Treat, Piotti to compete for state House majority leader

AUGUSTA -- State Reps. John Piotti (D-Unity) and Sharon Treat (D-Hallowell) will compete to be House majority leader next session, providing they win their re-election bids and the Democrats maintain control of the House.

Current Majority Leader Hannah Pingree is expected to become the next speaker, as no challengers have emerged. Current Assistant Majority Leader Sean Faircloth (D-Bangor) is not running for re-election, hoping legislators will elect him to be state Attorney General.

Reps. Seth Berry (D-Bowdoinham), Cynthia Dill (D-Cape Elizabeth) and Don Pilon (D-Saco) will compete for the assistant majority leader slot.

Piotti is the current chairman of the Legislature's Taxation Committee, and is a former chair of the Agriculture Committee. He said that experience combined with his background running several non profits qualify him for the job.

"I'm a great candidate, and I'm excited about the legislative agenda,"

Piotti said.

As chairman of the Taxation Committee, Piotti led the tax reform effort which failed in the 11th hour of the 2007 session.

Outgoing House Speaker Glenn Cummings (D-Portland) had asked Piotti to lead the tax reform effort after seeing his work on the issue that involved expanding Baxter State Park to include Katahdin Lake, a controversial issue in 2006.

The Taxation Committee worked on the tax reform package for months, developing a plan the cut the income tax and increase consumption taxes.

It was met with fierce opposition from the business lobby. The House passed it, but it was killed in a narrow vote by the Senate.

Piotti said that through the process, he was engaged in talks with the governor and legislative leaders, which gave him a sense of what being in leadership might involve.

Piotti said wanting tax reform is one reason he is running for leadership - but not the only reason. He also has priorities in economic development, alternative energy and improving the environment.

As majority leader, Piotti said that he will assist in opening a dialogue with the Senate earlier in the process, which will help advance issues that are gridlocked, such as tax reform.

Outside of the Legislature, Treat is executive director of the National Legislative Association on Prescription Drug Prices, a job that involves writing model legislation on a number of different issues.

In 2003, Treat sponsored legislation creating the Rx Plus prescription drug program. The program lowers the cost of medicine for low and middle income residents of Maine.

The law was challenged in 2004 by the pharmaceutical industry and survived. Since then, nine other states have passed similar laws.

The program works by penalizing drug companies that refuse to offer discounts to program participants.

Treat is technically a freshman legislator, but she's a seasoned veteran in the Legislature, now wrapping up her eighth term. She spent three two-year terms in the House, then spent four in the Senate, and is now back to her first in the House. In the Senate she served two terms as majority leader.

Therefore, she has three terms left before she is term-limited.

Previous experience in leadership is why she said she'd make a better candidate.

"Our challenges are so great right now," Treat said. "Someone with that level of experience will be in the best position to lead."

While her leadership experience is in the Senate, at the end of this term, Treat will have spent four terms in the House. She said she understands what it's like to be a member of the larger body, where each legislator shares an aide with eight others.

Piotti will be term-limited at the end of next session, so he said this is his chance to get into leadership. He said having leaders in their last term is more beneficial because they can focus at the job-at-hand instead of positioning themselves for their next office.

Piotti said that while Treat has more experience overall, he's more deeply rooted in the current House Democratic caucus, which makes him better for the job.