Name Jean Bright Role Politician | Party Democratic Party | |
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Books Meanwhile Next Door to the Good Life: Homesteading in the 1970s in the Shadow of Helen and Scott Nearing, and How It All and They Ended Up | ||
Jean Hay Bright (born 1947) is an American politician from Maine. Originally a member of the Maine Democratic Party, Hay Bright re-registered as "unenrolled" in December 2009 following the announcement of the Afghanistan War troop surge of 2009.
Hay Bright previously ran for the Democratic nomination to the House of Representatives in 1994 and the Senate in 1996. Hay Bright is also a writer and former investigative reporter who has written three books and many published columns.
A former board member of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA), Hay Bright owns and operates a commercial organic farm with her husband David Bright in Dixmont, Maine. She was a founding member of the Maine Progressive Caucus in 2004, and was on the original Board of Stewards for the Good Life Center, the last homestead of authors Helen and Scott Nearing in Harborside, Maine, serving from 1995 to 2003.
2006 Senate campaign
She announced her candidacy for U.S. Senate in May 2005, and won the Democratic Party nomination in the June 13, 2006, defeating Eric Mehnert by a 600-vote margin, out of approximately 44,000 votes cast. She lost to Olympia Snowe in the November 2006 general election. Hay Bright captured 20.59% of the votes, with 111,984 votes cast. Olympia Snowe won with 74% of the vote, with 402,598 votes cast.