I ask people to vote for Janet Mills for governor because I’m a retired public health nurse and saw what Paul LePage’s administration did to Maine’s public health system.

LePage dismantled the system and hired people who weren’t public health experts.

When I started working as a public health nurse there were over 50 nurses across Maine who traveled sometimes over 100 miles a day to see clients. When I retired in 2015 there were only 15 nurses left who saw clients. LePage’s administration didn’t replace me or other nurses after staff left. There was money to hire the nurses, but LePage wouldn’t release it.

Mills started to build up the public health system when she became governor, and hired Dr. Nirav Shah to be head of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Where would we be during COVID if LePage were governor, without any knowledge and working public health system?

Ronella Paradis, Lewiston