CHARLES HARLOW (D)
This incumbent Democrat is a retired teacher and a former Portland city councilor who focuses on education, lowering property taxes, and bettering quality of life for elderly people.
TOP PRIORITY Continue with school consolidation process.
House District 117
ANNE HASKELL (D)
HASKELLFROMTHEHOUSE.COM | Haskell is the incumbent Democrat who previously represented Gorham in the House during the 1980s and ’90s. Haskell sits on the Labor and Criminal Justice and Public Safety committees, and is particularly interested in women’s, family, and healthcare issues.
TOP PRIORITY “One bill that I am looking forward to bringing to my colleagues is ‘An Act to Require Teaching of Mental Health Awareness in Maine’s Middle Schools.’ One outcome of this curriculum would be to help reduce the lingering stigma associated with mental illness. It would additionally enable Maine families, schools, and communities to readily identify mental health symptoms. Armed with appropriate knowledge of the illness and its effects, Maine’s middle school students can actually help save young lives that might otherwise be lost to loneliness, isolation, or worst of all, suicide.”
PHIL HASKELL (R)
This Haskell (no relation to his opponent) is a Republican who favors shrinking government, cutting regulations on businesses, and lowering taxes.
TOP PRIORITY Did not respond.
Jon Hinck |
House District 118
JON HINCK (D)
This Democrat unseated Green representative John Eder in 2006; since then he’s been a progressive advocate in Augusta on energy issues and tax reform. Hinck, an attorney, also served as an Obama delegate in Denver this August.
TOP PRIORITY “[T]he restructuring of Maine’s taxes. I would like to see us lower the income taxes paid by low- and middle-income Mainers and provide some relief for property-tax payers. I support a modest increase in the meals and lodging tax, expanding the sales tax to some services, and potentially increasing other consumption taxes. One way we can achieve greater tax fairness and create better economic incentives would be by shifting our taxes away from taxing work toward taxing consumption on non-essentials. I have already submitted a bill on one small aspect of this greater tax question [the ‘Bill for an excise tax on Groundwater Withdrawals.’].”JOSH MILLER (G)
Miller, a Green Independent, is not actively campaigning for this seat.
TOP PRIORITY Did not respond.
House District 119
HERB ADAMS (D)
Adams, a Democrat and adjunct political-science professor at the University of Southern Maine, is a fixture in Portland politics. He has previously served in the Legislature and on the Portland School Committee; he is a co-founder of the Parkside Neighborhood Association, and is active on energy and environmental issues.
TOP PRIORITY “A bond of at least $25 million for affordable housing — only the state has the resources to jump-start that stalled market right now.”
RYAN HENDRICKSON (R)
Hendrickson suspended his campaign this summer.
DAN JENKINS (G)
JENKINSFORPORTLAND.COM | Green Independent Jenkins is a Portland native who advocates for tax reform, state-backed loans for energy-efficiency, and a community policing center in Kennedy Park. He says he will provide “active opposition” to Democratic Governor John Baldacci’s budget cuts and to Democrats who merely toe the line.
TOP PRIORITY “A universal single-payer healthcare system statewide — Dirigo is woefully inadequate.”
Sandy Amborn |
House District 120
SANDY AMBORN (G)
SANDYAMBORN.BLOGSPOT.COM | Green Independent Amborn is an environmental activist and a research assistant at Idexx, often seen around town on her bicycle. She wants to work with the Maine People’s Alliance to advance universal healthcare.
TOP PRIORITY “My first bill will be to address energy efficiency problems in rental units. It may be that we need to set a basic energy code for rental units and if landlords fail to meet the code they cannot charge for heat. It would guarantee zero-percent loans for the energy audit and upgrades to meet the basic code. Landlords that go above and beyond basic codes would be given tax breaks from the state.”PETER DOYLE (R)
DOYLEFORSTATEREP.COM | Doyle, a Republican, is a former actuary and high school math teacher who currently works as a software developer in South Portland and mentors young people at the Long Creek Youth Development Center. He was an outspoken opponent of the Portland School Committee’s decision to make birth control available to middle schoolers.
TOP PRIORITY “The ‘State Government Accountability and Transparency Act.’ This legislation would require ... a detailed breakdown of the following: the finances of each state governmental agency; detailed breakdown of the costs of running the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government; all sources of revenue; a breakdown of what each municipality contributes to these sources of revenue and how much funding the municipality receives back from state government. ... All the information shall be published on the state’s Web site in an easily downloadable and readable format, so that at any time any citizen shall have easy access to it.”
DIANE RUSSELL (D)
Russell, a Democrat, is a public-relations consultant who had a hand in shaping the Opportunity Maine program and who advocates for instant-runoff voting. This election season, she got to know her potential constituents by getting a part-time job at Colucci’s Hilltop Market, an informal Munjoy Hill hub.
TOP PRIORITY “Maine has the oldest housing stock in the country and 80 percent of our homes are heated by oil. We must create a concrete path for homeowners and landlords to weatherize properties and retrofit their heating systems to a more cost-efficient, and hopefully cleaner, source of fuel. To accomplish this, we also must upgrade the skills of our building trades workforce so they have the green skills necessary to effectively weatherize our homes.”
