s the working class daughter of a carpenter and a home health care nurse-- but also because of her experience fighting for privacy and civil rights. Those fights are hardly over in Washington, and we need her there fighting to restore our liberties. As the head of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine for eight years, Shenna worked hard to protect the people of her state from law enforcement overreach. Her own website tells you everything you need to know:

Abuses of power like the Patriot Act, REAL ID, the NDAA, NSA spying, and domestic drone surveillance threaten our democracy. When the government spies on its own people, we, the people, lose trust in our government. We can restore trust and a sense of community by restoring our constitutional freedoms.


In Maine, I led a coalition to pass groundbreaking privacy laws to require warrants before law enforcement accesses email or phone communications. As United States Senator, I will work with Republicans and Democrats alike to repeal the Patriot Act and restore checks and balances on government spying. I’m proud to have been called “the Elizabeth Warren of civil liberties,” and that’s exactly the kind of senator I intend to be.

Needless to say, you don’t find a record like that every day. We need Shenna Bellows in the Senate, standing with our most dependable leaders and bringing her passion and principles to a legislative body that’s short on both right now.

One last thing about this race you need to know: Susan Collins is nervous. When she started running a recent television ad trying to claim credit for ending the government shutdown, Shenna didn’t let it pass. She put out a web video (up top) telling voters the other half of the story-- the half where Susan Collins voted with the tea party to hold the government hostage and hurt businesses in her own state. Now Susan Collins is backpedaling and trying to convince reporters her votes meant the opposite of what they meant. She can’t defend her record, so she’s trying to ignore it. Voters aren’t buying it, and we need to help Shenna hold her accountable for voting against her own state.

Shenna Bellows is the future of the U.S. Senate. She’s the future of progressive politics. There’s no one we’re more excited to support this year, and we hope you’ll join us-- right here and right now.

Will Any Gay Mainers Be Fooled By HRC's Transactional Endorsement Of Republican Susan Collins?

The LGBT equality movement has been successful with the help of dedicated allies like Shenna Bellows and Marianne Williamson

Maine Senator Susan Collins doesn't have a bad voting record on LGBT rights… for a Republican. Fir a normal human being, though, her record is awful-- and disgraceful. And when it comes to any kind of leadership for LGBT equality she gets a flat-out "F." Her ProgressivePunch lifetime crucial vote score is worse than any Democrats' and worse than several Republicans', including Kelly Ayotte (NH), Lisa Murkowski (AK), and Marco Rubio (FL). She's exactly tied with GOP closet case Lindsey Graham (SC), who's obsessed with staying on the good side of South Carolina bigots while keeping his own dating options open.

People who think HRC is an idealistic organization trying to advance LGBT equality-- rather than a pathetic bunch of self-serving Beltway hacks looking for personal career advancement, cocktail party invitations and "access"-- may have been shocked when the organization endorsed Collins for reelection last month. The LGBT community in Maine, knew better and ignores them completely, just like anyone outside the Beltway does.

Over the weekend, Betsy Smith and Pat Peard, respected leaders of Mainers United for Marriage, penned an OpEd for the Portland Press Herald that basically laughed in the faces of the worthless fools and knaves at HRC down in Washington. The progressive Democrat and dedicated leader on behalf of LGBT rights, Shenna Bellows, who is running for the seat Collins occupies, "practices," they wrote, "the politics of conscience, even when it means taking the long road instead of the easy road."

As executive committee leaders of the successful Mainers United for Marriage campaign, which passed the nation’s first marriage equality voter initiative, we write today to endorse Shenna Bellows for U.S. Senate, and to share our enthusiasm for her campaign.

Working with Shenna for seven years to expand Mainers’ civil rights-- including allowing same-sex couples to marry-- showed us she’s the kind of dynamic, hardworking leader our state needs in Washington.

In 2006, as we were laying the foundation for a public education campaign on marriage equality, we asked Shenna to join our leadership team because we knew she was hardworking, principled and determined to win the tough fights. From Day One, and for seven consecutive years, Shenna’s contributions were invaluable.

Her coalition-building approach to passing legislation led her to set up dozens of well-publicized news conferences with groups of supporters including business owners, medical professionals and faith leaders, to name just a few, all of whom conveyed important messages about why same-sex couples should have the right to marry.

We won the freedom to marry in Maine due in no small part to Shenna’s strategic communications and brilliant legislative advocacy.

When voters and activists told us it was too soon for marriage equality and the fight couldn’t be won, Shenna stood shoulder to shoulder with the leadership team in firmly believing that equality wasn’t just the right fight, it was a winnable fight.

She led the effort to establish Republicans United for Marriage at a time when very few people saw the potential for that kind of coalition-building. To this day, many of those Republicans-- and a growing number-- are engaged in the movement to win full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Maine.

Her determination and hard work speak volumes about the kind of person she is and the kind of leader she will be. Without her leadership skills at the table, gay and lesbian Mainers might still be waiting for the freedom to marry.

Marriage equality isn’t the only victory in which Shenna played a critical role. We were fortunate to have her as part of the leadership team that defeated a dangerous 2007 transgender discrimination bill. She was also essential in writing and passing Maine’s 2012 anti-bullying law that provides schools with more resources to combat bullying against all youth.

These weren’t easy fights, and like marriage equality, they weren’t short fights. Shenna’s early, strong, out-in-front stances-- and the hard and persistent work she did to back them up-- are good examples of why we support her this year over Sen. Susan Collins, who until recently has been silent on marriage equality.

We have appreciated the support of Sen. Collins on several LGBT issues, and in particular her leadership on the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” but her lack of support on the critically important issue of marriage equality during the two statewide referendum campaigns in 2009 and 2012 clearly differentiates Sen. Collins from Shenna Bellows.

Shenna doesn’t just support issues important to Maine, she also stands up and leads the charge. Her activism and willingness to keep working for years to help win the freedom to marry-- in addition to the myriad of other issues on which she has been a leader-- prove she has the vision and leadership our state needs in Congress. The contrast is clear, and we think the choice is, too.

One more point needs to be made. Sen. Collins’ unwavering support for Gov. LePage is a grave concern to us. He has been an intentionally divisive figure from the day he took office, and she has not stood up to him.

Right now Blue America is closing in on our July fundraising goal for Shenna's campaign ($20,000). At $19,497, we're just a few hundred dollars away. Can you help us, even with just $5 or $10 dollars, get there? Here's the Blue America Senate 2015 page. There is no contribution too small. Shenna has raised over a million dollars so far and the median contribution is right around $7.50.