SANFORD — Democratic U.S. Congressman Mike Michaud said he loves his job in Washington but he’s running for governor of Maine because he’s got some concerns about the direction in which the state’s headed.

Michaud, who was joined on the stump in Sanford Friday afternoon by state Sen. John Tuttle, and Reps. Andrea Boland, Anne-Marie Mastraccio and Bill Noon, took a tour of the newly renovated Sanford Mill, Trafton Senior Center and Nasson Health Center, which opened earlier this year.

He smiled, shook hands and admired a baby at the mill, and then shook some more hands after saying a few words at the senior center.

“I’m concerned where Maine’s headed,” he told a full house at Trafton Senior Center.

He pointed out that the local legislative delegation tried to head off the LePage administration’s proposed cost shift to municipalities this session, but wasn’t entirely successful. The Legislature ended up cutting revenue sharing ”“ but didn’t eliminate it entirely ”“ as had been proposed by Republican Gov. Paul LePage.

“When I was in the Legislature, I made sure we didn’t do that,” he said of the cost shift.

Michaud, the ranking member of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Veterans Affairs Committee, served several terms in the Maine Legislature before being elected to Congress in 2002, representing Maine’s sprawling 2nd Congressional District. He worked 29 years at the Great Northern Paper mill in East Millinocket, he told the senior citizens.

And he’s one of three men in the race for governor in the 2014 election. Gov. LePage is scheduled to formally announce he is seeking re-election on Tuesday, and independent Eliot Cutler is mounting his second bid for the state’s highest office.

Michaud said 70,000 more Mainers, including 3,000 more veterans, would have received benefits under the Affordable Care Act, but LePage vetoed the measure even though it passed in the Legislature. There weren’t enough votes to overturn the veto.

“We’ve definitely got to take advantage of resources at the federal level,” said Michaud.

That might happen next year. Maine Democrats have relaunched their campaign to expand health care coverage to about 70,000 low-income residents under the federal health care overhaul, and will reintroduce a Medicaid expansion bill when they return in January, according to the Associated Press.

On a tour of the Washington Street mill ”“ where all 36 apartment units have been leased, two commercial tenants have moved in and a brew pub is on the horizon ”“ he listened as owners Rex Bell and Josh Benthien outlined the process to renovate the 1915 mill, beginning with Sanford taking the property by eminent domain.

“If it were not for the collaboration and partnership, this mill would still be in disrepair,” said Bell.

The financing package included state and federal tax credits, federal brownfields money, loans from banks, owner equity, loans and grants from Southern Maine Planning and Development Commission, and $3.7 million in federal Neighborhood Stabilization funds as part of the federal stimulus package.

Michaud applauded the public and private collaboration.

“We ought to do more of it,” he said.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.