Profile information is provided by each candidate and is the opinion/comment of the writer and not that of the Gorham Times.
SENATE DISTRICT 30
Full Name: Linda F. Sanborn
Address: 170 Spiller Rd, Gorham
Education: BS Microbiology Michigan State University; M.D. University of Illinois (Chicago); Residency in Family Medicine, EW Sparrow Hospital, Lansing MI; Class of 2011 – 2012 Health Leadership Development Daniel Hanley Center for Health Leadership
Personal: Married, three grown sons, one granddaughter
Employment: Retired family physician, practiced 25 years in Gorham
Political and community experience: State Representative 124th – 127th Legislatures serving on the Health and Human Services and the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committees, Joint Select Committee on Health Care Reform Opportunities and Implementation, Child Care Advisory Committee, HIV Advisory Committee, Substance Use Services Commission, Health Care Exchange Advisory Committee and Round Table on Aging; President of the Board of Leavitt’s Mill Free Health Center in Buxton; Member Maine Lung Cancer Coalition Advisory Board; Co-chair Missions Committee First Parish Gorham UCC; Volunteer for Gorham Food Pantry and Florence House; Corporator Gorham Savings Bank
What do you see as the major issues for our community and how might they be addressed?
The biggest challenge facing our community is the lack of opportunity for young people to find quality jobs and raise a family where they’ve grown up. For too many young people, the challenge of affording higher education and then finding work that pays a fair wage while property taxes continue to rise is simply too much, and they wind up forced to move out of Maine.
Just like I did during my four terms as a State Representative, I’ll invest in quality early childhood education, K-12 public schools, work hard to bring down the cost of higher education, and dedicate resources to career and technical education programs to meet the demands of the jobs of Maine’s future.
Making sure all Mainers have access to health care is imperative, and implementing an expansion of MaineCare is essential to the health and well-being of Mainers and Maine’s economy. As the legislature demonstrated multiple times during the most recent legislative session, there is sufficient funding available to expand MaineCare, especially given that this expansion will leverage significant federal matching money into the state to help provide care for the 70,000 Mainers left without access to a doctor by Governor LePage and his legislative allies. Supporting Maine’s economy and Maine people also means investing in renewable energy, which helps reduce our CO2 emissions and addresses the moral imperative of stemming the tide of climate change.
Property taxes are a concern many families shared with me over the course of knocking on more than 7000 doors in the district. Making sure that the state keeps up its end of the revenue sharing promise is essential to ensuring that property taxes are checked so that seniors can stay in their own homes and families aren’t priced out of the community we all love.
Full Name: Amy F. Volk
Address: 4 Elbridge Oliver Way, Scarborough
Education: B.S. in Human Development, University of Maine
Personal: Mom to four children between ages of 14 and 27, married 29 years to Derek Volk
Employment: Former small business owner of Personally Yours, a custom printing service.
Political and community experience: I have served the people of Gorham, Buxton and Scarborough in the Maine Senate for the last four years. Previously, I served in the House for four years. Currently I am Assistant Senate Majority Leader, Chair, Labor, Commerce, research & Economic Development Committee; Member, Environment and Natural Resources Committee; Member, State Workforce Board; Member, Child Care Advisory Council; Member, Maine Children’s Growth Council; Charter board member of Maine Connections Academy; Welcome Team at The Rock Church; past board secretary of The Root Cellar; past secretary for Scarborough Cheering Club and member of Scarborough Softball boosters.
What do you see as the major issues for our community and how might they be addressed?
Access to affordable healthcare, including substance abuse treatment, as well as rising education costs are major issues facing Gorham and all of Maine. However, these issues are exacerbated by our workforce shortage. With record low unemployment and a booming national economy, businesses are scrambling to replace retiring skilled workers. We compete with 49 other states and the rest of the world, so we cannot overtax families or over regulate job creators. We need to look ahead to policies like paid family medical leave and determine if this is something we can help companies offer their employees as a benefit. We also need to increase access to student loan relief programs.
It is critical that our educational institutions are providing training for the jobs of the future. As a member of the State Workforce Board, I am very familiar with the complicated intersections between the business community, unemployed workers, DOL-funded training programs, vocational, adult and higher education. Our community college and university system are doing a tremendous job working together to help students save money and access higher education, encouraging college credit for high school students and seamlessly transitioning from community college to university. I have steadfastly supported investing in higher education to make our systems more effective and accessible. Most recently, I successfully advocated for the university system to add a third engineering degree at USM to meet future employment demand.
To be successful as a state, we need all hands on deck. This means making it easier for employers to include older workers, people with disabilities, those in recovery, immigrants and people with criminal records in our workforce. Our state needs to think outside the box and look to states that are proactively attracting young people in order to create more opportunities for kids raised or educated in Maine.
LEGISLATIVE 27
Full Name: Roger E. Densmore III
Address: 185 Barstow Road, Gorham
Education: Southern Connecticut State University and Husson University
Personal: I have lived in Gorham for a little over three years with my girlfriend Karla and our two rescued four-legged fur babies, Fenway (an almost two year old black lab) and Gillette (a year and a half old Retriever).
Employment: For the last three years I have been the Business Manager at Camp Sunshine in Casco, changing the lives of children with life threatening illnesses and their families through the various stages of the child’s illness. Prior to that, I enjoyed a 16-year career in the golf industry as a General Manager and Golf Professional. I also owned and operated a small business in Maine for almost eight years.
What do you see as the major issues for our community and how might they be addressed?
Growth and Property Taxes – we need to find ways to increase commercial and retail businesses in Gorham that will assist with the property tax liabilities but will not overburden our school systems. Taxes and reduced spending are two of the four major issues I feel that need to be addressed in Augusta along with reducing health care costs as well as fighting the opioid epidemic.
Revenue sharing from the State is at 2% and additional revenues (our tax dollars) are sitting in a General Fund in Augusta rather than helping out our community with rising property taxes. We are, in a sense, being taxed twice to cover our increased spending. Revenue sharing should not be used as a means to increase spending without fiscal responsibility. I would want to have in-depth discussions with local officials concerning the program and how it fits into our current budget process.
I always prefer trying to find sensible ways to cut spending rather than increase taxes on an already overtaxed community/State. I would also advocate a year to year capital budget to fix/properly maintain/upgrade assets rather than kicking the can down the road and having major capital expenditures every 5-10 years. It seems whenever cuts are made to the budget the first place that is looked at is capital expenditures which end up costing us more in the long run.
Full Name: Andrew J. McLean
Address: 114 Johnson Road, Gorham
Education: B.S. Meteorology, Plymouth State University; Master’s in Public Policy & Management, Muskie School of Public Service, USM; Juris Doctor, University of Maine School of Law, expected 2020
Personal: Kyle, spouse
Employment: former Student Affairs Administrator, University of Southern Maine, and current law student at the University of Maine School of Law
Political and community experience: State Representative, 2012-present; Baxter Memorial Library Board of Trustees, 2011-2014; Maine Commission for Community Service, 2009-2012
What do you see as the major issues for our community and how might they be addressed?
My dad is a retired firefighter and teacher, and my mom is a retired customer service manager. From an early age, they taught me the values of hard work and public service. In 2012, when I was elected to the Maine House, I took voters’ concerns, frustrations and hopes to heart, and they have shaped my work in Augusta. The voters of Gorham have twice re-elected me so that I can continue this important work. What gets done, and doesn’t get done in Augusta, matters to people and impacts their lives.
To move Maine forward we need to reform our tax code, improve our transportation infrastructure, expand access to healthcare and lower costs, attract and retain the skilled labor needed to grow Maine’s economy, while protecting our quality of life and environment. I take seriously my responsibility to help change the tone in Augusta and get things done. I have built relationships with colleagues across the aisle and worked to find common ground on a number of different issues.
As the Chair of the Transportation Committee, I am leading a bipartisan working group of lawmakers and key stakeholders to find common ground on a transportation reform package to introduce during the next session of the Maine Legislature. I also led the effort to pass legislation to begin the process of constructing the Gorham Connector, an important project locally that will ease traffic congestion in Gorham and allow faster commuting into downtown Portland.
We need leaders in Augusta who are willing to put aside partisan agendas, find common ground, and work to create opportunity for all Maine people.
Thank you for the opportunity to represent you in the Maine House. I would be honored to have your vote on Tuesday, November 6.
LEGISLATIVE 26
Full Name: Maureen F. Terry
Address: 9 Lombard Street, Gorham
Education: Culinary Arts Degree, New York Restaurant School
Personal: Married to Parnell Terry; Daughters: Maeve (20) GHS ’16, Grace (17) GHS ’19 and Siobhan (15) Baxter Academy ’21
Employment: Current: Self Employed, Three Daughters Cookie Company; Chef and Wine Buyer, Carter’s Green Market
Political and community experience: State Representative for Gorham; Gorham High School Swim Boosters, President; Gorham Village Alliance, Board Member; Past Board Member, Gorham Education Foundation and Gorham Cooperative Preschool; Past Manager, Greater Gorham Farmers Market
What do you see as the major issues for our community and how might they be addressed?
Gorham has found itself in a very exciting situation. We are one of the fastest growing towns in Maine and as such, our real estate market is booming. There are numerous new neighborhoods being built on a daily basis, tons of kids coming into all of our schools and new retirees finding a forever home here. This is something that the current residents of Gorham should be incredibly proud of. You are the people that have made this community so attractive to newcomers. The biggest challenge, of course, with such rapid growth is the financial strain that new growth brings to an already established community. With a “hot real estate market” the value of our existing homes go up, therefore, the possibility of our property taxes rise. We can control that on a few fronts. One, is to insure that the new construction that we see is diverse. Single family homes, multi family units, senior housing and even apartments attract different groups of people that will use town resources in various ways. Single family homes will likely bring new students to our schools, apartments will possibly bring in young Portland commuters that will encourage growth of the new Metro bus service and new retirees could bring with them a whole new facet of volunteering that makes Gorham such a great community.
In addition to that, asking the legislature to make sure the state contributes to Gorham the way it should, we will hopefully find ourselves in a great position to welcome our new residents with open arms.