Eric L Brakey

Republican

Office Sought: Senator – District 20
Age: 28
Occupation: Financial Records – Brakey Energy
Education: B.F.A.
Family: Single
Hometown: Auburn

Political experience

For the last two years, I have represented the people of Auburn, New Gloucester, Poland, Minot and Mechanic Falls in the Maine Senate.

Serving as Senate Chairman for the Health and Human Services Committee, I’ve worked to reform welfare: sponsoring more welfare reform legislation than any other person in Augusta and leading the negotiations to pass a prohibition on the purchase of alcohol, cigarettes and lottery tickets with Maine welfare dollars.

I also successfully passed “Right to Try” legislation, allowing terminally ill patients the right to try investigational drugs and treatments that haven’t yet completed the FDA approval process. When you only have six months to live, you can’t afford to wait ten years on government bureaucracy. As a result, we became the 25th “Right to Try” state in the nation.

Before running for office, I served as the Maine State Director for the Ron Paul 2012 Presidential Campaign.

Why are you running for office?

I believe in limited government, fiscal responsibility and personal freedom. I believe that Maine people know how to live their lives and spend their hard-earned money better than any government bureaucrat. I believe that individuals prosper best when government gets out of the way and let’s people achieve their full potential.

Unfortunately, we’ve seen what policies of high taxes and high spending have done to our state over the last 40 years. With some of the highest tax rates in the country, these policies have strangled our economy, driving jobs out-of-state and our young people along with them. Failed policies have encouraged intergenerational dependence on welfare, robbing many Maine people of their ambitions and teaching future generations how to work the system, instead of how to work a job.

That’s why I’ve worked to lower taxes — so Maine people can keep more of what they earn and we can attract job creators back to Maine.

That’s why, as Chairman for the Health and Human Services Committee, I’ve led the effort to reform welfare — passing reforms to prohibit welfare dollars from being spent on alcohol, cigarettes and lottery tickets.

That’s why I have worked to shift priorities in our social safety net, encouraging able-bodied adults to get to work so we can focus on supporting our seniors and those with severe intellectual disabilities.

These issues have been my priorities these last two years, and I will continue to focus on them in the work ahead of us.

• Income Tax: Gov. LePage would like to lower Maine’s income tax rate and eventually eliminate it, by increasing the state’s sales tax and expanding it across a broader range of goods and services. Do you support this proposal?
  • Other

    I support every effort to lower taxes on Maine people, including the elimination of the state income tax. 

I have concerns, however, about the creation of additional state sales taxes. Historically, it has been easier for politicians to get away with raising existing tax rates than to create new taxes. As such, I do not want to trade a temporary drop in the income tax for the creation of new sales taxes. I worry that a future administration will simply keep the new sales taxes and hike income tax rates up again, creating additional burdens on Maine people.

    I would be more inclined to support such a compromise if it fully eliminated the income tax, not just lowered the rates.

• Background Checks: Do you support background checks for privately sold firearms in Maine?
  • No

    Question 3 would turn law-abiding citizens into criminals. If a Maine citizen loans his neighbor a rifle to go hunting for a day, Question 3 would make both of them guilty of a major crime. That’s flies in the face of Maine’s sportsman heritage.

    This is a failed NYC solution to a problem Maine does not have. Here in Maine, we are ranked one of the safest states in the nation — with the #1 lowest rate of assaults per capita. The 2nd Amendment works for Maine. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.

• Minimum Wage:
  In light of the ballot question facing voters this fall, do you support raising the state’s minimum wage from $7.50 to $12 an hour by 2020?

  • No

    Rather than raising the minimum wage, we need to focus on creating more living wage jobs in Maine. That means making Maine a more attractive place to work and create jobs by lowering taxes, cutting red tape and reducing the cost of energy.

    Raising the minimum wage will only hurt the very people it is intended to help, taking the bottom rungs off the opportunity ladder. Many low-skilled workers will lose their jobs, as well as the chance to improve their skills and gain valuable work experience.

    Beyond this, as it becomes more expensive to employ people, the cost of living will increase. Those who manage to keep their jobs may see a larger number in their paycheck, but as prices rise, they will find the purchasing power for each dollar is less.

    So let’s focus on real economic growth. Let’s creating living wage jobs, not minimum wage jobs.

• Marijuana: Do you support legalization of marijuana for recreational use?
  • Yes

    We need to do a better job of protecting our kids from getting involved with drugs. Studies show it’s easier today for teenagers to get access to marijuana than alcohol. Why? Because black market drug dealers don’t check ID.

    If the alternative is a regulated business — accountable to the community, only selling to adults over 21 and checking ID — then I am open to trying something new to keep marijuana out of our children’s hands. In Colorado, teen marijuana use actually dropped below the national average once regulated adult use was allowed.

    I believe this change will help us put better projections in place for Maine’s children.

• Addiction/Overdoses: Do you believe the state is doing enough in response to the rise in heroin/opiate addiction and overdoses? If not, what else should be done?
  • We should be treating addiction as a health problem, not a criminal justice problem. I believe in focusing on drug treatment — not incarceration — for those struggling with addiction. As Chair for Health and Human Services, I have supported additional funding for treatment.

    I have crossed party lines to support increasing access to naloxone by making it available over-the-counter. There is a lesson to be learned from every stupid mistake you make in life, but you have to be alive to learn the lesson.



    On the senate floor, I have also argued for reducing criminal penalties for those struggling with addiction when they are charged with simple possession offenses. Our criminal justice system should focus on those trafficking these drugs, not on those caught in the grip of addiction.

    There is always more we can do, but there is no silver bullet. Families and local communities need to be part of the solution, and local police programs like “Project Hope” are steps in the right direction.

    This is a serious problem, and I will continue working to support treatment over incarceration.