ME-2: It’s a ‘Frary Home Companion!’

A Frary Home Companion: John Frary's campaign literature.PALMYRA -- It had been a quiet week in Palmyra, a small town on the edge of Newport. The leaves were starting to change, just as they were throughout Maine, turning the landscape from green to gold.

For Mainers, Autumn means the arrival of leaf peepers, not the national news media. But on Saturday, a state that rarely serves as the backdrop for high-profile political rallies welcomed one of America's newest celebrities: Todd Palin.

Palin gave a rousing speech, met with enthusiasm from about 600 Republicans, some parking a mile away on a narrow dirt road. He was long gone by 4:00 p.m. when the three men showed up.

These three men claimed to have just come from a political event of their own, for one John Frary, a long-shot candidate for the 2nd Congressional District. They worked for the man, and wore plastic top-hats with his campaign logo. They came bearing two pieces of highly unusual literature.

One was a thin booklet resembling a 1920s news bulletin. It was entitled, "The Frary Home Companion.”

There is a small disclaimer at the bottom: “Garrison Keillor, eat your heart out.”

Frary, currently a Farmington selectman, is challenging U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud (D-East Millinocket). He prides himself on being the unusual candidate. He dresses like he just stepped out of the roaring 20s, complete with a top hat and a cane. His low, rambling voice claims to speak the truth, as he tries to portray an image that is the polar opposite of “your average politician.”

He recently made statewide news when he admitted that he thought marijuana should be legalized. He admits that while he doesn’t like the earmark system in Congress, he will fight for his fair share because that’s what Congressmen do.

“The Frary Home Companion” is just one of the unusual pieces of literature his campaign hands out. On the front page of the booklet, he describes himself as a “patriot, scholar, philanthropist, curmudgeon (and) seeker of the truth.”

It includes the following dialogue:

A constituent asked: “Does the Second Amendment give me the right to shoot my dog?”

Frary’s response: “Well, that would be my reading of it, but I am a well-known cat person.”

On the second page, he makes a mockery of Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama’s ads. He uses Obama’s logo with his name and photo replaced. It reads: “Yes, we can… if we have the vision* to elect Prof. John Frary to Congress.” The asterisk leads to a number of options at the bottom, which say the word vision can be replaced with phrases such as “brains” or “distaste for Nancy Pelosi.”

The third page outlines a number of Frary’s proposals, which include creating a Northern Maine oil refinery, bringing back Maine Yankee electric, restoring Maine’s rail system, using the state’s rivers for power and stopping the Land Use Regulation Commission’s “looting of land.”

On the sixth page, he Photoshopped himself into a photo, showing him saying the pledge of allegiance with U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Rep. Tom Allen (D-Portland). He shows a Bucksport Enterprise headline that reads: “Politically correct? GOP challenger replies “Hardly!””

On the back is another ad which reads, “I, John Frary, want to be your fearlessly honest, brilliantly pragmatic, pull-no-punches Congressman.”

While “The Frary Home Companion” mostly pokes fun at himself, Frary took aim at the Democrats in another piece of literature his campaign staff handed out that day.

On a yellow flier, Frary introduces “The three amigos of the North Maine woods.” Michaud, Gov. John Baldacci and state Sen. John Martin (D-Eagle Lake) are wearing sombreros labeled Curly, Larry and Moe.

The flier states, “For 30 years they’ve been playing hop-scotch with Maine’s political system while selling our state down the turnpike (i.e. liquor, lottery, health-care). Show them what term-limits really are. There’s a new sheriff in town, and he’s wearing a different hat!”