LEE, Maine – Kevin Ritchie, a former 35-year educator at Lee Academy, was selected as the Democratic Party nominee for District 8 Representative in the June primary election. A lifelong Mainer, Ritchie lived in Patten and graduated from Katahdin High School in 1975 and the University of Maine in 1980
. He has worked on potato farms, in lumber mills, at the Job Corps Center in Bangor, in his own small businesses, and in several roles at Lee Academy, as well as with Maine Indian Education.
He has co-owned two businesses in the town of Springfield, including his 16 years as co-owner of the Springfield Fairgrounds and president of the Springfield Fair Association. Ritchie’s experience working with young people, families, and citizens in our part of rural Maine has helped him understand their concerns, joys and struggles. Ritchie said, “As a career educator and business owner, I understand and am committed to working together to provide a voice for people in our district and accomplish goals that support small business development and access to modern resources.”
Ritchie strongly opposes the flood of outside and corporate money into campaigns and political work; his campaign is financed through Maine’s Clean Elections Law. Registered voters in District 8, from any party, may contribute $5 to his campaign – or any political candidate running to represent our district – by going to http://maine.gov/cleanelections.
If elected, Ritchie says he will work to find common ground for solving problems and moving us forward. “Wherever possible, I believe in compromise as the best pathway to practical and effective solutions”, Ritchie said. “As an independent-minded Democrat, I vote – and will continue to do so – on the issue in front of me, not along party lines. I will work to represent the needs of every person in our region, regardless of party or belief.”
Among issues Ritchie plans to address are advocating for affordable, accessible, quality health care, and improving essential social services to remove these unnecessary burdens from our local, county, and state police. Ritchie has pledged to support home-based and small business growth, universal broadband access, and strategies for relief from the household worries of rising inflation.
Regarding broadband expansion Ritchie explains, “A top priority for our region (District 8) is affordable high-speed internet to provide continuing education and training, telehealth access to health care, and opportunities to access markets for online small and home businesses. Affordable broadband for all is crucial to our economic future. I want us working together as a region to improve our economy.”
Ritchie and his wife Kendra live in Lee. They have three children and four grandchildren. House District 8 includes more than 50 towns and settlements north from Lee to the town of Crystal, east to Hodgdon, south along the US/Canadian border to Waite and Fowler Township, and west through the towns south of Route 6, and back to Lee, including all communities bounded within that area.
Ritchie has lived and worked in towns within our District since 1981. He is “knocking on doors” throughout our beautiful region, meeting with voters, listening carefully to their concerns, and enjoying the more than 1900 “doorstep” conversations he has had with folks in District 8 since the end of June.
