Every two years, Mainers go to the polls to have their neighbors — maybe even their friends — represent them in Augusta. We always hope that, by giving candidates our votes, they’ll fight tooth and nail for our interests.

Sometimes, however, they lose sight of what’s really important. When I cast my ballot, I want my representative and senator to make sure our schools have the funding they need, our roads and bridges are taken care of, and our social systems are preserved so those who need it are taken care of.

What I don’t ask for is for my representatives to go out of their way to spend $13.5 billion — three times the size of our state’s budget — on some vindictive, petty tirade against our electrical providers, purely out of spite.

But that’s exactly what some of them are doing. Rep. Seth Berry and his supporters are trying to pass a referendum that would seize CMP and Versant and then present all of us electric customers with the bill. If representatives want to waste their terms in the State House, we voters will make sure they don’t get another chance

Richard Grimshaw

Randolph