{"id":12265,"date":"2026-09-25T19:07:47","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T19:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/candidates\/joseph-pietroski-jr\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T11:56:54","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T11:56:54","slug":"joseph-pietroski-jr","status":"publish","type":"candidate","link":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/candidates\/joseph-pietroski-jr\/","title":{"rendered":"Joseph Pietroski Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Previous Offices Held<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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2022 – Kennebec County Commissioner District 2 – Successful. The first Republican to win since 1978, 2020 – Maine State House – Unsuccessful, 2016 – Maine State Senate – Unsuccessful, 2007 – Winthrop School Board Member – Successful – served 4 consecutive terms<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Top Three Priorities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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My first priority is to educate the new governor and new legislators as to the impact of legislative decisions on county operations. My second priority is to continue what we started when I arrived, the reliability of our finance reports. I am very proud to say that Kennebec's audits are up to date and our financial reports are complete. My third is to continue the work of our active Budget Committee, where I am focused on reducing property taxes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Why are you running?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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I am running for re-election because I am proud of my county and enjoy being\ninvolved in local government. These are difficult financial times. We need to\neducate state officials, town selectmen, and the public on the importance of state\nfunding for unfunded mandates. Without state funding the financial burden falls to\nlocal property owners via their property taxes. I see my role to continually inform,\nvisit my communities, be accessible, and to commit the time necessary to fulfill\nthe position.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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What is the biggest challenge facing your town\/county? The biggest opportunity?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The biggest challenge facing Kennebec County is to find ways to finance Maine's most\nimportant needs without raising taxes and fees, without passing the costs to local\nproperty taxpayers, without cutting state services or financing the state budget on\nthe backs of state employees and retirees. The biggest opportunity is to partner\nwith state officials to educate them on the importance of funding mandates from\nstate dollars vs. passing the costs to local property owners.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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If you could change one thing about how the town\/county functions, what would it be and why?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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One thing I am focused on improving is the coordination and communication between\ncounty and state governments. Counties are increasingly responsible for state-\nmandated services, often without adequate funding. Better communication and\nplanning will help control costs, protect taxpayers, and ensure our county\nreceives the services our residents need.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Do you support more development \u2013 i.e. more housing construction and business building in your town\/county? Why or why not?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Yes, I support responsible development that strengthens our communities, expands our tax base, creates opportunities, and preserves fiscal responsibility while maintaining the character and quality of life of Kennebec County.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12776,"template":"","meta":{"voter_guide_candidate_first_name":"Joseph","voter_guide_candidate_middle_name":"John","voter_guide_candidate_last_name":"Pietroski","voter_guide_candidate_suffix":"Jr.","voter_guide_candidate_race_id":12263,"voter_guide_candidate_age":79,"voter_guide_candidate_hometown":"","voter_guide_candidate_occupation":"Kennebec County Commissioner 2022-present. retired President & CEO of the Maine Bankers Association","voter_guide_candidate_bio":"I reside in Winthrop with my wife, Doris. Together we raised 6 children who have graduated from schools within District 2. I currently have 3 grandchildren attending schools within District 2.","voter_guide_candidate_education":"B.A. Degree in Communications\/Speech, and M.A. Degree in Communications and Speech from the University of Maine at Orono.","voter_guide_candidate_years_in_municipality":"","voter_guide_candidate_headshot_url":"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/open?id=1AKJPt2rVj8J4q1uIRlnn9hyMAalypskr","voter_guide_candidate_date_filed":"","footnotes":""},"vg_party":[564],"vg_residence_municipality":[],"class_list":["post-12265","candidate","type-candidate","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","vg_party-republican"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates\/12265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/candidate"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates\/12265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12777,"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates\/12265\/revisions\/12777"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"vg_party","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vg_party?post=12265"},{"taxonomy":"vg_residence_municipality","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vg_residence_municipality?post=12265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}