John Piotti

Thursday the Maine House Democrats elected John Piotti (D-Unity) as House majority leader over Sharon Treat (D-Hallowell). See below for video of his speech.

AUGUSTA -- John Piotti (D-Unity) is the new House majority leader. He was up against Sharon Treat (D-Hallowell).

Tax reform and term limits were key issues in the debate. In 2007, Piotti led an effort to restructure Maine’s taxation system, which failed narrowly.

Piotti will be termed out after this year. Sharon Treat is in her second term. Piotti argues that him being termed out makes him more effective, because he will be doing the job without future ambitions in mind.

Maine House Democrats will elect their leaders at 10 a.m. this morning. We have put together brief bios of each of the candidates, taken from the legislative record.

House Republicans will elect their leaders this afternoon, and those bios will be posted later this morning.

John Piotti

Personal Web site

Running for: Majority leader

District: 45

Town: Unity

Occupation: Executive Director of the Maine Farmland Trust

Political experience: Entering fourth term in Legislature, local boards and committees, President of Kennebec Valley Council of Governments, several others found on his Web site

Republicans and Democrats in the Maine House will elect their respective leaders Thursday.

On the Democratic side, Rep. Hannah Pingree (D-North Haven) will likely be unopposed for House speaker.

For House majority leader, Reps. Gary Connor (D-Kennebunk), John Piotti (D-Unity) and Sharon Treat (D-Hallowell) have all announced intentions to run.

It is a five-way race for majority whip between:

PolitickerME.com has evaluated all 151 state House ratings by looking at the candidates, their histories and past results. We also spoke with people close to the process.

Click on the links for a county-by-county assessment:

ANDROSCOGGIN COUNTY | AROOSTOOK COUNTY | CUMBERLAND COUNTY | FRANKLIN COUNTY | HANCOCK COUNTY | KENNEBEC COUNTY | KNOX COUNTY | LINCOLN COUNTY | OXFORD COUNTY | PENOBSCOT COUNTY | PISCATAQUIS COUNTY | SAGADAHOC COUNTY | SOMERSET COUNTY | WALDO COUNTY | WASHINGTON COUNTY | YORK COUNTY

Click here for an overall evaluation.

WALDO COUNTY

State Rep. Gary Connor (D-Kennebunk) is vying for the House majority leader slot next term.

Connor, who is finishing his first term, said he considers himself to be one of the more moderate members of the House.

Connor said that the struggles of being a first term lawmaker are fresh in his mind, so he said he will best be able to help those new to the House.

AUGUSTA -- State Reps. Seth Berry (D-Bowdoinham), Cynthia Dill (D-Cape Elizabeth) and Don Pilon (D-Saco) all have their eyes on the assistant majority leader slot next session, providing they win their respective races and the Democrats maintain the majority in the state House.

Current Majority Whip Sean Faircloth (D-Bangor) is not running for re-election, instead focusing on his bid for attorney general.

In addition, Reps. Sharon Treat (D-Hallowell) and John Piotti (D-Unity) are engaged in a race for 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.

That was beginning of the Legislation to create the Joint Select Committee on Future Maine Prosperity. You will recall that this was an effort to come out of the gate in the second session with a big new bold idea with which to rally around and do great things for Maine.

Several stories about candidates running for the Legislature have popped up in the newspapers this week:

Today (Friday), the Sun Journal did a piece about Democrats running for office in Oxford County.  read more »