“What a way to mark Labor Day.”

“While you may disagree with him, Eliot Cutler has been open with his various initiatives for Maine. Cutler has released plans on government reform, healthcare, and energy. .. The Cutler campaign has now released a blueprint for education reform in the state. The reform outline consists of boosting pre-school, allowing charter schools, increasing magnet schools, addressing teacher compensation, and the length of Maine’s school days and years.”

You can read part 1 here and part 2 here.

[Cutler discussed plans for an] Energy Finance Authority that would negotiate low-cost deals with Canadian power producers and work with the private sector to expand Maine’s energy infrastructure. In particular, Cutler said the state needs to expand natural gas lines up the major river corridors.

“When we do that we are going to reawaken the mills all over the state of Maine and we can do that with an Energy Finance Authority,” Cutler said. “And that’s an awful lot more sensible public investment than plastering the state with Pine Tree Zones.”

You can read the full article here.

The “I’s” are “we.” Independents, that is. Thirteen legislative Nov. 2 ballot independents. Having gotten together, it is evident that we are dedicated to the necessary idea of collaboration to create common-sense solutions to Maine’s problems.

With independent Eliot Cutler as governor, his bold vision, solid plan and strong leadership would give us a reckoning force. During his recent visit to review our bridge issue, he actually quoted from the Maine-NH Connections study. He addressed the need for a Maine capital investment program. He has spoken widely with clear focus on actual strategies to turn this state around. He is prepared with real steps to take that are pragmatic, workable and bound to be effective. Nicely enough, it is rather what my campaign Web site said before I met him.

We’ve had the truly tired, same-old partisan thing, hoping for change, forever. I don’t see it working and refuse to continue allowing it over and over and over, expecting a different result without a fight. We need the “I’s” in Augusta because we can’t afford not to.

Eliot Cutler has my vote. Then we can do what you need. Really. What we all need. Give him your vote, too.

Gary Beers, Kittery

You can read the full article here.

Cutler reiterated themes he discussed with the Sanford News during an interview at the Sanford-Springvale Chamber of Commerce last February — namely, his belief that governors do not create jobs but instead establish conditions that foster job creation and his position that Maine must bring down its costs of electricity, health care and government operations in order to attract people and businesses who would want to move here.

You can read the full article here.

In Maine, Independent gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler is clearly worrying Democratic and Republican party strategists.

You can read the full article here.

“We failed in the first round — we didn’t even make the cut off, and in the second round, we were 33rd out of 36 states. We’re not measuring up,” he says.

Cutler says Maine’s approach to K-12 and higher education is in need of reform. [Cutler] is recommending a number of proposals — including some that have been explored before. Among them are plans to lengthen the school year, create charter schools to create new opportunities for high-performing students and — one of the most controversial — merging the community college and university systems…

At the local level, Cutler would would like to see a merit pay system for teachers that would be awarded through a peer review process. He says teachers need to be rewarded for doing a good job and that their work should be able to be measured by their students’ performance.

You can read a transcript of the piece here.

Eliot Cutler said the high cost of electricity, energy and health care create a “wall of costs.”… [he also] said he would create a Department of Commerce to consolidate economic development agencies in the state, and that the state must do a better job of selling Maine products.

You can read the full article here.

“Island communities, coastal communities on the coast of Maine, places where so many of us live, are the soul of this state. And beyond anything else that I’ve said today … when I leave office after four years or eight years, I want my term to be measured more than anything by whether I have done enough to maintain, in tact, the islands and coastal communities of this state. I commit that to you.”

You can read the full article here.