Full name: Clayton W. Haskell

Address: 9 Harriet Ave., Windham

Family: Married with one daughter

Clayton Haskell is the Republican challenger to House District 110, comprised of portions of Windham and Gray.

Haskell is the owner of Pleasant River Farm & Feed, and is a treasurer and past president of the American Pinzgauer Association, and a past director of the Maine Farm Bureau and past president of Cumberland County Farm Bureau. He has served on the Windham Planning Board and the Windham Comprehensive Planning Committee.

Haskell said state government now has too many career politicians out of touch with what it takes to make a living in Maine.

“We need to change the Legislature,” he said. “We’ve got a bunch up there now who are not working for small business people.”

Haskell, a farmer, said he is sick of seeing the state use taxpayer money to buy new equipment for the University system that business owners could not afford because of taxes.

“That’s why a lot of people are leaving the state, because we are being taxed too much,” he said. “They keep driving us out little by little.”

The agriculture, forestry and fishery industries, which Haskell calls the backbone of the Maine economy, are being hurt, he said. Land being carved up for house lots is being taken out of the agriculture industry, he said. Haskell would favor tax policies more favorable to maintaining open land, perhaps by establishing a lower rate for large tracts of open land.

“If we had current use taxation that would help a lot,” he said. “I think you’d see a lot more people keep their land rather than sell it off.”

Taxes overall are just too high, Haskell said. For instance, he disagrees with the beverage tax passed last session in Augusta that legislators want to use to fund the Dirigo Health program.

“I already pay insurance and now they are asking me to pay someone else’s insurance,” Haskell said. “That’s not right.”

Part of the problem, he said, are the career politicians in Augusta who mindlessly vote the party line rather than for what their constituents want.

“What would be nice is if they worked for the people and not for any party in particular,” Haskell said. “They’re saying what their party wants them to say.”

Clayton W. Haskell