The Hannaford Lecture Hall buzzed with the chatter of attendees Thursday, September 14 when a voice boomed near the front row. At 7:55 a.m. conversation stopped and everyone’s attention focused on a bearded man with a cane, a service dog and a bullhorn who turned from talking to a debate organizer to address the crowd: “This is discrimination. I’m the people’s hero. They cannot exclude me from this debate, I graduated from this university.”
Phillip Morris NaPier , the People’s Hero, had arrived.
The Environmental and Energy Technology Council of Maine invited incumbent governor Democrat John Baldacci, Green party candidate Pat LaMarche, Independent Barbara Merrill and Republican Chandler Woodcock to attend a debate at the Abromson Center to discuss environmental and energy issues. According to John Ferland, the debate organizer, the council invited only “the major candidates,” which meant that though NaPier’s name will be on the November ballot, he was not invited.
“We were comfortable with these four because those are the four everybody else was following,” Ferland told Maine Things Considered.
NaPier, an Air Force veteran and a former felon, ran for governor in 2002 as a write-in candidate, but this time he collected the signatures required for his name to appear on the ballot.
“I’m the only one of the five candidates to have got all the signatures I needed myself. Over 5,000 of them,” NaPier said as he stood out front of the Abromson Center after being asked to leave the lecture hall by university police. “This is clearly a case of discrimination.”
As the other four gubernatorial candidates debated inside, NaPier got on his bullhorn and continued to protest. After about twenty minutes the Portland police arrived and three officers told him he could continue his protest, but he must do it quietly; his bullhorn was disturbing the peace. After asking directions to President Pattenaude’s office, NaPier walked away.
Inside, the other four candidates discussed environmental and energy issues from nuclear power to the condition of Maine’s rivers, voicing many similar opinions. Barbara Merrill made several pointed comments about Senator Woodcock’s and Governor Baldacci’s voting records, taking the most aggressive stance of the candidates. LaMarche kept the discussion light, throwing in humorous stories and making self-deprecating jokes. Baldacci and Woodcock answered matter-of-factly, their answers on topic, without acknowledgment of the other attendees.
At the end of the hour and a half debate, which was broadcast live on WMPG, the comments returned to NaPier. “Nothing any of us has said will be remembered as much as this morning’s outburst,” Merrill said in her closing statement.
The doors opened and people flooded out into the Abromson Center to chat, to talk with the candidates, and to eat scones and blueberry muffins. Politics was the topic here and there, but in most circles the discussions centered on the older gentleman with the big white dog, bullhorn and beard. The Environmental and Energy Council had planned to host a debate, but the show they got was a little more exciting than they had planned.