Yesterday Congressman Michaud released a fundraising email letter in which he states of Jason Levesque that ..'his time in the telemarketing industry has convinced him that you can replace middle-class jobs making products with jobs making calls."

The 'job making calls' reference relates to Levesque's background and the recent announcement by Connect North America Corp. of Presque Isle Maine that it was closing a call-center at the cost of 100 jobs.

Jason Levesque has fired back at Michaud saying;

• "First, I'd like to tell Mike Michaud that my mother raised me, put food on my table and a roof over my head with a 'job making calls' for L.L. Bean. Therefore, I clearly find it a very honorable line of work, not one to be mocked in an effort to raise money for his political campaign. Secondly, this comes on the heels of a company in Presque Isle announcing it was shutting its call center because of the bad economy and 100 people who have 'jobs making calls' are now unemployed. Maybe if Mike Michaud were more attuned to what was going on in his state, he wouldn't be so quick to criticize so many hard working Mainers, in an attempt to game political points-or cash."
  
  "People are losing their jobs and Mike Michaud and Congress are doing nothing to help. And to be clear, helping means getting out of the way of good business. Trade, commerce, employment-it all will improve if Mike Michaud and his colleagues in Congress stop the increasing bureaucracy, massive regulation and out of control spending." Jason continued, "There are a lot of Mainers right now who would love to have 'jobs making calls.'"

It looks like the fight has begun folks.