Michael McClellan, incumbent

Party Affiliation: Republican

Age: 52

Town: Raymond

Occupation: Consultant

Political experience: Current Maine House District 103 representative in 125th Legislature, first term. Lifelong conservative. two terms as Raymond School Board member including chair; one term Raymond Select board including chair. Served various appointed and volunteer committees in Raymond and Poland.

1. What do you think the three most important issues are? Please identify at least one of those issues specific to your district.

Education reform:

As a member of the legislative education committee and with a background in education I feel I have some insight into this issue. This is not simply a teachers are good or teachers are bad issue, it is much more complicated. Our system has many positives and some problems as is demonstrated by student achievement. We know many students leave high school and are not ready for college. Issues to be considered included school funding, how we use our school day and yes, student achievement. I reflected often over the past two years how we as a society have made schools doctors, restaurants, daycares, recreation centers, social workers and counseling centers. Then we are upset when the (overburdened teachers) don’t seem to teach. We need to better support our teachers and free them to teach.

Solution: One thing I hope to lead in is looking at the school day and removing things the legislature has added to teachers’ burdens so they can simply teach. Businesses statewide tell us that there are jobs but not the qualified workforce to take them. We need to focus on getting more students in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) areas. We also need to be OK that some students look at trades (plumbing, carpentry…), areas they can make a good living while escaping the high debt of our college system.

Regulatory Reform:

Maine has been burdened by regulations that added to the work of our business community. I have heard many stories of people with good ideas to begin or add to their business who simply walked away due to the cost and effort involved with the regulation process. In the past two years Maine has begun to look at our regulations and make common-sense changes. More needs to be done to ensure businesses can grow and will look at Maine as a potential place to open shop.

Solution: Another legislative regulatory reform committee such as I participated with in 2010 would be a start. Tour the state, talk with businesses and then propose (enact) more change. I also believe each of the standing legislative committees should regularly look at the state laws in their purview and remove ones that do not need to be there. (Just like our town select board and school boards consider town policies). Local control is most often the best method of legislation.

Making good decisions for families and for the Maine:

Two years ago the path Maine was on in terms of budget and funding was not going to work forever, we would have been forced eventually to make drastic decisions down the road (similar to what we see the federal government wrestling with now) if not for actions taken over the past two years by the Governor and 125th Legislature. I believe too many past leaders chose to add to the burden of the state with new programs and ideas hoping they would not be around when the state began to unravel. The 125th made many hard choices. Rep. Rich Cebra led an effort to fully fund our road and highway budget so that we can do the needed regular work. Past legislatures have moved that road money and then asked you to borrow (bond) the work that should be in the budget. This affects Raymond and my district as our town management continues to make good decisions locally and do the right thing and then have been affected negatively by state decisions in past years.

Solution: I believe we have a responsibility to take care of those in need. Making it too easy to get benefits threatens to ultimately take resources from those who are in need. The next Legislature needs to again begin to draw lines in the sand, to prioritize needed work such as taking care of our needy and our state infrastructure (roads and bridges). Once the things we must do are completed, more hard decisions must be made with whatever funding is left. I believe this is how many of you run your household. As Maine continues the path I suggest, we will begin to actually control our finances and make informed, not forced decisions. This is hard work and not everyone is willing to do it. I am.

3. Do you support same-sex marriage?

I do not support same-sex marriage. I have a biblical view of marriage. Something I do not see said often in this discussion is how it is another example of how government has inserted itself into our lives and caused problems. Government decided it could make money by forcing people to buy a license to marry. The wiggle room on the definition of marriage created by government involvement will not end for this issue regardless of the outcome this November.

Leslie “Jim” Stephenson

Party affiliation: Democrat

Age: 58

Town: Raymond

Occupation: Veterinarian, Small Business Valuation Analyst

Political experience: Former co-chair of the Raymond Comprehensive Plan Committee and member of the Comprehensive Plan Implementation Committee, which spanned a course of nearly ten years. Member of the “302 & You” Committee of the Greater Portland Council of Governments, Cumberland County Regional Comprehensive Plan.

1. What do you think the three most important issues are? Please identify at least one of those issues specific to your district.

Dysfunctional Government:

Our current state administration, with the support of my opponent, has taken the worst of Washington politics and brought it to Maine. For the first time in recent history the legislature has decided to ram a partisan budget through with a simple majority rather than a bipartisan, more representative approach. Out-of-state corporate interests are taking precedence over those of the Maine people as the content of legislation is often their doing. The process is tainted by the hordes of money now legally flowing into politics, making a sham of our democracy. To top this off the current legislature passed a tax bill that will benefit the 1 percent wealthiest in the state with up to 30 times in savings over that of the typical middle class family. It is no wonder my opponent and the governor passed a law to limit the number of Maine citizens that could vote! Rep. McClellan has contributed to the dysfunction and mistrust of government by endorsing and participating in the process of forcing legislation through without proper discourse and discovery.

Economy:

Maine has actually lost jobs while under my opponent’s watch. During the last two years in the legislature, ideology has trumped representation. The results? The census bureau recently reported that Maine was one of only a few states in the country where the economy actually slid backward last year. Health insurance legislation hastily passed in the last session of the legislature has resulted in increased costs to 90 percent of small businesses, while the rate of increase for the rest of the country has improved. More Mainers are now uninsured, while the nation has shown an increase in those insured. In this legislation, passed with the enthusiastic support of Rep. McClellan, some in our most populated age group could be paying 500 percent more for their health insurance than the lowest rate! The new tax law will result in increased property taxes as cost burdens shift from the state to the town, increasing the financial burden on most residents and squeezing the middle class more. Placing ideology before constituents’ needs is not sensible governing.

Roads:

Rather than debate funds for a new east-west highway the existing one needs to be improved! Route 302 is our existing east-west corridor and is the second busiest, non-interstate highway in Maine. It slows to a crushing crawl at times. This makes transit time for tourists, commuters and emergency vehicles extremely slow. Other roads in the district are in such a state of disrepair that they are damaging to our cars and dangerous for all concerned. Funding has been put off for our roads so long we are going to have greater expenses to fix them.

2. What do you think the solutions are?

Dysfunctional Government:

Government needs to be transparent and there should be no options for keeping secrets from the discerning eye of the public it serves. If laws allowing corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money, as if they were people, are not enacted at the federal level, then legislation on the state level needs to be pursued to correct this. Term limits need to be continued in Maine and implemented in Washington. Electing representatives that promote a view that compromise, rather than rigid ideology, is necessary to keep government working for the people. I support Clean Election funding as it results in people, rather than money running for office, and removes many of the avenues of influence peddling.

Economy:

We need leadership to bring us together and embrace investments needed to empower our children with the best education in the nation so they can become the answer to the future. Supporting investments in research and development at the university level, job training to match workers’ skills with jobs available, and the infrastructure necessary for growth will bring us higher paying jobs and a better future. Showing that we support our teachers will attract the best candidates for future positions. Maintaining and protecting our environment and quality of life will be necessary to attract businesses that rely on skilled workers wanting to come to live in Maine, and to ensure we have an improving tourist industry for the years to come. No investment, no future.

Roads:

Where the roads are in disrepair, bonds will be necessary to upgrade. Appropriate maintenance funds should be in the annual budget of every town and protected as such rather than chiseled out for other purposes. Smart planning to reduce sprawl, concentrating infrastructure needs and resulting in fewer roads is the long-term key to budget efficiency.

3. Do you support same-sex marriage?

Yes. Two people committed to each other as life-partners should have the option of all the legal advantages the civil contract of marriage provides.

Election 2012
Stephenson