CAPE ELIZABETH — Time is drawing near in the race to fill House seat 121,
vacated when its former occupant, Cynthia Dill, won election to the state
Senate, May 10.
Residents of the district, which includes most of Cape
Elizabeth except for some northern portions that are part of District 123, will
go to the polls Tuesday, Aug. 16. Town Clerk Debra Lane says absentee ballots
are available now. However, for traditionalists, the polls will be open from 7
a.m.-8 p.m., at the high school cafeteria.
The two candidates are Democrat Kim Monaghan-Derrig and
Republican Nancy E. Thompson. The Green
Party did not field a candidate and, according to Caitlin
Chamberlain, deputy secretary for communications in the Secretary of State’s
Office, no one registered to run as a write-in candidate. Under Maine law,
write-in votes are not counted unless the person whose name is put down has
previously registered with the Secretary of State’s Office to accept those
votes.
Below, in the form of a quasi-debate, are answers to
questions posed to the candidates in two recent interviews. Thompson was
interviewed Friday, July 29, at Rudy’s Diner. Monaghan-Derrig was interviewed
Monday, Aug. 1 at The Local Buzz.
Both candidates are slated to appear at a student-run
debate to be held Wednesday, Aug. 3, at Town Hall.
Q: What prompted you to run for the state
Legislature in this special election?
Monaghan-Derrig: With Cynthia Dill getting the Senate
seat, I just looked at it and said, yeah, the timing is a little challenging,
but it’s a great opportunity for me. So, I thought, just go for it. This is the
type of work that I’m interested in doing – public service, state government,
the Legislature. It’s why I went back to school to get my master’s degree in
public policy. Not that I intended to run for office, but I knew it was a
possibility. So, this just seemed like a natural progression to me.
Thompson: Once it was
clear there was going to be an opening, people just started calling. They were
calling my husband. They were calling me. I think they thought it would be a
great opportunity. A lot of people encouraged me – Democrats, independents, and
Republicans. The calls weren’t just because I have an 'R' next to my name.
People know who I am because of my involvement in the school system, because of
my teaching CCD for 12 years, because of my husband coaching teams at the high
school.
Q: Assuming you are elected, what would you most like to accomplish
in your political career?
Thompson: I don't see
myself as a politician. I see myself as an advocate. I advocate for children,
for senior citizens, for people who can't speak for themselves. One of the things that's near and dear to my
heart, I lost a son to suicide seven years ago.
I'm very passionate about that. So, that was a big part of it. I think
this will give me an opportunity to advocate for accessing mental health
services. It wasn't until I lost Timmy that I realized how many people suffer
from depression. It's a silent killer and that's something that nobody talks
about.
Monaghan-Derrig: I will be just absolutely thrilled to be
elected, first of all. I will then immerse myself in what needs to be done.
Personally, I believe a lot of that involves economic development and
jobs. Jobs, jobs, jobs is No. 1.
Maintaining and improving our education system is No. 2. Fighting environmental
rollbacks is really a major concern. I support bringing businesses into Maine,
but I think we really need to look at the kind of businesses we want to have.
If they involve compromising our environment, I might not support that. Health
care is another issue, and getting us back on track and moving forward.
Q: What is your political philosophy, why are you a member of the
party you've chosen?
Monaghan-Derrig: It’s tradition. My mother was a
Roosevelt Democrat. So, it’s a strong belief in me that we should reach out to
help the poor, the elderly, the sick, the homeless. I think that everybody
deserves basic rights, and to be helped and cared for. And I believe the
working middle-class deserves as many handouts and breaks as the wealthiest
American. I think everybody has to do their fair share of taking care of each
other, and I think that’s a big part of the philosophy of the Democratic Party.
I consider myself a progressively moderate Democrat.
Thompson: I grew up as
a Democrat. I was then an independent for probably 25 years. I just switched
over recently in the last five or six years to the Republican Party because of
taxes. It’s all about the tax structure. I see it all the time, people leave
this state to stay six months and a day in Florida, just so they don't have to
pay Maine taxes, because they're so exorbitant. It's tough to run a business in
this state because the business taxes are so high. In 25 years, I’ve seen a lot
of people in town not being able to afford their homes, because they're on a
fixed income and the taxes have just gone through the roof. That’s very
difficult.
Q: A lot of folks viewed the recent special election for Senate
District 7 as a referendum on Gov. Paul LePage. Will the outcome of your race
say anything about the governor's job performance?
Thompson: I hope not. I
hope people are going to vote for Nancy Thompson because of Nancy Thompson. I
think there's a misnomer out there that, just because I have an 'R' next to my
name, it totally aligns me. I think people are disenchanted with national
politics and all the fighting at the far right and the far left. I'm a very
moderate person, very moderate socially. People can see that by what I've done
in the community, what my track record is.
Monaghan-Derrig: There are two important things to me.
One is, who is most qualified to represent the views of Cape Elizabeth the
best. Sometimes that does fall into the category of Gov. LePage and his extreme
ideology. I just think he has some pretty extreme views, which, frankly, I
don’t support, and which I don’t think a lot of the people here in Cape
Elizabeth support. I just really believe someone may say they are a moderate
Republican, but 99 percent of the time they are going to go and vote with the
governor. I just don’t think that represents the folks of Cape Elizabeth.
Q: Gov. LePage set the election for Aug. 16 so that you can take
you're seat in time for a special legislative session, expected to be called in
September, to redraw Maine's congressional districts. Do you have any thoughts
on where the new line should fall?
Monaghan-Derrig: You know, I remember working up in the
Legislature when they were going through this in the mid-‘80s. It was quite a
process. I don’t know how fast they expect this to be done, but I do know when
I was last involved they had a really good working group of Republicans and
Democrats working together to fairly draw these lines. That’s what I expect to
happen this time, as well, although there seems to be some back-door
politicking going on now. I’ve heard the
Republicans want to shift Knox County into the 2nd District so that [Rep.]
Chellie Pingree loses her seat. I expect to look at all the scenarios and find
the best, fairest way of redistricting.
Thompson: First of all,
it's very confusing for people in town – most can vote for me, but there are
little pockets where others can't. In places, one side of the street is in my
district, the other side isn't. The district is not all of Cape Elizabeth, and
there are people who are disturbed about it. So that's one thing I would push,
to get all of the town into one district, if I could. I know the issue coming
up is the congressional districts, not the legislative ones. That will be taken
up in 2013. But, in both cases, I'd like to see as few towns split as possible.
I know it’s all about population, but why should 200 people in Cape be part of
a South Portland district?
Q: What are you hearing
out on the campaign trail.
Thompson: It’s really all about taxes and the economy.
People are very concerned. They just don’t seem to know what’s going to happen
next and they are scared.
Monaghan-Derrig: People really are frustrated. I give my
20-second speech. I talk about education and the environment and jobs, and then
I say I don’t wholeheartedly support many of Gov. LePage’s measures. And that
always seems to be the clincher. That’s when it comes back at me. People are
just fed up and frustrated with the management style of the governor and his
leadership team right now. It’s just not who Maine is.
Q: What does Cape Elizabeth want and need from its representative?
Monaghan-Derrig: I think Cape Elizabeth needs someone who
will reflect the views of the constituency. The success of any candidate lies
squarely in the eyes of the constituents. Cape Elizabeth is a very educated,
affluent town, and they believe strongly in the views I also hold, like
education and the environment and open space, and, of course, jobs. They want
us to provide good jobs for young people so they don’t take off and never come
back.
Thompson: First of all,
it’s all about education in this town. I think a lot of people move to Cape
Elizabeth just like I did 25 years ago, because of the schools. You want to
provide your kid with the best education imaginable and that was one of the key
factors we zeroed right in on in choosing Cape Elizabeth. We're really happy
with the school system here. So, I think people here will demand that their
representative be really engaged in educational issues. I’ve had five kids go
though Cape schools, so that’s something I’ve been very involved in.
Q: What can, or should, the Legislature do to help spur Maine's
economy?
Thompson: Obviously,
job creation will help a lot. We need more jobs in this state to go ahead and
get our economy going. Hopefully, with more businesses, that will help to bring
residential taxes down instead of just continually going up and up and up. What I
don’t think we need is a jobs bond. That
just increases taxes. I think we need to lower the taxes on business in order
for them to create jobs and to invest in their businesses. People are scared to
death. They on the sidelines. They have no idea what’s going to be going on
nationally. Everybody is just like deer in headlights and I can't blame them. Right now we’ve got to get our financial
house in order in this state. I do think we've started out doing a pretty good
job of that in this last legislative session
Monaghan-Derrig: I really believe we need to think about
tapping into our natural resources. We have to think about playing to our
strengths – timber, alternative energy, tourism. Maine is one of the states
that pays the least amount of money to market itself. We need to beef that up.
When you market Maine and people come up here, they may like it and choose to
live here. I’ve seen that happen. Promoting Maine as a brand is really
important and I just don’t agree with Gov. LePage’s assertion that Maine should
put tourism No. 3 on our revenue generation list. Tourism should be taken more
seriously. When you have stadiums and arenas and things like that, that creates
a lot of revenue. That creates a lot of jobs.
Q: As a legislator, how do you balance demands for low taxes with a
seeming desire for public services?
Monaghan-Derrig: Of course, it’s not popular to raise
taxes. Cutting taxes and reducing spending, is an either or. If you’re going to
cut taxes, you’re going to create problems for certain people who really rely
on some of these public programs. I think it’s going to be really hard for Gov.
LePage and his leadership to keep on talking about the need to cut more social
services. The governor refers to it as welfare spending, but its really social
services. He can try and prove there’s so much fraud going on, but that’s not
going to really solve the problem.
Thompson: That's
difficult. The only way to solve that is to create more jobs, to increase the
tax base.
Q: You'll be entering the 125th Legislature in its second session,
which is generally limited to bills left over from the first session, and
so-called "emergency legislation." Do you have any emergency
legislation in mind that you'd like to submit?
Thompson: No. Of all
the people I've run into while campaigning, nobody’s come up to me who's said,
we've got to do this right now. They just want to have someone to represent
them in Augusta.
Monaghan-Derrig: Honestly, I don’t. I think it’s my
responsibility to immerse myself in the process to get myself up to speed,
which I don’t think will be too terribly difficult for me. I’ve worked up
there. I know how it runs. I know how a bill becomes law. I know the difference
between the right side of the rotunda and the left side. I know where most
everything is. For me, it will be a
listening and learning tour. Then, once I get up to speed, if I come up with
some legislation which I feel is important, yes, I will introduce it.
Q: What about the carryover bills. Is there anything you know will
be on the docket that you're itching to tackle?
Monaghan-Derrig: I’ll be honest with you, I have
forgotten what the carryover bills are. I’m sorry. That’s a good one. I’m going
to go right back and do some reading.
Thompson: Not yet. This
has all been brand new. I shook hands seven weeks ago and said I'd run for this
seat, but there's so much to do, I haven't thought about my platform. I'm
focused on getting my campaign started, shaking hands and meeting people,
because it is such a condensed time period. I've got two weeks from Tuesday to
get people out to vote for me, in the most beautiful time of the year in Maine.
So, I've just kind of taken a surface view of that. If I do win this election,
I'm really going to do my homework, and it'll give me six months that I need to
go ahead and really delve into both sides of the issues. I want to educate
myself on all the issues so that, come January, I can walk in there and have a
really good idea of what the issues are.
Q: The Cape Elizabeth
Land Trust recently lost a grant it hoped would finalize purchase of the
Robinson Woods. Because no bond package was put forth by the current
Legislature, the Land for Maine’s Future program did not have enough money to
go around. Was failing to submit that bond a mistake, and would you seek to
restore those funds?
Thompson: It all
depends on what the budget can take, basically. I really do think that we have
stuff on our plate now that needs to be resolved. We need to get our financial
house in order first. We may be in a better position a year from now and, if
so, I’m all for it. I think it’s terrific what they do at the land trust. But I
think cutting that bond needed to be done, the way things stand right now. It’s
difficult in these trying financial times, but hard choices have to be made
when the state is in the red.
Monaghan-Derrig: I think that was a big mistake. I am a
very big supporter of the Land for Maine’s Future. It’s something I studied a
lot about while I was at Muskie. Yes, if elected, I would support going out for
another referendum vote for a bond. However, in terms of the land trust, I know
they’ll keep working at it and I’m certain they’ll be successful.
Q: What can be done to improve the quality of education across the
state?
Monaghan-Derrig: I do think this question a lot. I’m not
really thrilled about the last-minute funding change was brought on by [Sen.]
Kevin Raye that sent money up to the second district of Maine. However, having traveled
up there, and having seen the difference in their economy, there is a lot of
disparity going on. I think they should
be helped, but not doing it as a last-minute effort under conditions when
lawmakers didn’t realize this was going through. We have great teachers here in Cape Elizabeth
because people know this is a very well educated community and they want to
teach here. We need to get people to commit to teaching up there for five
years. We need to work with future graduates and current teachers to donate
three to five years of their lives to help those regions in Northern Maine. I
just don’t think charter schools are the answer a lot of the time. I like
magnet schools, which target a specific area. But, overall, I think we should
pay our teachers better and get them to invest a part of their career in areas
up in the northern part of Maine.
Thompson: I think we
need some innovative educational tools. Technology has really changed the
classroom and I think we need to get ahead of that. The three years I was in
the Cape Elizabeth educational foundation convinced me we really need to invest
in education technology. I’m very proud of the fact that the educational
foundation has raised $880,000 over the last 10 years, to put into the school
system above and beyond the school budget. But I don't think its all about money. It's
parental involvement, too. That’s huge. Also, we have to recognize that every
kid is different and they all learn differently. We don't want the same
standards we've had for the last 100 years, where it the same for everyone. It
has to be individualized for each child.
Q: A recent change in
the state’s school funding formula has cost Cape Elizabeth schools about
$200,000 that shifted to other towns. Does that hurt, or is it simply an
example of those who can paying their fair share?
Thompson: Well,
unfortunately, there was a vote that took place on that and we didn't have
representation. Cynthia Dill didn't vote – she went to pick her mother up in
Kittery. There were two Democrats that didn't vote and their side lost, 17-15.
I can guarantee you, if I get elected, I'm going to be there. I’m not going to
miss any votes.
Monaghan-Derrig: That won’t even hit us until 2012-2013,
so we don’t really know what’s going to happen. Things happen between now and
then. We work really hard at maintaining our budgets here, but if we don’t get
the same amount of funding, we have to go out and raise the money.
Q: One problem for Maine
is its looming pension crisis. Is there any way to resolve that without
austerity measures?
Monaghan-Derrig: First of all, I don’t think you can
blame teachers and state workers for an issue that’ s not their fault. This is
all based on under-funding that happened in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Although we were
on track to pay by 2028, the collapse of the economy was the biggest reason why
it became under-funded. It needs to be fixed in way that doesn’t undervalue our
state workers. I don’t think most people understand the pension system in
Maine. They don’t understand that folks who work for state government don’t
collect social security. This is their benefit. Now, they are taking the hit
for a problem they didn’t create. Maine
needs to realize we are the No. 1 retiring state. That means, whether the
governor likes it or not, a lot of those jobs have to be filled by incoming
state workers. We need them to come in and devaluing state workers does not
help does not fill this huge gap that will occur in the next 10 years.
Thompson: I think in
this last legislative session they started to make some progress. Freezing the
COLA [cost of living allocation] for the next three years will really make a
big difference. I’m all for the teachers. They work very hard. They’re very
dedicated. But, something’s got to be done to make us fiscally sound. We just
cant go ahead and keep spending the way they are. We need to start somewhere.
If we kick the can down the road now, we’re not going to solve the problems we
have now with the pensions and the tax burden we have in this state. What they
established 30 years ago, we're facing that down today, and its very trying
financial times, for everybody.
Q: Recently, lobstermen
in Kettle Cove have complained about having to compete with recreational users
for access to and from their traditional fishing grounds. What, if anything,
can the Legislature do to help the situation?
Thompson: I
don’t know where we could build a commercial wharf off of Cape Elizabeth, but
whatever I could do to support local fishermen I would do 100 percent, because
they are the ones that were here first. They are the ones who developed this
town, the farmers and the fishermen.
Monaghan-Derrig: I fully support their having room to get
in and out. That’s their bread and butter. That’s how they make their living.
But, when it comes to this whole issue of by-catch and lobster and Mr. Olsen
and his resignation, and the discussion of how do we bring some of our
fishermen back from Massachusetts – those kinds of problems are not going to be
resolved overnight. I worked with fishermen when I used to write conference
programs for fish expos. They are set in their ways and they are not going to
budge in a day. It takes modest and long-term efforts and improvements and
discussions. Knowing the fishing
community like I do, these problems will not be resolved in a day. But as to
what the answers are, I’d have to study that a lot more.
Q: Cape Elizabeth has a
strong farming backbone. What, if anything, can be done to help family farmers
and down-home agriculture in this state?
Monaghan-Derrig: I think marketing as much as possible is
always a great thing. Whatever they’re doing, they’re doing great, They’ve just
go to keep on doing it
Thompson: We just
need to support local farmers as much as we can. It may require legislation to
help, depending on the issue, and I am going to go ahead and fight for the
local farmers here. They were here before I ever set foot on this place. When
you think of all the locals who have had to put up with the changes, from all
the people that have moved here over the years, that’s got to be pretty
traumatic for people that have been here for generations. I’m very sensitive
for that.
Q: Do changes need to be
made at our state parks, in light of the recent rabid fox attack at Two Lights?
Thompson: Obviously,
they should have some sort of a notification system, and I think they have
undertaken that. The second time it happened about a week later they were
warning people about it. I don't think what's happened required is any new
legislation. I think the wardens who watch the parks do a really terrific job.
They’re always on the spot if there’s anything that happens.
Monaghan-Derrig: They have a responsibility to keep
everybody safe. Foxes are a big issue now, so I really do think it’s time to
take more measure to protect folks, particularly in our state parks. When you
have a rabid fox gong around, that’s a serous thing.
Q: Any last thoughts –
anything else you want people to know about you and your campaign?
Monaghan-Derrig: I’m really, really enjoying my time
campaigning and meeting everybody. I just really encourage everybody to get out
and vote on Aug. 16.
Thompson: I
have an incredible work ethic. When I am passionate about something, I put my
whole heart and energy into it. I will work hard for the citizens of Cape
Elizabeth. I am very well respected, but I’m not intimidating to approach. I've
always had an open ear and I think I can bring people’s concerns to Augusta.
Kim Monaghan-Derrig
• Political affiliation: Democrat.
• Publicly financed candidate: Yes.
• Age: 52.
• Address: Russet Lane, Cape Elizabeth.
• Married with one child (age 11).
• Occupation: Marketing professional, Segway Tours of Portland.
• Education: B.A. in journalism/communications from the University of Maine, 1982; B. A. in ballet/dance at Boston Conservatory of Music, 1978; pursuing a master’s in public policy and management at USM’s Muskie School of Public Service.
• Elective offices held: Cape Elizabeth school board, 2010-present. Previous unsuccessful run at Cape Elizabeth Town Council.
• Political experience: Staff manager, U.S. Rep. Tom Andrews; Maine congressional coordinator, Democratic National Committee; campaign office manager, Tom Andrews for Congress; staff aide, Maine Senate Majority Office; staff aide, Maine Senate Secretary.
• Political affiliation: Republican.
• Publicly financed candidate: Yes.
• Age: 52.
• Address: Pine Ridge Road, Cape Elizabeth.
• Married with five children, one deceased (ages 20 to 29).
• Occupation: Insurance agent, Living Wealth Partners, Portland.
• Education: Attended Boston College, graduated Katharine Gibbs School, NY.
• Elective offices held: None.
• Political experience: None.
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