As grudgingly as I criticize Paul LePage, he is the best candidate for governor.

Libby Mitchell — with her “educational” background — obliged our present state in the race to the bottom by cutting federal funding and state funding to Maine public schools, and bravely stepped aside and watched as the state sank deeper and deeper, losing more students to the margins of societal standards to escape from Maine.

The better jobs and dwindling debts that Augusta parties have forced us into come from both sides.

I disdain and distance myself from several Republicans, but LePage can credit his welfare reform and volunteer platforms toward earning my vote.

Joseph Ziehm, Lewiston