I was disappointed to see that the executive director of Maine’s Republican Party, Ben Coes, has once again attacked Rep. John Baldacci without justification. For the third time in as many months, he has allowed erroneous information and misguided partisanship to cloud his perception of reality.

In a recent letter to the NEWS, Mr. Coes suggested the Rep. Baldacci is some sort of big spender who couldn’t possibly have voted for a balanced budget. On both counts, he is simply wrong. Mr. Coes must be unaware that John voted for the line-item veto and for a balanced budget amendment. He must not know that John supported a move to make it harder for Congress to increase federal income taxes, and a reform to reduce the size and cost of congressional committees.

To have made such baseless charges, Mr. Coes couldn’t possibly know that John has co-sponsored legislation to end special retirement pensions for members of Congress, refused gifts and meals from lobbyists, and pushed for a bill to return unspent money from congressional offices to the U.S. Treasury for deficit reduction.

Most importantly, he blatantly misrepresents the Gephardt-Stenholm balanced budget plan that John voted for last month. The alternative balanced budget identified $900 billion in spending cuts, and achieved a balanced budget within seven years. Unlike the Republican leadership’s plan, the balanced budget John supported did not contain a huge tax cut for the well-off, and therefore restored money to Medicare and student financial aid.

I am disappointed that Mr. Coes insists on injecting misinformation and mean-spiritedness into the political debate. The people of Maine have repeatedly said that kind of negative politics won’t work in our state. It’s time we heard their voices and lived up to their high standards. Kevin J. Mattson Executive Director Maine Democratic Party Augusta