TOPSHAM

Rep. Andrew Mason is withdrawing his candidacy from the Maine House District 54 race awaiting Topsham voters in the November general election.

Mason planned to run for a second term in the Legislature, collecting signatures and donations for a clean election campaign earlier this year. His name appeared on the primary ballot as the Democratic candidate for District 54, which ensures the Democrats can have a candidate on the general election ballot. Topsham Democrats plan to caucus July 8 to choose the person they want to take Mason’s place on the ballot.

The Topsham resident has represented District 60 — which includes most of Topsham — since he was first elected to the Legislature in November 2012. Following the statewide redistricting that took effect this year, all of Topsham now falls within House District 54.

Finding himself laid off from his previous job at the end of December 2013, Mason accepted a job at the end of April working for attorney Daniel Lilley at a small law office “and the question was, was there a way that I would be able to do the work and be able to accommodate that with the schedule of the Legislature,” Mason said.

Having tried it for two months, he felt the work at the law office is too much to be able to properly represent Topsham, which he didn’t want to do “in a part-time manner.”

He is practicing more trial-based law with more deadlines. Married with an 11-year-old daughter, Mason said “being able to take care of the family is first and foremost.”

“I truly felt blessed and thankful beyond imagination for the awesome responsibility and opportunity,” Mason said of the time he has represented Topsham residents.

He’s always volunteered and given back to the community, he said, serving on Topsham Development Inc. and then the Topsham Board of Selectmen before he got the opportunity to go to Augusta to try to do good by the community there, and “I thoroughly enjoyed that. I loved knocking on doors, talking to people. I’m going to miss that.”

During his time in Augusta, he witnessed an interesting political dynamic, he said, frustrating one day “and exhilarating the next. It felt so good when you were able to accomplish something that you thought helped people,” but was so disappointing when “what you thought was such a good idea was rejected.”

He acknowledged it is “difficult to go up there and not feel the pressure of lobbyists, of your party or other organizations up there. And it’s hard to stand up for what you believe in when you have so much pressure from other areas, but I think the longer I was in the job, the better I was able to cope with that and manage that.”

He recalls a senator that gave him some words of advice for those times when he was struggling with a vote: “You have to wake up and look yourself in the mirror and know that you’re voting for you and your constituents, and you don’t worry about the party or lobbyists.”

An attorney trained to listen to both sides before making up his mind on something, Mason said he is open-minded and has been able to weigh the relative strengths and weaknesses of both sides of an issue.

“I always thought when I ran that the reason I was elected was because people trusted my judgment,” and ability to look at an issue fairly, he said.

If there was one thing he tried to push more than anything else for his constituents, it was the bill to raise the school construction bond cap by $10 million in fiscal years 2014 and 2015. LD 91 became law in April 2013.

Mt. Ararat High School landed right on the cusp of funding in the last two school construction rating cycles. The state Board of Education earlier this year gave the OK for the next six schools on the last priority list to proceed — which includes Mt. Ararat and Morse high schools. “I’m just happy that that finally got done because I got told that was going to be done almost a year ago,” Mason said.

Throughout most of the process working in the Legislature, he said it felt like he could work with anybody on issues — partisan or not — though some were more divisive than others. Seeing Republicans switch votes on bills vetoed by Gov. Paul LePage to uphold the veto was a frustration that he said was “injecting politics into decision making when it didn’t need to be.”

Mason said he is disappointed he couldn’t run for another term because “I love the job of serving and being a legislator. It was a fantastic experience and I think I’m good at it. But it has to be weighed against the long hours and lack of pay.”

Still Mason said he will continue to serve his community in whatever manner that accommodates his job.

“My advice is to be as in touch and as involved in the community as possible because I think the best legislators” are those with an ear to the ground of what’s going on in their community, Mason said. Be as open-minded as possible, he said, because “there’s good people on both sides of an issue.”

And finally, “remember who you represent, that it’s your vote and you’ve got to be responsible for that.”

dmoore@timesrecord.com