Former Attorney General enters gubernatorial race
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE – Former Maine Attorney General Steve Rowe wants to make the state all that it can be; and plans to do so if elected governor.
Steve Rowe
“As I go around the state, many people say, ‘You must be crazy wanting to run for governor because of all the problems facing our state – unemployment, people losing their homes, businesses closing’ – and I say those are the very reasons I’m running because I believe that our best days are ahead,” said Rowe, “but I do believe the state needs strong, forward-looking, innovative leadership.
“We must do things differently in the future than we’ve done in the past, and I think we must view Maine’s place in the world differently,” the Democrat said. “I go to a lot of school classrooms and see maps of the continental United States on the wall and Maine is in the upper right-hand corner … this geographic outpost. I tell the teacher that when I’m governor, we’ll take those maps down and put maps of the world up with Maine smack in the middle. I think sometimes how we see our place in the world limits our thinking and possibilities. I see Maine as being in the center of the world with unlimited opportunities for economic growth.”
The former West Point graduate and U.S. Army and U.S. Army Reserve officer was in Aroostook County last Friday making stops in Houlton, Mars Hill and Fort Kent.
Rowe said the top three issues he would tackle in Augusta are health care, energy and education.
“We need to reduce the cost of health care and increase access to community-based preventive health care,” he said. “I’ve been talking to business owners around the state over the last year and I hear over and over that the cost of health care is making the businesses non-competitive. Many employers are not hiring new people because of the cost of health care. People are either buying very expensive health insurance with its catastrophic coverage and huge deductibles, or they’re going without.
“We need to have more competition in the health insurance market, and we need to change the way we deliver health care services,” said Rowe. “We need to move to a system where we reward providers based on health outcomes and move to a community-based primary care system. If we do that, we’ll reduce the cost of health care and we’re going to have healthier, more innovative people.”
Excessive energy costs is another common subject among Rowe’s constituents.
“Business owners say they’re non-competitive because of high energy costs, particularly high electric rates,” he said. “We must reduce the cost of energy and convert from fossil fuels to renewable sources. I believe that the future in terms of energy in Maine is going to be wind, solar and even more natural gas.”
Rowe said it’s also important to strengthen the education system with a focus on building a skilled workforce ready to fill the jobs of the future.
“The only way we’re going to be a world-class economy is to have world-class, highly educated people. We need to make sure that every person in Maine has the skills and knowledge they need to be successful in the future economy,” he said. “That starts before kindergarten … early learning begets later learning. We need to start every child at kindergarten ready and able to learn, and make sure every child graduates from high school … ready and able to be successful in higher education whether that’s going to community college or a university.”
Rowe holds a degree from the University of Maine School of Law, a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Utah, and a bachelor’s degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point.
“A lot of our government focuses on remediation … fixing problems and dealing with the aftermath of problems,” said Rowe. “I believe the government ought to be more proactive. I call it ‘going upstream’ and getting more into the prevention business because I believe many of the problems that government deals with are preventable … particularly problems like mental health issues, substance abuse and domestic abuse. If we went upstream more and focused on prevention, early intervention and working with young families, we could substantially reduce the number of children that need special education in our public schools.”
Rowe served as Maine’s Attorney General from 2001-08. Prior to taking office, he served four terms in the Maine House of Representatives, and during his last term, was Speaker of the House. Before his state government service, Rowe worked for 15 years in the semiconductor and insurance industries in Maine.
He was a leader in the National Association of Attorneys General, chairing committees dealing with prescription drug pricing and underage drinking, and as a legislator, Rowe chaired committees on economic development, research and development, and natural resources. He also led the creation of the Fund for a Healthy Maine, as well as passage of a $50 million Land for Maine’s Future Bond issue.
Currently Rowe is counsel to the law firm of Verrill Dana LLC. He and his wife, Amanda, live in Portland. They have four grown children and two grandchildren.