To the Editor:

The State of Maine is poised to realize the benefits of a Republican governor, as well as majorities in the State Senate and House of Representatives. Time will tell if the Republicans will be successful in their governance. But it is very safe to say that most anything will be an improvement over the last 46 years of Democrat control.

When the sun illuminates the Capitol Dome in Augusta on swearing-in day in early December, we will see the fiscal carnage left behind by folks with such well-known names as Baldacci, Rotundo, Craven and Wagner. A pension fund that is in a nearly $5 billion hole. A budget that looks to be $1.2 billion under water going into the next budget cycle.

A horrific state debt of over $9 billion (plus interest!). One in four Mainers on welfare. Unpaid bills to Maine’s hospitals nearing a half-billion dollars.

Sadly—and quite incredibly—the majority of voters returned Rotundo, Craven and Wagner to the legislature again. But they are no longer in control, and a new team will get to apply new methods to government. It won’t be easy for the GOP. They were left a mess. But they knew full well what they were getting into.

I’d like to end by recognizing the important role that the Twin City TIMES played in the Republican avalanche that inundated the Democrats in the November 2 election.

Paul LePage’s margin of victory in Maine was just a shade less than 10,000 votes. In Androscoggin County, the home of the Twin City TIMES, Governor-Elect LePage (I love typing those three words) had a marging of victory just shy of 5,000 votes. Doing the math, one finds that nearly half of the LePage statewide vote margin came the county served by the Twin City TIMES.

Congratulations, Peter and Laurie Steele, for bringing the plain, unvarnished truth to the readers of this county. If we relied on the daily paper, the Maine Public Broadcasting Network and most of the Portland-based television, we’d hear nothing but a leftist slant and we’d all be drinking the “Kool-Aid.”

Lewiston Mayor Gilbert’s self-serving rants are a comedic interlude that serve as an interesting and instructive glimpse of the liberal mind, and it is fun to read them. So don’t change a thing.

The truth is a wonderful thing. And sunlight is a great disinfectant. Bravo, TCT!