Letter to the Editor:

About a year ago, I became politically active. I’ve always been conservative, but I never had the guts to actually do the heavy lifting involved with winning an election. It’s easy to talk a good game, but when it comes down to actually putting yourself out there, especially in potentially difficult situations, it is a tough thing to follow through with.

But things had gotten so bad in this state that I felt I had to do something. I looked at the 2010 election as our last shot to turn our state around.

I went door to door and made calls for Republican candidates. I was only planning to do this for two or three hours a week. But I got so caught up in it that it became a 12-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week, two-month obsession. I gave myself a nickname, “Jimmy Lit-Drop,” because I was like Johnny Appleseed spreading those wonderful LePage letters and Levesque palm cards all over Androscoggin County.

And then there were those phone calls. I do sincerely apologize if I had called you during dinner or five times the same day. You may have hated getting those calls. And knowing that I was calling back the same person I just talked to, who would most certainly be quite upset, created more than a bit of uneasiness.

I shouldn’t whine too much, though. I was blessed to come in contact and become good friends with folks who were even more dedicated than I was, folks who’d been grassroots campaigning for 14 months. The results were largely positive. Unfortunately, Jason Levesque lost a close race to Congressman Michaud. But at the state level we did fantastic.

The volunteers and the Republican Governor’s Association got the job done for Governor LePage, and the state representatives and senators who won their elections ran great campaigns. Senators Snowe-Mello and Mason and Representatives Crafts and Timberlake were intense on the campaign trail, meeting and connecting with seemingly every possible voter.

I’m very happy with the job that Governor LePage and the legislature did this past session. I would like to thank them for living up to their promises. We will see results of their reforms by this time next year. We will be better off than we were under Governor Baldacci and the Democrats. Heck, Baldacci did such a bad job as governor that he had to leave the state to find a good job.

And it was absolutely laughable watching the unions protest Governor LePage’s reforms last spring. The same candidates and politicians they’ve supported over the past eight years ran this state into the ground. And we’re still expected to grant them any credibility whatsoever? If Maine kept following the Democrat/union line, we’d surely go from a welfare state to a state of non-existence.

We will be better off next year due to the common-sense reforms of the Governor and GOP legislature. Conservatives need to talk to their family, friends and neighbors: ask them if they honestly believe that any reforms would have taken place if the Democrats were still in control of our government. Those of us who can need to go door to door and talk to voters right now.

The left is well organized for 2012. They were able to gain 68,000 signatures to repeal the same-day voter law. Granted, not all 68,000 folks are going to volunteer and donate funds to support left-wing candidates, but it is a source that the opponents of reforms can draw upon.

I was going to wait until spring to start door-to-door efforts, but I think we need to lay the foundation for victory now. We need to hit homes this fall before the weather turns. The people that I’ve supported, that I believed in, met our expectations. They need to know that we’re behind them and that we’re going to continue to work hard to insure their victory in 2012.

We need to work hard in cities such as Lewiston to defeat politicians who have no intention of supporting common-sense reforms and whose policies actually hurt the poor.

So I look forward to meeting Mainers and talking to them again. Hopefully, not too many will call the police on me.

Jim Sorcek

Lewiston