GRAY – In a recount held Thursday, Nov. 15, state Rep. Anne Graham retained her House District 109 seat, representing the towns of Gray, Pownal and North Yarmouth.

Going into the recount, the North Yarmouth Democrat held a 42-vote lead over her Republican rival Susan Austin of Gray – 2,770 votes to 2,728. The recount, one of 14 conducted by the Secretary of State’s Office, gave Graham a slightly lower margin of victory: 2,768 votes to Austin’s 2,734 votes.

The 34 votes were enough to put Graham over the top, the first time the pediatric nurse practitioner has defeated Austin in three tries. Austin, from the Republican-dominated town of Gray, beat Graham handily in the two previous contests but was term-limited in 2010. With Austin not in the running that year, Graham beat Republican Gary Foster, also of Gray, one of the few Democrat wins in what was a Republican electoral sweep of the Blaine House and the Legislature. That race also was determined by a close recount in which Graham won by 36 votes.

Graham credits her 2012 victory – in which she won 43 percent of Austin’s hometown and easily carried North Yarmouth and Pownal – to a strong campaign and her constituent work during the past two years in the House.

“I think it was really a testament to the fact that I knocked on close to 3,000 doors and that I passed four bills in my first two years in the Legislature,” Graham said last Friday morning. “But I think this was probably one of the toughest races I’ve had of my four elections. … The way the districts are set up, though, it’s unusual for Democrats to win because Gray has more Republicans than Democrats and that’s the biggest part of the district.”

Graham’s first bill that was passed by the Legislature and Gov. Paul LePage was inspired by a 2009 accident in Naples when two commercial vehicles collided, killing a UPS driver who lived in Gray. The driver that caused the accident was taking methadone. Graham’s bill outlawed the use of methadone by operators of trucks weighing 10,000 pounds or more.

Graham also successfully sponsored a health care payment reform bill as well as another bill that provides property tax relief to people whose homes are destroyed by natural causes like fire and flood.

The House and Senate passed another of Graham’s bills that would have required high school students to learn how to perform CPR and use a defibrillator, but LePage vetoed the measure.

Austin, who won Gray convincingly, 1,876 votes to Graham’s 1,396 votes, said she had some hesitation approving the recount due to costs went ahead with it to provide closure to the 10-month campaign, especially for her campaign aides, family and friends.

“The team members and some community folks reminded me of the amount of support we had had for the race and out of respect for that and all of the hard work that people had put in, I thought to have appropriate closure to it, having a second look at those ballots would be on the reasonable side,” she said.

Graham, who teaches an online course for nurses in advanced practice at Saint Joseph’s College in Standish titled, “Policy, Politics and Change,” is happy to be headed back to Augusta. She says her goal in the next two years is to make sure the federal Affordable Care Act is fully and seamlessly implemented in Maine.

During the campaign, Graham’s supporters wrote several letters to the editor of local newspapers painting Austin as a nice woman who tended to vote along party lines and not draft bills herself. When asked about this campaign tactic, Graham said, “That was real. That was her record. I don’t think that’s being negative or anything. It’s just saying, this is what her record was. And then you compare that to my record. All the bills that I’ve passed have been bipartisan. I’m a moderate Democrat. But I think when it comes right down to it, people vote for the person and not the party, and Sue is a very nice lady but the people of the district saw how hard I worked either campaigning or during the first two years in the Legislature, and they said, you know, she should keep her job for another two years.”

Austin, who noticed the tactic, said she’s spent years, mostly successfully, battling the image.

“I’ve noticed this [tactic]. They say I’m nice, numb or dumb, and there. I’m a ‘nice lady, but.’ And that’s where we get into the negative. Because that ‘but’ hangs out there, So, it’s their way of putting it a context that’s all nice, warm, fuzzy and fluffy. But it suggests a whole lot of other things that are missing,” Austin said. “And so, I do feel that’s a bit negative and my bills that I suggested that I did or didn’t put forth, were inaccurate. I put in seven bills over the years.”

Austin, a conservative, also said she and Graham’s philosophy differ when it comes to determining success.

“Bills are laws and laws are regulation, and we already have a lot of regulation,” Austin said. “We have so much regulation that we don’t even know when we’re breaking the law now. People just don’t realize. And some people, particularly the other party, seem to gauge success in bill count. I consider success as having a 100 percent voting record, being in my seat in committee and in the chamber, every vote for eight years. I’d call that quite an accomplishment. I probably didn’t emphasize that enough during the campaign. I guess I should have.”

After the election, Graham praised Austin.

“Sue has worked so hard for the community, was in the Legislature for eight years and multiple other capacities in Gray. So I really honor the work that she’s done and really respect her. She was at the recount yesterday and was very gracious and said congratulations to me,” Graham said.

Besides shepherding implementation of the health care overhaul, Graham also wants to spend the next two years easing property tax burden, namely urging her fellow lawmakers to adhere to LD 1 which requires the state to fund 55 percent of the costs of education, a goal that has never been achieved and leaves local taxpayers with the burden.

“I want to find a way not to shift tax burden onto property owners. We’re seeing some real significant increases in property taxes and I think we need to find a way to make that more fair,” she said. “The state government is shifting many of our taxes onto local property owners. It’s going to be really difficult – [namely] where are we going to get the money – but that’s one big burden every time we talk about school budgets, it’s really hurting property owners,” Graham said.

Sue Austin
Anne Graham