I am a candidate for governor of Maine as a write-in (municipality Bangor). I did not make it onto the ballot. I could provide you with a lot of reasons (“excuses”) why I did not qualify for ballot status, and found myself using a few, but the bottom line is that I made a couple of assumptions that didn’t bear out and we didn’t get the job done.

Four thousand signatures from registered voters is not an insurmountable hurdle by any means to see one’s name on the ballot in November. The first assumption that I made was that I needed to first concentrate on developing a policy base for voters to encounter our positions, which I did through the publication of 20 articles in Maine newspapers, Maine media and public appearances. I believed this was a first

step before collecting signatures.

The second assumption I made relative to ballot status was having too much confidence in selected others to contribute to the campaign collecting signatures that, in the end, did not have sufficient follow-through. This was my error in regard to both not selecting wisely enough and not requiring sufficient accountability.

Although I have achieved quite significantly in life, I have at times been hampered by being too soft-hearted. I have come to increasingly recognize, which I no longer consider an area of impediment, that we do others in addition to ourselves no favors when we allow them to slide by with less than strong performance.

Maine will certainly not thrive if we take any shortcuts at all in that regard. I have come from a family in which with many members there was jealousy in regard to what I work hard to accomplish, and as a result a tremendous amount of displayed apathy if not obstacles were put up in regard to my achieving of goals. Until now I have been embarrassed by the lack of family support, feeling that perhaps it reflected on me in some way despite my continuing honest and best efforts, and kept it hidden.

I am at a point now, through the failure to achieve ballot status, life experiences in general and progress in this campaign, where I have come to recognize the truth is the truth, whatever it may be. Wherever we are at, whether it be in our personal lives or collectively as a state, if we let embarrassment of our shortcomings or station in life (including what we allow from others) to cause us to hide our predicaments then they will not be solved.

Another truth is that following my November 2005 accident in which I was hit by a pick-up truck while a pedestrian that I have continued to heal but it has been at a slower pace than I would have liked. This is also something that I was not wildly enthusiastic about sharing because I also believed people might look down on me in some way (and I didn’t do an overabundance of public events as I was on crutches, and am still on one crutch).

I believe that in Maine there is ample evidence that we are doing poorly, at least relative to many other places. I would like us to accept this (OK, we should debate it openly first before drawing any such conclusions) so that we can move forward from wherever it is that we truly are and recognize ourselves to be.

I know now quite well that just pretending that everything is going to be all right doesn’t make it so.

On our campaign Web site, www.hammer2006.politicalgateway.com, we’ve outlined and detailed what we believe strongly to be “the most sophisticated and insightful economic and overall solutions for Maine” of any candidate for governor, including links to all 20 of those published articles and excerpts.

We invite your comparison between all of the candidates and your own determination. We can’t wish away our problems nor can we attach ourselves to solutions, from whatever quarter they are offered, that we decide collectively as a state are less than our best.

If not elected I will continue to work for our state and would plan to make another run in 2010. I believe that things do happen at the proper time. As a state we may still be invested in our partisan concerns which do not bring together and leverage our strengths but instead focus our energies, which should most productively be focused toward outward battles (competing against other states and the rest of the world) instead towards inward philosophical differences.

They say the truth can set you free. But only, I believe, as is verbalized in a famous movie line, if we wish to and can handle that truth.

Alex Hammer of Bangor is a write-in candidate for governor.