Portland legislative candidate debate

There’s competition for the Democratic nomination for three of Portland’s legislative seats.

Thursday evening candidates for House District 114, House District 120 and Senate District 8 gathered for a debate at King Middle School in Portland.

The discussions revealed few differences between the candidates. They all stressed the need for new voices in Augusta.

The House candidates

In House District 114, Justin Costa is running against Peter Stuckey for the Democratic nomination. Republican Morton Soule has also filed to run in the district. The seat is being vacated by Rep. Boyd Marley, D-Portland, who is termed out.

In H.D. 120, Edward Democracy is running against Diane Russell for the Democratic nomination. Republican Peter Doyle and Green Independent Sandy Amborn have also filed to run. The seat is being vacated by Rep. Anne Rand, D-Portland, who is running for Senate.

In both districts, the candidates represent different generations, Russell is 15 years younger than Democracy and Costa is 36 years younger than Stuckey.

Stuckey, 60, has worked for community action organizations. Costa, 24, has a history of working with non-profits and was involved with political advocacy groups in college.

“It became clear to me over the years that the issues I cared about – good jobs, health care -- these types of issues required government support,” Costa said.

Democracy, 46, has been active with his neighborhood organization and has been a peace activist. Russell recently returned from Washington where she worked for FairVote. She helped with the Opportunity Maine citizen’s initiative, which passed last year. The initiative allows students who went to college in Maine, and then stay in Maine, to write off their student loans.

Russell, 31, stressed the need for citizen engagement in government. But, “People cannot get engaged if they can’t eat, if they can’t get health care, if they can’t vote,” she said.

All four candidates said they would support a single payer health care system. They all support reproductive choice. They all oppose measures to identify and deport illegal aliens. They all support gay marriage.

Russell said the gay marriage issue is also about the separation of church and state. Gays should have an option to have a civil marriage, and churches can decide what to allow.

They all agreed that initiatives need to be taken to get more people a higher education. Russell stressed her work on Opportunity Maine, and said she’d push for continued support of the program. Costa also said he supports the program as a means to keep the college educated in the state. Democracy said he supports pre-college education programs.

Stuckey said he’d like to see better collaboration between the community college and university system to make it easier for students to either transition between the two or take their time in completing their higher education.

All the candidates noted environmental concerns that need to be addressed.

Costa said he’d support incentive programs for environmentally responsible programs as a means to combat global warming. Democracy said there’s a need for alternative transportation. Stuckey said he’d like to see measures to support local agriculture.

Russell said the state needs to be mindful of its water supply. Those that tap into Maine’s water supply, such as Poland Spring bottled water company, should be charged, with the money going to the Land for Maine’s Future fund.

The Senate candidates

Justin Alfond, Cliff Ginn and Anne Rand are all vying for the Senate District 8 nomination. Green Independent Kevin Gardella and Republican Eric Luck have also filed for the seat.

Rand, a current representative, could not make the debate because of votes going on in the Legislature.

Alfond is a former state director for the League of Young Voters. Ginn is the current president of Opportunity Maine.

Like the House candidates, they were in agreement on many issues. They both disagree with the Real ID law. They both support stricter measures to combat domestic violence. They both oppose measures to identify and deport illegal immigrants. Both supported protection of the Home Fund.

Alfond and Ginn both acknowledged the job shortage in Portland, but suggested different remedies.

Alfond suggested fixing the Pine Tree Zone law, which provides tax incentives for businesses to locate to certain areas. Portland is not a Pine Tree Zone.

Ginn said the Pine Tree Zone law is bad policy, and instead suggested more emphasis in people and communities instead of lowering taxes.

Both candidates said they support school consolidation in Portland, both in the physical number of school buildings and also school administration.

Portland’s school-age population is half what it was 20 years ago, Ginn said. Alfond said the state simply doesn’t have enough money to fund all the schools.

Both candidates said they support regulation of the mortgage industry.

“Foreclosures in this country are becoming an epidemic,” Alfond said. Lenders have, “Created circumstances where it’s difficult for people to pay back loans.”

They also agreed that the state’s tourism industry needs to be strengthened. Alfond said he would like to see it “professionalized” – with more hotel and hospitality management education available.

People come, he said, but “after one or two bad visits people decide to go somewhere else.”

Ginn said tourism is an important industry – but not the only important industry in the state. The best way to support tourism, he said, is to invest in Maine’s quality of place and downtown revitalization.

The state should also promote itself, to “make sure the world knows what a wonderful place Maine is to visit,” Ginn said.

The Senate candidates also addressed regulation of the state’s water.

Ginn said he would consider regulation of the state’s aquifers to prevent damage. He’d also support taxing water eradication.

Alfond was more hesitant to support such a tax. First, he said he’d like to see scientific proof that companies such as Nestle, which owns Poland Spring, are damaging Maine’s aquifers.

Without such proof, “with our economy, we should not force 750 jobs out of state,” Alfond said.