 |
| Angus King |
By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
HOULTON — Former Governor Angus King never thought he would return to politics. But sometimes, life throws you a curveball.
One day after submitting 6,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s office to officially become a candidate for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Olympia Snowe, King toured Aroostook County May 30-31, making campaign stops in Houlton, Mars Hill, Presque Isle, Caribou, Fort Kent and Madawaska.
He said the time felt right for him to return to politics when he read Snowe’s remarks on why she was choosing to leave her post after 18 years in the U.S. Senate.
“I had no intention of getting back into politics,” King said. “When I left the office of Governor, that was it. I felt good about what we had done, and was ready to do a bunch of other things. But it was what Olympia Snowe said when she retired that provoked me to run.”
King said Snowe’s comments that Washington was “broken” making it impossible to get things done stirred feelings in him that he thought were no longer there.
“Here was somebody with 30 years of experience and she couldn’t make it work as a Republican,” King said. “It made me think, ‘Maybe it is time to try something different.’ As an Independent, I’m ready to try it in a different way.”
King served as Maine’s governor from 1995 to 2003. After leaving office, he toured the United States with his wife, Mary Herman, and their two children Ben and Molly, writing a book about his experiences.
Since 2004, he has served as a lecturer at Bowdoin College in his hometown of Brunswick. He also formed a wind energy company, Independence Wind, in 2009. He sold his share of the company when he decided to return to politcs.
He said his decision to run, comes at a particularly important time in our nation, as the economy continues to struggle and so many people remain unemployed.
“What are the issues?” he said. “Jobs, debt, health care and energy. You go down the list of issues, but the problem is you can’t get to any of those issues if the institution designed to solve them is broken. If you have leaks in your pipes, but your wrench is broken, you can’t fix it. That is where I see this country right now.”
He added that all of these issues were time sensitive, needing immediate action to fix to prevent them from getting worse.
“I wrestled with this (decision to run) and ultimately said I had to try,” King said. “I wasn’t planning on this step, but it is one that is important.”
In Houlton, King visited with Greater Houlton Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jane Torres, touring the downtown area and meeting with locals along the way. He also made stops in downtown Presque Isle and Caribou.
King said his experiences as governor have already prepared him to tackle the many challenges facing the country.
“As a governor, you’re a problem-solver,” he said. “You deal with a variety of issues, from fisheries, to wildlife, to transportation. Being governor was a very practical kind of experience and I feel that will hold me in good state if I make it to Washington.”
King said he was well aware of the notion that an unaffiliated senator might have difficulty getting things done in Washington, but that was not going to deter him from trying.
“In my experience, people aren’t interested in who gets the credit or the blame,” he said. “They are interested in the problem being solved. That is my full approach. Let’s just get the problems solved, particularly the economy and the national debt.”
Social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook are playing a large role in his campaign. King said he has about 13,000 fans of his Facebook page and interacts with them on a regular basis.
“I spend an hour or so every night answering people’s questions,” he said. “It gives you an opportunity to relate to people directly. You also get a chance to present yourself in a more rounded way, other than just a politician behind a podium.”
King has always prided himself on being among the leaders in technology. It was his concept as governor in 2000 to purchase Apple laptops for all seventh- and eighth-graders for school use. That initiative became known as the Maine Learning Technology Initiative and remains in effect 12 years later.
“I am very proud of that initiative,” he said. “At the time it was very controversial. People thought it was a dumb idea. I have teachers come up to me regularly who admit they thought it was crazy at first, but now can never imagine going back. I’m particularly proud of its impact in the rural areas, because it’s connected those kids in ways they wouldn’t have had before.”
One practice that King doesn’t agree with is businesses that received government bailouts or tax breaks either shutting their doors or moving jobs overseas.
“I don’t like it,” he said. “It really bothers me and is something I want to look into more. I think we haven’t been very smart about that.”
On the topic of term limits, King said he was not opposed to term limits in Washington and in fact voted for them for Maine’s legislators in 1993 during a state referendum.
“As a governor, I lived with term limits,” he said. “Having lived through it, I am not so enthusiastic about them. There was so much turnover that you lost a lot of institutional memory. A lot of really good people had to leave. I’ve turned around on that issue, but I think it’s best left in the hands of the voters. I am not looking for a lifetime career in Congress, but I am hoping to be there long enough to be effective.”
