Tucker

BRUNSWICK — Incumbent Ralph Tucker defended his seat representing Brunswick in House District 50 Tuesday in a victory over political newcomer Michael Lawler. 

Tucker, a Democrat, won his fourth and final two-year term with 4,116 votes over Lawler’s 1,497, or about 73%, according to unofficial results.

Aside from his three terms in the State House, Tucker, a retired Maine District Court Judge, served one year on the Brunswick Town Council and six years on the school committee. 

Tucker said Wednesday that he’s looking forward to getting back to work. 

“I’m looking forward to an exciting session,” he said. “We have a lot of business to do, particularly in the environmental field.”

As the chair of the Environment and Natural Resources Committee, it’s where he has the most experience.

“Most of the work is done at the committee level… so that where I’ll be able to focus,” he said.

Brunswick has a number of high-priority environmental issues, Tucker said,  including a PFAS contaminant hot spot at Brunswick Landing, which the Navy is working to help fix, plans to close the Graham Road Landfill in the spring and rising costs to the town’s recycling program— the town recently eliminated glass from the recycling stream as a cost-saving measure.

The overriding issue, though, will be how to balance the budget in the face of lost revenue due to the coronavirus pandemic. Maintaining state services will be crucial, he said.

He hopes his work in the legislature will help tackle the problems facing the district as he enters his final term.

“I’ll be able to utilize the experience I’ve built up over six years,” he said, adding that it goes to show “how term limits seem to get rid of people at the very point they can figure out what they’re doing.”