The RECORD

The horses in the Governor's race are rounding the final corner and heading for the finish line. Two out of the five candidates are actually in the same lap. State Senator Chandler Woodcock is coming from behind having saved most of his clean election money for television ads scheduled to run in the next couple weeks. Some people consider his challenge to the incumbent Governor a long shot.

Two issues that the League cares deeply about made it into the televised Chamber of Commerce debate this week: Intelligent Design and gambling.

Gambling keeps coming up because one of the five candidates supports a casino car on a new passenger train service for Maine. Former State Representative Barbara Merrill wants gambling cars on the train to help pay for the service.

Senator Woodcock commented on the issue. "It's far more critical for us to get our money from the federal government," He said "than to fund a train on the roll of the dice."

The candidates were once again asked about Intelligent Design. The rather obscure question, for Maine politics anyway, came up in debate last week also. Only Woodcock supports having students encounter the full range of views on human origins.

Governor Baldacci attempted to ridicule the Senator suggesting it was foolish to be talking about the issue at all. Baldacci claimed, "Maine is not Kansas."

"Speaking of Kansas," said League Director Mike Heath when asked about the Governor's glib criticism of the veteran public school teacher, "The Governor reminds me of the wizard in the movie version of the Wizard of Oz. He's the one trying to make the moderate Woodcock look like a Bible-thumping fundamentalist with his ridiculous 'moving us backward' television blitz. At the same time the Governor spends megabucks to bring up the issue, he says that he can't believe the issue is being raised!!!" Heath proclaimed, "What a hypocrite."

Heath observed that this is typical John Baldacci politics. He did the same thing with marriage supporters in 2005. He tried to keep his hands clean while he had a surrogate calling them "cuckoo clocks."

Heath concluded that John Baldacci has absolutely no respect for, nor understanding of, conservative Christians.

"I hope he loses," said Heath.

Yesterday we reported on one of the League's Baldacci/Castro pictures making it onto YouTube, the popular internet video site. Today we received a visit from Clayton and Clayton Weeks. They are father and son, and hail from the late Senator Ed Muskie's neck of the woods. They live in the Rumford/Mexico area.

They stopped into the League office today proudly sporting shirts with a picture face on of Fidel Castro talking with Governor John Baldacci. The League obtained the pictures earlier this year after six freedom of information act requests. The Governor's office did not want the pictures in the public domain.

The caption on the shirt says, "If this is going forward ... I'd rather go backwards. I'm voting for Woodcock." The slogan plays off the television advertising that John Baldacci is running against state Senator Chandler Woodcock. The Republican Woodcock is trying to unseat the incumbent Baldacci.

Father Clayton created the first iron on transfer and provided one to his son. He presented League director Mike Heath with about six of the iron on transfers today.

Clayton wears the shirt proudly wherever he goes. He gets a lot of thumbs up.

Clayton is no stranger to taking a political stand. He spoke at a pro marriage public hearing in Augusta last year. He concluded his remarks to the Legislative Committee saying, "I hope you will honor YOUR mother AND father by supporting this legislation." His remark drew strong applause.

Weeks joins thousands of Mainers in outrage over John Baldacci's outrageous and immoral violation of the spirit of democracy last year. He pushed gay rights through the Legislature after the measure had been twice rejected by the voters. He did not do the right thing at the time, which was to tell gay rights advocates to gather signatures to prove public support for the proposal. The Governor's move cost the League a year's ministry and more than a quarter of a million dollars. All so that he could honor homosexuality in Maine.

League director Mike Heath said, "He should lose the election on this issue alone."

Early this year the Christian Civic League of Maine filed multiple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the office of Governor John Baldacci. The ministry suspected there were pictures of his trip to Cuba. As it turned out there were many pictures of the trip, and a couple with the Governor and the Dictator. While Maine's media ignored the story, for the most part, an interesting one minute video has appeared on the popular online website called YouTube.

YouTube gives users an opportunity to upload, for public viewing, videos that they have produced. The service is free. Anyone with an internet connection can view the uploaded videos.

The video that features the League's picture of Baldacci and Castro appears in a video that links Maine's incumbent Governor with the Cuban missle crisis. The video begins with a picture of Kennedy, and audio of him speaking about the crisis.

Someone created a YouTube account called mheinforme and uploaded the video to that account. The League's Administrator is named Mike Hein. He has no knowledge of the account. "I'm a YouTube dummy," Said Hein. "I don't have a clue who put that up there."

Hein said that he doesn't care who put it up. Imitating political advertising disclaimers he quipped, "My name is Mike Hein, and I approve of this message."

Click here to view the video.

A little less than one year ago Governor John Baldacci led a trade delegation to Cuba to talk about selling apples and milk to the communist dictator. The Governor's visit is making news again because of Fidel Castro's ties to the virulently anti-American dictator in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. Baldacci also cut a deal with Chavez at the same time he was visiting with Castro. Chavez is cutting deals with Iran's leader, and the two national dictators are attempting to rally the world against the United States.

Baldacci's spokesman curtly told a reporter recently in response to questions about this matter, "The Governor went to Cuba. Get over it."

Baldacci issued a statement on September 21, 2006 distancing himself from Chavez and allowing that his recent tirade at the UN was "unnecessary and offensive." Some Mainers are questioning the sincerity of Baldacci's distancing maneuver.

The League surfaced a picture earlier this year after six Freedom of Information Act requests to the Governor's office. After denying that such a existed, the image eventually emerged. The Maine press is ignoring the image, and the story surrounding its release.

League director Michael Heath has done national press interviews on the story, and the United States Congress has requested copies of documents acquired as a result of the series of FOIA requests by the League.

Baldacci's trading partner Hugo Chavez blasted the United States while visiting New York this week. He lectured the world's greatest and most generous free nation on the virtues of his dictatorship, and communism.

Late last year the Baldacci administration trumpeted a deal it brokered with the government of Venezuela. Hugo Chavez is leader of that government and close friends with Fidel Castro, the most well known communist dictator in this hemisphere. At the very same time that Baldacci was cutting an oil deal with Chavez he was personally visiting Castro in Cuba. Maine's governor took the time, and incurred the expense, to go to Cuba on a "trade mission" to meet with the priest-murdering Communist dictator. Governor Baldacci had his picture taken, and hid it.

The media has joined Baldacci in the cover up. The League exposed the story early in 2006. All of the League's reporting can be read online at our archive, including this photograph of Castro speaking to Baldacci.

There are two exceptions to the cover up that we know about. A column by MD Harmon in the Portland Press Herald earlier this year in which the picture was published in a box the size of a postage stamp. Also, Scott Garrett from the CNN radio affiliate in Lewiston Auburn interviewed the League today.

There is no doubt that the picture would do major damage to Baldacci's reelection bid were it to run top of the fold in Maine's newspapers, or on the 6 O'Clock Evening News, anytime before the election that is coming in November.

John Baldacci's administration believes that Mainers who support traditional marriage are "cuckoo clocks." The Governor's press secretary used the epithet after a rally was held at the State House in support of traditional marriage. The Baldacci administration has demonstrated only contempt and disdain for the Christian Civic League of Maine since taking office.

Acting the part of a communist dictator he forced the Christian Civic League of Maine into a second peoples veto signature drive in mid 2005 on the controversial issue of gay rights. Justice required that supporters of gay rights gather signatures to prove there was public support for their idea, since Maine people had twice before rejected it in statewide voting. The first rejection came after a rare peoples veto.

Instead of forcing gay rights partisans to the streets to make their case he used his influence within the dominant Democrat party to force gay rights on all the people of Maine without a vote.

The League made sure there was a vote.

Maine's media has a duty to make sure that Maine people know about the unholy trinity of Castro, Baldacci and Chavez before they vote. Why does Maine need close ties to Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez? Could it have something to do with wanting to hurt a sitting President during a time of war?