Scontras Maine GOP Convention Speech, May 2, 2008

My name is Constantine Peter Scontras, and my friends and family call me Dean.

My family is the single most important thing in the world to me and I'd like to take a moment to introduce some of them to you - My parents Pete & Sophie. My beautiful wife Dawn, our two lovely children Jack and Zoe. The Scontras family is from Southern Maine, and as I usually this say about the York Country area, I guess it's true here today - you can't throw a block of feta cheese without hitting a Scontras! I am proud of my family.

Family is the Cornerstone. When you walk into our home in Eliot there is a weathered wooden sign that reads, "Home is where your story begins." Around that sign is a mosaic of pictures that tell the story. I am proud to say that the Scontras Family has called Maine 'home' for almost 100 years. My grandfather came here, legally, from Greece. He came penniless; didn't speak the language but had a pocket full of dreams.

Since their arrival, my family has fought in World War II and Korea. We have gone to public schools, to MaineMaritimeAcademy and the University of Maine. We have played football (lots and lots of football.) Maine is in our blood.

Like my parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, Mainers do the heroic daily. It's deep within the Maine soul to brave the elements without complaint. Mainers are naturally a stoic and silent lot, preferring action to words. Perhaps it is our long legacy with the sea that made us as such. As ship builders and sea goers, life in Maine has always required a certain toughness and stiff upper lip and a respect for things greater than oneself.

As a child, I watched my father walk to work each day, lunch pail in hand. He left the same time each morning, returned the same time each night. On one of the coldest nights last winter I spied a sole welder working in a crows nest high above Bath Iron Works.

One Mainer shared with me recently her memories of watching her Uncle stand outside factory gates waiting to work, too proud to take a dime from the state.

The Maine I know, the Maine I was brought up in, was one of the rugged individualist, where we understood the value of hard work, never spent more than we made. We cherished the values of family. We didn't look to Hollywood, MTV or Washington, DC for heroes because they were there around our kitchen tables each night, stoic and heroic.

Mainers, by our very nature, have historically been very conservative.

Some have suggested that the conservative flame in Maine is but a flicker. To the contrary, I have seen that flame burn in each one of you, and you, in turn helped to ignite this conservative candidate's campaign! However, our conservative voices are being drowned out by the indignant activist and the professional protestor. Moveon.org has truly moved in on Maine! Groups like Moveon.org are working 24/7 to change the culture in our towns and cities. They are well connected, well organized and well funded.

Our foes are bold. Some have suggested in pursuit of victory we not be so bold, that we somehow appease them. Folks, we have been here before. Amidst the political turmoil of the 1970s, many had written the political obituary on the conservative movement. It was then that Ronald Reagan said, "We should not raise a banner of pale pastels, but bold colors which make it unmistakably clear where we stand on the all of the issues troubling our nation."

Let me be clear, I will not compromise on my way to victory this November! I will speak boldly about the immorality of high taxes and the failures of the liberal welfare state. I will boldly declare that maintaining our national sovereignty means securing the border and not permitting amnesty to those whose first act here was to break the law. And I will boldly defend the truth that we cannot diminish the value of one category of human life - the unborn - without diminishing the value of all human life.

I have never considered bending my principles for political expediency. Reagan showed us it doesn't take political experience to represent the people. It only requires that one have the courage of his convictions. Like Reagan, I am citizen candidate, an outsider. I have not had the advantage of political connections, nor legislative relationships.

Of all branches of government, the House of Representatives is the closest to the people.

It is our House of Commons. With short terms of two years, it is intended that members of Congress come from the rank and file of the citizenry - farmers, doctors, teachers, shop owners; even former slaves have served in Congress. It was never intended be a body of career politicians, controlled by the web of influence that has become Washington, DC.

This candidacy was not bestowed upon me or encouraged by a member of the establishment. To the contrary, I am earning it the old fashioned way, in a way that should make every Mainer proud - through hard work, through the courage of my convictions.

When you go into the voting booth on June 10th, ask yourself, "What would Reagan do?"

Would he paint with pale pastels, or would he paint with bold colors?

I am asking you on June 10th to keep the conservative fire alive for the next generation of the Republican Party, for all the young people up here with me today. Together, let's raise the Next Generation Republican Party banner over Maine. Not one of pale pastels, but one of bold, true colors for all to see. Maine is the first state to see the sun rise each morning. On June 10th, let that hopeful, promising light shine on Maine's Republican Party.

Thank you.