Tom Sawyer, former two-term State Senator and current Senate candidate for the District 32 seat (Bangor and Herman), took former Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives/current Senate Democratic Leader/35 year veteran of state politics Libby Mitchell to task in a column published in the Bangor Daily News this week.

 Sawyer's column is in response to a June 27th column in the BDN written by Mitchell (D-Augusta), in which she attacked Newell Augur, leader of the People's Veto effort to repeal a $70 million tax increase to fund the government-run Dirigo Health program.

 Highlights of Sawyer's column include:

• Labels of "career politician" and "out-of-touch" when referring to Mitchell.
•  Charges that Mitchell is avoiding the issue of a $70 million tax increase on beer, wine, soda and health insurance claims while Mainers' face one of the highest tax burdens in the country.
• Recollections of promises that Dirigo would cover every uninsured Mainer by 2009 and never require a tax increase for funding.

Perhaps Sawyer's most potent sting against Mitchell is found towards the end of the column where he call in to question Senator Mitchell's attacks on Newell Augur for being a puppet of lobbyists.  Here it is:.

 Sen. Mitchell's personal political action committee, Mitchell Leadership Fund, received more than $20,000 in contributions from lobbyists and large national corporations - over two-thirds of the total contributions received during the entire reporting period. If we were to hold Sen. Mitchell to the same standards she holds Augur, then perhaps Sen. Mitchell should be held accountable for being a tool of corporate America as well."

This back and forth in the editorial pages is all very interesting for the 50 or so insiders that read it. Unfortunately for Tom, however, he's not running against Libby Mitchell for the State Senate.  He's going for a rematch against Sen. Joe Perry, the chair of the taxaxtion committee and Democrat, who took the seat from Sawyer in 2004.

If I were Mr. Sawyer, I would knock on 50 doors in Bangor and leave the soda wars to the professionals.

 Expect to see a Joe Perry op-ed soon.