Young legislators introduce Clinton, Obama Saturday

Click here for video of Rep. Emily Cain introducing Hillary Clinton.

Update: Video of Sean Faircloth 

Members of state government took on the task of introducing both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama during separate events Saturday.

This included two members who are in their 20s – Reps. Emily Cain and Jeremy Fischer. This was a measure taken on by both candidates to encourage young people to get out to the polls.

Also speaking at the Clinton event was Gov. John Baldacci. At the Obama event, Speaker of the House Glenn Cummings, D-Portland, and House Majority Whip Sean Faircloth, D-Bangor, spoke.

Cain, D-Orono, introduced Clinton at the University of Maine at Orono that morning. Cain represents the college town.

She told the crowd of about 1,700 that she was elected to the House at age 24, and is finishing up her second term. She is the youngest woman serving. Often, people ask when she’s going to run for a higher office, she said.

“Then, undoubtedly, someone says ‘Emily, I can’t wait to vote for you as the first woman president of the U.S.’ I always say, ‘I hope we don’t have to wait that long’,” Cain told the group. “That wait is over. That time is now. That opportunity starts tomorrow.”

That afternoon in Bangor, Fischer, D-Presque Isle, took a different approach. He spoke out against President Bush’s administration, and then encouraged the crowd to take out their cell phones and each make one call to a voter. Staff handed out numbers before the event.

Fischer called a voter named Mary, who – at least from Fischer’s end of the conversation – appeared to be an Obama supporter.

“Can you help us make this the largest phone bank here in Maine?” Fischer asked the crowd. He exited the stage, and not too many appeared to be making calls.

Both Cain and Fischer were on record in October as supporting John Edwards. They both chose their respective candidates after Edwards dropped out.

Fischer said the campaign contacted him because the Obama campaign wanted a young person from Northern Maine to speak. Cain said she was asked to speak because Orono is her district.

Cain said that although she didn’t know who would win the nomination – Clinton or Obama. Nonetheless, knowing that the next president was in the area that day was “the opportunity of a lifetime,” she said.

The campaign didn’t give her any talking points.

“I just spoke from my heart,” she said.