{"id":12343,"date":"2026-09-25T19:07:48","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T19:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/candidates\/kenneth-blow-2\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T14:54:56","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T14:54:56","slug":"kenneth-blow-2","status":"publish","type":"candidate","link":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/candidates\/kenneth-blow-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenneth Blow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Previous Offices Held<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Current vice chair of Old Orchard Beach Town Council, first elected as a member by special election in 2013. Concurrently seeking House District 151 seat.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Top Three Priorities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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1. Continue to provide essential services, as well as infrastructure upgrades. 2. Continue to maintain one of the lowest mill rates in southern Maine. 3. Work towards providing more affordable housing.<\/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 because I love my community and have served on Old Orchard Beach Town Council for 13 years. I want to maintain the consistency we've built. By running for a state House seat and hoping to be elected to both, I can bring what our community needs most directly to Augusta. I'm willing to bring everyone together to listen and collaborate to improve our community.<\/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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We must find sustainable solutions that balance development with preserving our local character and quality of life. Old Orchard Beach has a great opportunity to grow our recreation through our ballpark. It would greatly benefit not only our current residents but also future retirees coming to Old Orchard Beach. To build upon what makes Old Orchard Beach special as a destination and to turn that success into an even stronger year-round community.<\/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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We have a unique community where our town grows from approximately 9,000 year-round residents to over 60,000 people during the tourist season. If I could change one thing, it would be our ability to recruit and fully staff the police department, as this has become increasingly difficult over the years. Other than that, I would not change much because OOB is not only a great place to visit, but an even better place to live.<\/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 both housing and business construction. I would like to work to bring more affordable housing in. I strongly encourage more business construction because it directly offsets the residential tax commitment without affecting our school system.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12871,"template":"","meta":{"voter_guide_candidate_first_name":"Kenneth","voter_guide_candidate_middle_name":"Craig","voter_guide_candidate_last_name":"Blow","voter_guide_candidate_suffix":"","voter_guide_candidate_race_id":12341,"voter_guide_candidate_age":63,"voter_guide_candidate_hometown":"","voter_guide_candidate_occupation":"Owner of Seacoast RVs","voter_guide_candidate_bio":"My ability to listen and apply common sense. I have owned multiple successful small businesses. Father of two and grandfather of two who wants to leave my community and state better than I found it.","voter_guide_candidate_education":"High school","voter_guide_candidate_years_in_municipality":"","voter_guide_candidate_headshot_url":"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/open?id=1HYep7gmvn2DWGoy2j42OdT-sy8di0vmB","voter_guide_candidate_date_filed":"","footnotes":""},"vg_party":[466],"vg_residence_municipality":[],"class_list":["post-12343","candidate","type-candidate","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","vg_party-independent"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates\/12343","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":1,"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates\/12343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12344,"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates\/12343\/revisions\/12344"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"vg_party","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vg_party?post=12343"},{"taxonomy":"vg_residence_municipality","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vg_residence_municipality?post=12343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}