Yes its time to bring back only good news sunday, and good lord do we need it. Here is the very best political article I’ve ever read, for your coffee-sipping enjoyment. You’re welcome.

How beavers became a campaign issue in a Bangor-area Maine Senate race

If you live in Bangor, you may have received a mailer yesterday blaring that the Democratic state senator there is “GUILTY!” of partially unspecified criminal and ethical lapses — including a 2001 episode in which he unlawfully removed two beaver traps.

The mailer from Republican Jim LaBrecque, a Bangor refrigeration technician who has been a formal and informal energy adviser and ally to Gov. Paul LePage, shook up a sleepy race against Sen. Geoff Gratwick, D-Bangor, that party groups are barely contesting money-wise in 2018.

The Gratwick episodes that LaBrecque highlights in the broadside are minor — as far as crimes and Maine Ethics Commission fines go. LaBrecque’s mailer, which he said was sent to nearly 19,000 people, accuses Democrats and the Bangor Daily News of suppressing information about Gratwick. The chief incident cited on the mailer is a well-publicized incident from 2001, in which he was convicted of a misdemeanor crime and fined $238 for tampering with beaver traps in his neighborhood — of all things.

The short version? Beavers took over a small pond in a residential neighborhood. Neighbors liked it. Gratwick led an effort to post the land the beavers were on. But it turned out it wasn’t legal to post. Gratwick ended up removing two traps set by a Bangor man, which is a Class E misdemeanor in Maine. In the end, the trapper got his three beavers.

Now that’s my kind of politician. I never ever say this when reading political ads, but please tell me more?

Messing with beaver traps turns into campaign mud in state Senate race

Gratwick, a 75-year-old retired rheumatologist, said he removed the two traps from a pond near his home on outer Kenduskeag Avenue because his children at the time were “horrified” as trappers began to harvest the animals from a spring-fed pond that was adjacent to a public road and open to trapping.

He said he didn’t know he was breaking the law when he took the traps, but willingly paid the fine after he was cited for “disturbing traps” by the Maine Warden Service. He said the wardens returned the traps to their owner.

“I must admit, we enjoyed these beavers, we had even given them names,” Gratwick said in an interview Wednesday.

Honestly, I don’t live in your district or even your state, but I would vote for you right away. It’s amusing how his opponent thinks he’s “GOT HIM!” by releasing this information. Does he really understand his constituents so little that he can’t imagine removing beaver traps might be a good thing? Or that an attachment to the animals might appeal to his voters?

Here are just a few of the reasons why beavers should not be trapped, and a graphic that I’ve been working on. The artwork as usual isn’t mine.