House Speakers Part Deux

As a follow up to Keith's post, here are profiles for the three other Republican speaker candidates in Maine:

Andre Cushing

Andre Cushing of Hampden, is a rookie Representative, serving his first term in the House for District 39. From his website you can see that he is also on the Hampden town council and serves as Deputy Mayor.

Recently, Mr. Cushing wrote a guest column in the Bangor Daily News in which he makes a rather benign case against public funding being used in elections. You can read that column here.

You can also watch Mr. Cushing's "Voice for Paul" in which he jumbles together talking points in support of Paul LePage. (As a side note, I do plan to go back and watch more of these "Voices for Paul" and will report back).




Paul Davis

Hailing from Sangerville (way up near Dover-Foxcroft), Rep. Paul Davis covers District 26. Also serving his first term, Mr. Davis brings a stronger resume than does Mr. Cushing - four terms as a state Senator in which he served two terms as Senate leader.

In this 2006 commentary on Baldacci's re-election, we perhaps have a summary of Mr. Davis' ideals for the state of Maine, in particular this strong statement:

"Maine does not have an effective Energy Plan. And the hardworking people of Maine are paying the price. In addition to having one of the country's highest gasoline taxes, our electricity costs are increasing at a staggering rate.

Energy efficiency is a key to our well-being. We need a long term strategy.
A Strategy that brings all the resources of the private and public sector together.

Depending upon communist rulers and dictators for handouts and charity is not an energy policy.

Great! Let's make it happen. I and most MG readers can certainly support this, though I think we can dispute his characterization of Mr. Baldacci's energy policy. Mr. Davis' experience on the National Panel on Energy and Agriculture (under the National Conference of State Legislatures) shows commitment to issues to energy and conservation. I hope that when federal tax dollars are available for renewable infrastructure development Mr Davis won't turn his back...

Stacey Fitts

Stacey Fitts is serving his third term in the Maine house and represents District 29, which includes his hometown of Pittsfield. Mr. Fitts was the ranking Republican on the Legal and Veterans Affairs panel.

Mr. Fitts is a supporter of the Electoral College, casinos ("You know everything you do is a recycling of dollars, whether you have a restaurant or any other type of entertainment venue. So this [Hollywood Slots in Bangor] is just another example of an entertainment opportunity that people would like to have available to them..."), and the populism of petitions and referendums:





I was excited to see that Mr. Fitts was an advocate of wind power under Baldacci's administration. But as the Citizen's Task Force AGAINST Maine wind power neatly confirms, Mr. Fitts is also employed by Kleinschmidt Associates, a semi-national water and energy consultant. On his Linkedin page, Mr. Fitts lists his role at Kleinshmidt as Field Services Specialist. I guess that explains the tone of this Bangor Daily News editorial against small scale renewable energy generation.

As an aside, this was Mr. Fitts' democratic opponent in this November's election:



Amazing!