Not to spoil the ending of this op-ed at the top; I’ll be stating my intention to run for higher office at the end. In the meantime, I’d like to share with you my experience in the state Legislature and motivation to continue serving the great people of Maine

I’m entering my eighth and final year (term limits) serving in the Maine House of Representatives. I have thoroughly enjoyed serving my constituents and working with all my colleagues in Augusta. It’s been one of the greatest honors of my life.

That said, it has been a tumultuous ride. It all began rather smoothly back in 2019, but since COVID-19, and especially over the last three-plus years, the question I’ve been getting the most from folks is, “So, what’s going on with the Maine Legislature?”

That ask wasn’t coming from an optimistic or promising position.

I was first elected in November of 2018 to the 129th Legislature. Having worked in the private sector my entire career, I understood there was a lot to learn about government and being an effective legislator. My philosophy when venturing into a new field is to listen and learn; in other words, go to school on the legislative process. I started strong and actually got a few bills passed into law, which is no easy task for a freshman legislator.

Looking back now, that first two-year term was the closest thing to normal I’d ever see. Bipartisanship was real in the 129th. My introduction in the House chamber was sitting next to a Republican colleague. We did not serve on any committees together and seldom agreed on policy but became respected friends who looked for compromise. The whole session felt that way. COVID-19 hit in March of 2020 and changed everything. We adjourned early and were not able to complete our work.

When the 130th Legislature convened in December of 2020, we were at the height of COVID and it was decided we couldn’t meet in person at the State House. We sit inches from each other in the chamber. Inevitably the mask debate fell on party lines, so when we did conduct business live, we had to be separated by the aisle, one side wearing masks, the other not.

The experiment of intermingling across party lines and building camaraderie was over. Almost immediately bipartisanship went out the window; we hardly met in person during the 130th. I was on the Education Committee (always one of the busiest) and we never met in the committee room during this two-year session. Every meeting was via Zoom.

The only colleagues across the aisle that I got to know were my committee mates, and only through Zoom and only on mic. I believe I do my best work off mic. Working the bills with colleagues, even those in the same party, was gone. So, how did we serve the people of Maine?

We, and this decision was nearly unanimous due to the circumstances, decided to do a majority budget. A majority budget is designed to ensure that all necessary services remain funded. The chief executive did a good job leading us through these two extremely chaotic years.  There wasn’t much new legislation, but the state of Maine came out of it in much better shape than most others.

By January 2023, the beginning of the 131st Legislature, we were back on campus, but the masks debate continued to rage and Democrats, still holding the majority in the House, Senate and Blaine House, opted to run a majority budget again. Doing a majority budget a second time proved to be a dereliction of duty.

A majority budget, from my perspective, is even more one-sided than it sounds, and has proven to be incredibly divisive. In practice it puts most, if not all, of the budgeting decisions in the hands of the chief executive. It lessens the Legislature’s negotiating position while making most of the bipartisan work done in committees fruitless.

That painfully played out in the 131st. None of the full Legislature’s fiscal priorities made it into that budget, and one that did (Paid Family Medical Leave) was totally on partisan lines. At the end of the 131st over 250 truly great bills, many unanimously out of committee, died when we adjourned.

After seeing what transpired around a majority budget in the 131st, I was hopeful we would return to the traditional two-thirds bipartisan budget this session, but I was regrettably mistaken. Instead of trusting and working with all our colleagues to put the full Legislature’s priorities first, a majority budget got voted in again. I was the only Democrat in the Maine House who did not vote for the majority budget.

Not surprisingly, history has repeated itself. Once again, hundreds of critical bills either died on the Appropriations table or got carried over since they weren’t part of the chief executive’s budget recommendations. Frankly, over the last three years it’s been leadership’s operational inefficiency and patent disregard of the Legislature’s processes and procedures, not the chief executive, that’s created the extremely contentious atmosphere in and around the State House.

Our Maine Legislature has become a toxically partisan place with little hope for compromise. Deeper lines have been drawn, driving the parties further apart.

I don’t like to point out problems without offering solutions. Having experience in both the private sector (40 years) and politics, I understand your needs and know how to make Augusta deliver for the people of Maine. Considering that, it is my intent to continue serving the amazing people of Maine and run for governor in 2026 as an independent. To get real change, we need to elect leaders who will and can work with everyone to find common ground.