LEBANON — Karen Gerrish and Harrison Thorp are both vying for the Republican nomination for the House District 20 seat, which covers Acton, Lebanon and part of Shapleigh.

”¢ Gerrish, 46, of Lebanon, is an elementary school teacher for Maine School Admini-strative District 60, and is the mother of a 21-year-old son. She served on the Lebanon Budget Committee from 2008-11, and currently is the chairperson of that town’s Board of Selectmen, a board on which she has served since 2011. She was also an associate member of Maine Taxpayers United, a statewide tax watchdog group.

Gerrish said she decided to run for the Legislature so she could help the economic outlook for young people in the state,.

“A lot of our youth leave the state,” said Gerrish, citing a business environment in need of improvement. “I want to better the situation for Maine youth, and help them (stay) in Maine.”

She also expressed a desire to reform the welfare system, curtailing its abuses and helping the state to better itself financially as a result. Maintaining that Maine has rarely had revenue problems, historically, she said that funds generated through taxes shouldn’t be used to subsidize a broken welfare system, and that the money could be better used elsewhere.

On the business front, Gerrish would like to expand the number of Pine Tree Development Zones in the state ”“ programs that offer eligible businesses the chance to reduce or eliminate state taxes for up to 10 years when they meet certain criteria for job creation.

With a father who served in the U.S. Marine Corps, Gerrish also describes herself as a “huge advocate” for veterans, saying that “no one who served our country should be struggling.”

And, being a teacher, Gerrish is passionate about education, and would like to make a push for post-secondary education, as well as vocational schooling and trade education for those who aren’t bound for four-year college degrees.

Ӣ Thorp runs the Lebanon Voice, an online newspaper that covers Lebanon and a handful of communities in New Hampshire. He is unmarried but in a long-term committed relationship, and has three children from a previous relationship: two sons in their 20s, and a daughter who is set to graduate from high school.

Thorp served on the MSAD 60 School Board for a time in the mid-to-late 1990s.

He said it was his experience covering news that inspired him to run for office.

“I began covering Lebanon town government and got caught up in the goings-on of how government works,” said Thorp. “Government is not as efficient as it could be.”

Thorp said he is a believer in reducing the size of government, claiming that largesse contributes to a drag on the economy. He said he would also like to foster the conditions necessary to increase the number of small businesses in the state.

“That will make the economic engine grow much more efficiently,” he said.

Also an advocate of welfare reform, Thorp said the current welfare system disincentivizes people to work, and would favor measures to make the system a gateway to permanent employment.

He also feels that state government often overlooks smaller communities, he said, and would fight to draw more attention to local issues, such as a bridge in Lebanon that is in dire need of repair.

“I want to be an advocate for towns that need it,” he said.

— Staff Writer Jeff Lagasse can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 319 or jlagasse@journaltribune.com.