Paul Gottfried

October 19, 2008

Members of this website are urged to contribute to the electoral campaign of a friend of mine for more than forty years, John Frary, who is running for Congress from the second district in Maine. John, who lives in Farmington, north of Bangor, is a retired academic and learned Byzantinist, who at the age of 66 entered the congressional race in what is the second largest congressional district, spatially, east of the Mississippi River. Having bested a non-descript McCain- Rep in the primary, he is now running against a well-financed Democratic incumbent, while paying for his campaign mostly out of pocket. John is creeping up on his tongue-tied opponent and moving toward a statistical dead-heap, but he needs outside financial help to put him over the top. For those who don?t know him, John is brilliantly articulate and possessed of a true New Englander?s curmudgeonly personality. Although a self-declared admirer of Robert Taft, John?s ancestors may have reached New England even earlier than those of Bob Taft. For me, John is the living embodiment of an older and better America. Although John could not change our decayed political culture by himself (that might take a divine miracle), his presence in Congress would be a significant victory for our side. John?s campaign leader Dan Smiley called me from Maine last night with the message: ?The cupboards are bare but we think we can get there first.? Please try to help this last of a dying breed, a New England Yankee committed to limited constitutional government, get there first.