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Joyce Maker, Roger Katz, and Chris Rector are Republicans and former Maine state senators.
In less than a month, Maine people will decide who they want to lead our state for the next four years as governor. It’s an important election with two very different choices. We served as Republicans in the Maine state Senate under Paul LePage, and we want to tell you why we are voting to reelect Gov. Janet Mills this year.
Like many Maine people, we grew up proud Republicans, modeled in the tradition of Margaret Chase Smith, Bill Cohen, and Olympia Snowe. In the Maine state Senate, where we represented our homes of central, midcoast, and downeast Maine, we fought for Republican ideals, including limited government, lower taxes, greater personal responsibility, and greater freedom.
In fact, we even voted for Paul LePage before.
But we won’t again.
As we experienced firsthand, LePage’s divisiveness, his animosity towards people, and his my-way-or-the-highway style of governing created chaos and contributed to dysfunction and gridlock that cost Maine people vital progress on issues ranging from health care, to education, to economic growth.
Here are just a couple examples: LePage led Maine into the first state government shutdown in more than a quarter century. He vetoed more bills than previous governors combined, and he did so not based on the merits of the bills, but out of spite towards the Legislature. He unilaterally closed Downeast Correctional Facility under the cover of darkness, shocking a community and devastating local businesses that relied on its residents as their employees. He repeatedly denied the will of Maine voters, from refusing to expand Medicaid to refusing to issue voter-approved senior housing bonds. He attacked lawmakers over and over, disparaged Maine people, and spoke poorly about our state.
His tantrums, distractions, and fighting – it’s just bad behavior that costs Maine.
Thankfully, Gov. Mills has reminded us that it doesn’t have to be that way.
Over the past four years, Mills has focused on turning the temperature down in Augusta and on bringing Republicans, Democrats, and independents together to find consensus and to solve problems.
And we have to say she’s been pretty successful. She’s worked with the Legislature to balance budgets, to reject tax increases, and to invest in Maine people, whether that’s expanding health care to more than 95,000 people, finally fully funding the state’s share of K-12 education, fully restoring state aid to municipalities, cutting taxes for Maine retirees, providing free community college, or delivering $850 in inflation relief – one of the strongest relief measures in the country. Mills doesn’t care whose idea it is so long as it’s good for Maine.
Look, we don’t agree with Mills on everything, but we know that she’s reasonable, that she’s level-headed, and that, most importantly, she wants to fight problems – not people. That’s the type of governor that Maine deserves.
So, as we head into the voting booth this November, we’ll be casting our ballots for Janet Mills. We hope you’ll join us.