Democrat Bill Diamond of Windham is the incumbent running for re-election against Republican Ryan McDonald of Windham for Senate District 26.

District 26 covers Baldwin, Casco, Frye Island, Raymond, Standish and Windham.

Diamond, 71, is co-owner of All-Med Staffing of New England in Windham. He has served a total of 11 terms in the state Legislature. He is married with two adult children and eight grandchildren.

McDonald declined to be interviewed for a candidate profile.

Diamond said the Legislature should focus on bringing in good-paying jobs and giving incentives to small businesses. The Legislature also “really has to work more to protect kids from abuse and sexual assault and the sex-trafficking of children,” he said.

An issue of importance to his constituents, Diamond said, is property taxes. He said the Windham delegation should continue to maintain revenue sharing from the state, because it helps to keep property taxes down.

To address high levels of opiate addiction in the state, Diamond said the Legislature should look to prevention, education and treatment efforts. He said the Legislature took steps last session to reduce opiate addiction by restricting the availability and dosage of prescription drugs, but more work needs to be done to make this measure workable.

When asked whether he would support action against Gov. Paul LePage in response to the voicemail the governor left Rep. Drew Gattine-D Westbrook, in August, Diamond said, “I would like to see (the Legislature) focus on solving problems we have. If we spend the first two months (of the six-month legislative session) doing something unrelated to major issues, the people have been failed.”

He will be voting no on Question 1, to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes, in part because Attorney General Janet Mills issued a statement last week that said the bill would allow people under 21 to have legal access to marijuana, he said.

He said he will vote for Question 2, to levy a 3 percent tax on people with income $200,000 or more for the purposes of funding public education. However, he said the money will go the general fund and could be used for purposes besides education.

Diamond said although he supports background checks, he does not support Question 3, which would require background checks for private gun sales. The way Question 3 is written, he said, it would hurt Maine hunting traditions by requiring people to get a background check before loaning a firearm to a friend.

Diamond is voting in favor of Question 4, to raise the minimum wage to $12 per hour from $7.50 per hour by 2020, but he said one problem with the bill is that it eliminates the tip credit.

Diamond, who served for eight years as Maine Secretary of State, will not support ranked-choice voting (Question 5) because upgrading the voting-related equipment to implement the system would be expensive, he said. He also said Attorney General Janet Mills has written an opinion that ranked-choice voting is unconstitutional.

Ranked-choice voting would allow voters to rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate wins by a majority, the last-place candidate would be eliminated and second- or third-choice votes would be taken into account until a candidate wins by a majority.

Mills said Question 5 is unconstitutional because the constitution calls for candidates to win by a plurality, rather than a majority, of votes.

Diamond will support Question 6, to appropriate $100 million in bonds for transportation projects, because improving transportation facilities is important for the economy and will create jobs by “putting people to work to fix roads and bridges that in some cases have been neglected for years,” he said.

Diamond will be voting for Hillary Clinton for president.

Bill Diamond