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| Cynthia Dill, left, and Louie Maietta |
The lone debate was held Thursday, April 28, at the Piper
Shores Lifecare Retirement Community, in Scarborough, with questions posed by
home residents.
Maietta began his introduction by mention his previous
experience in the 121st Legislature, from 2002 to 2004. “I know how things operate up there [in
Augusta],” he said.
“I’m looking forward to going back,” he said, noting that
he’d only retired to help his three daughters launch a banquet business.
Likening that experience to how his father started eight sons in the construction
business, Maietta linked the two by mentioning his “top priority” – creating
jobs for young people in Maine.
“Parents are losing their children to out-of-state jobs,”
said Maietta. “I can’t imagine that. I couldn’t imagine not seeing my grandchildren
every day. We need to make jobs happen in this state.”
Maietta also pointed to the person whose job he hopes to
win, Larry Bliss, who resigned the District 7 seat to take a job in California.
“He’s a state senator and he couldn’t get a job he’s qualified
for in this state,” observed Maietta. “That says everything, right there.”
The solution, said Maietta, is to “loosen up and
streamline” regulations, “so businesses will want to come here.”
“We need to keep our environment as good as it is in the
state of Maine,” said Maietta. “But as far as the permitting process, the DEP,
EPA, DOT people, they all need to streamline this. We want to see things done
in six to eight months, not two years.”
Maietta also railed against Dirigo Choice, the state-run
insurance plan, saying that health insurance should be sold across state lines
as easily and readily as car insurance.
And, while Dill, a state representative, had yet to arrive – she ran
late due to legislative business and apologized upon her arrival – Maietta was
not shy about taking a shot at her in absentia.
“My opponent, she favors a 10-cent gas hike,” he
said. “I gassed up just before I came
here. It was $4.94 a gallon. That’s out
of control, but she wants 10 cents more to put toward sales tax for the state.”
“I’m totally against that,” said Maietta. “If anything we should be working as
legislators to lower gas prices.”
Finally, Maietta closed by distancing himself from Gov.
Paul LePage.
“I don’t want to make this a Gov. LePage thing, but I am
respected for being able to work with Democrats just as well as Republicans,”
he said.
When it came her turn, Dill began by outlining her
education (a 1990 law degree from Northeastern University) and career (a civil
rights attorney in her own practice since 1994). That was something Maietta,
who holds an associates degree in fire science from Southern Maine Technical
College, and who spends his time managing to South Portland buildings he owns,
neglected to do.
“I am a Democrat and very proud of it,” said Dill.
“I have been an advocate for the elderly and multiple
people in our society,” she added, mentioning an Advocate of the Year award she
was given last year by the Disabilities Rights Center. “I believe strongly that
our government is something that we need to cherish and that government can
play an important role in protecting people’s rights, investing in
infrastructure and public institutions that we need as a society, and in
regulating corporations and other business that sometimes don’t have our best
interests at heart.”
And, where Maietta and seemed to shy away from mentioning
the governor, Dill, as a sitting, three-term member of the state House of
Representatives, seemed eager to drop the title, if not the name.
“This session, I have done a lot of standing up to what I
consider to be unreasonable policies and bills that have been introduced by the
governor,” she said. “What I’d like to
get back to is the work I was doing last session, which is expanding broadband
and getting the Internet to rural parts of Maine, so that businesses in
Aroostook County and Washington County can sell their products, because as
their economy rises, we, in the southern part of the state, will do better.”
Dill said that as soon as the day after the special election,
the winner will be asked to cast “very important votes,” and that she was
prepared to do so “in a way that reflects the values of this community.”
“For example,” she said, “we will be asked to vote on
whether was want to expand the prevalence of guns in our society. I believe
that we should place reasonable regulations on guns and I don’t support some of
the measures coming forward to give everybody a gun and to not require a permit
for concealed weapons.
“There are also bills that would deny illegal immigrants
and the elderly health care benefits, to roll back a woman’s constitutional
rights, and to relax child-labor laws.” Dill claimed. “Those are not issues
that I support.
“Trust me, I do support a lot of things,” said Dill.
“It’s just that, in this legislative environment, there are a lot of, what I
consider to be, bad ideas, and we need someone who’s strong who’s going to
stand up and take a stand.”
Following introductions, the candidates were each given
two minutes to respond to questions posed by the audience. The first came from a “life-long Republican,”
who wants the state to “come out of the gutter, financially.”
After the woman railed on the local economy, and unions,
and public spending, and Maine’s poor showing when compared to her native
Connecticut, Dill stepped up to the microphone.
“Thank you,” she said.
“I think there was a question in there, somewhere.
“I do have balance in my background,” said Dill, noting
that her father was a Republican, too. “The last three legislative sessions, I
voted to reduce spending, and to not support a broad-based tax.”
Dill claimed that, during her tenure in the last
Legislature “state spending has been cut to where it was a decade ago.”
“This session, however, under a Republican
administration, state spending is going from $5.8 billion to $6.2 billion,” she
added.
“When I hear that we are broke, I’d just like to remind
people that we have a Constitutional requirement here in Maine to balance the
budget, every year,” said Dill. “The
question is not, do we have the money? We do have the money. The question is,
how do we spend it? And I’d suggest the fear-mongering that’s going on, blaming
the poor, and blaming the disabled for why we are in the state we’re in, is
just nonsense.
“We had a recession in 2008 because, in large part, by
wealthy investors on Wall Street who took some significant risk that led to a
lot of serious problems,” said Dill.
“Those are problems I plan to address, but I do not plan to make the
teachers in our community, and the elderly, pay for those mistakes.”
That litany gave Maietta an opening to get off what may
have been the best line of the event: “Well,” he said, as he stood to take his
turn. “I’m sure there’s an answer in there also.
“The Republicans have been in control since January,
after a 30-plus-year-long stint of not being in control,” said Maietta. “When you look at what’s come out so far, if
you look at the governor’s LD 1 [the regulatory reform bill], that includes
anything and everything they can throw in there.
“Now, it’s time to whoa things up,” he said,” clarifying
for audience members after the debate that the first version of any bill, in
his opinion, always leaves room to negotiate a middle ground.
Asked how he’d create jobs, Maietta said, “It’s in the
mom-and-pop shops.”
“It’s not all in technology,” he said. “We need to
diversify, because right now, we don’t have any stability.”
After both candidates touted the importance of education
in creating jobs, Dill said she has submitted a green-energy bill to convert
vacant factories into homes for large banks of computer servers, powered by the
rivers-born energy that once ran the textile mills.
“That,” she said, “will create a lot of good jobs.”
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