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Question: Whom do you consider Maine’s best politicians, past, present, or future?
Scott K Fish
The best politicians govern so people can pursue life goals with minimal government interference from bad law, crushing taxation, excessive regulation.
Dixmont’s first selectman, John Olsen, now retired, fit the bill for the 18 years I knew him. John was a public-dollar stretcher, always finding ways to provide townspeople the best service at the best price. What finally caused him not to run again for reelection, John told me, was the heartbreak of collecting taxes from people who truly can’t afford to pay them.
State politicians I know who might have been “best” never had a chance to steer the Ship of State
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[R-Kennebunkport] was in the Maine Legislature (1995–96) when Republicans had the Senate majority by one. He always fought for public policy promoting the American Dream. Hathaway then ran for the U.S. Senate, and electrified the GOP. I was convinced he’d win the primary, but his opponents leaked old, false allegations that destroyed his campaign, ruining the career of one of the finest politicians I’ve met.
When I think of Maine’s best politicians now, I think of ordinary citizens taking on extraordinary political challenges. Example: Mary Adams and the Taxpayer Bill of Rights volunteers taking on a government bureaucracy that would tax the gold out of dead men’s teeth. (Don’t laugh! State Representative Colwell’s bill mandated as antipollution, removing mercury fillings from corpses.) Before TABOR, Adams was successful in leading campaigns to derail the harmful Forest Compact and also to repeal a state property tax. Yet the one time this dynamo ran for public office, she was not elected.
Another one of the best public servants I’ve ever witnessed, Jerry Evans, was a businessman, not a politician.
The January 1998 ice storm is the greatest Maine crisis faced since I’ve lived here. Statewide, people were without electricity, heat, light, food, water, firewood, or the means to get to and from their homes.
Yet, state government was impotent. The first ice storm casualty, ironically, was Maine’s Emergency Alert System (formerly the Emergency Broadcast System)! So Mainers did what good people, given a chance, do best. They helped each other. In Bangor, California transplant Jerry Evans kept his radio station WVOM-FM on air, commercial free, for days. WVOM was a ray of hope, a means for people to give and receive help. WVOM’s volunteers and the National Guard were lifesavers. (Local governments working with local citizens were also heroic during the ice storm, making sure no townspeople were cold or hungry.)
Sadly, Jerry Evans has since moved his family to Nevada. He ran once for the Maine Legislature and was not elected.
Olsen, Hathaway, Adams, and Evans are excellent future role models. A selectman quietly doing right by his townspeople, a state senator wanting all Mainers to have their American Dream, a grandmother fighting to keep socialist schemers out of Maine, and an entrepreneur using his business to help Maine through a natural disaster.
We just have to be wise enough to elect people like them.
Sean Faircloth
Mainers often coddle our senators and congressmen, but beat up our governors. Perhaps we want a united front when facing “the guests,” but fight behind the curtains.
Our senators weren’t all perfection. Ed Muskie had a temper that could tear flesh and was known to enjoy a stiff drink or two. Whitewashed recollections of Margaret Chase Smith ignore her innuendoes that Vietnam War opponents were communist sympathizers, and leave out that she very unwisely voted against the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
Contrastingly, Governor Baldacci overcame a big budget shortfall, but is often not credited for balancing budgets with no broad-based taxes. Yet that’s what the guy did.
Baldacci had it easier in Congress, partly because that job’s easier. Congressmen and senators attend bean suppers, send sympathetic emails, and stand for photos when your daughter gets an award. All commendable, but does it make the world better? Smiles and “listening tours” are wonderful, but help politicians more than they help Maine.
Which of Maine’s Capitol Hill were true statesmen? Ed Muskie gets my vote.
Modern environmentalism started in 1963 when, at Muskie’s request, the Senate Pollution Subcommittee was created. Before then, there had been virtually no federal laws concerning pollution. Muskie’s leadership created 1970’s Clean Air Act, a monumental milestone. Yeah, Muskie was often grouchy, and forgot names. So what? Muskie, unafraid of corporate interests, forced Nixon to agree that the Environmental Protection Agency be an advocate, not adjudicator, of environmental protection.
George Mitchell was majority leader six years—relevant because he was the best. Think: Americans with Disabilities Act and major improvements in environmental laws. Mitchell was named “most respected” senator by a bipartisan group of congressional aides for six consecutive years. Mitchell chaired the Irish peace negotiations. In 1998, Irish voters, north and south, endorsed an agreement Mitchell negotiated—peace after a millenium. Mitchell’s Mideast leadership, equally brilliant, focused on peace.
Who measures up to Muskie and Mitchell? Maybe Attorney General Steve Rowe: integrity, compassion—not a flannel-mouth phony. Children’s issues have been my focus since I was first elected; AG Rowe sincerely shares that commitment. If Democrats gain a congressional majority, Mike Michaud has the negotiating skill to benefit Maine. Tom Allen has the vision to be a policy innovator.
In Maine’s legislature, John Piotti, agriculture committee chair, has intellect—and Mitchell-esque skills at bringing people together.
Future leaders? My gut tells me, Richard Cleary, a legislative candidate in Houlton, has potential to go beyond bean supper smiles and get major results. Ben Pratt, candidate in Holden, has the youth, energy, and gregariousness to make him a rising star. Kim Silsby, an Augusta candidate, has the kind heart and smarts to rise above political infighting and become a leader Mainers hope for in higher office. These are but three of several candidates that make me optimistic about public service.
Maybe you—yes, you—should run for office. Make the world better. Toss your hat in the ring!
