NEWS: Poliquin Wants to be Governor

First published by the Times-Record

04/17/2009
Developer seeks GOP nomination
By Seth Koenig, Times Record Staff

BATH — Bruce Poliquin, known to many in the Mid-coast for his development efforts in Bath and Phippsburg, is running as a Republican to become the next governor of Maine.

More than a year before the party primary, the Georgetown resident is promoting a detailed strategy that focuses on applying a businessman’s approach —“spending wisely” — to state government to help create jobs.

Poliquin, who lists his campaign headquarters as Bath, is one of two Republicans who have officially filed with the state as candidates for the Blaine House. Matt Jacobson, head of Maine & Co., a business attraction group, is the other early GOP contender.

For his first interview since filing as a candidate in the 2010 gubernatorial race, Poliquin visited The Times Record’s Bath office Thursday.

The former baseball and softball coach — at every level from Little League to college — said talks with some of his players helped motivate him to run.

“I’m from Waterville — third generation — and I have a passion for this state,” said Poliquin. “It’s a great place to live. We have a special quality of life here. But although we have a great quality of life, it’s very difficult for many of our young people to find a good job and stay here.”

“I stay in touch with many of my former ballplayers,” he continued. “Many of them are looking to stay in Maine or return to Maine, and they’re struggling to find a way to do that. That’s one of the most important reasons I’m running.”

Poliquin pointed to several statistics illustrating trends he’d like to see reversed: that Maine’s median household income is $16,000 lower than the number from “across the border in New Hampshire,” and that anyone making more than $10 per hour at a full-time job in Maine is hit with the seventh-highest income tax rate in the nation.

His campaign platform calls for reductions in taxes “across the board,” while improving the quality of education, environmental protection efforts and Maine’s overall business culture.

He insisted that Maine government could accomplish all of those things by “spending wisely.” In addition to stints on the North Yarmouth Academy board of trustees and the Natural Resources Council of Maine’s governing panel, Poliquin’s résumé includes managing a private investment company that handled $5 billion in retirement assets and had 80 employees.

“A business can’t live beyond its means,” Poliquin told The Times Record. “A household cannot live beyond its means. A state government should not live beyond its needs, but it has been, and the taxpayers can no longer afford it.

“We know what the issues are, and we know what the solutions are — or we can figure them out,” he continued. “Tough decisions are going to have to be made. We’ll all need to be pushing on the same side of the wheel, and that’s going to take leadership.”

‘Tough decisions’
Some areas in state government where Poliquin said he’d like to see reform are in health care and education, which he said eat up 32 percent and 47 percent of the state budget, respectively.

The Georgetown Republican said roughly 275,000 Mainers receive taxpayer-funded health care, which he said indicates that the eligibility requirements for using such health care are too lenient. In many cases, he added, people are turning to the emergency room for primary care, where it’s seven times more expensive to treat non-emergency cases than at a local doctor’s office.

“The program was initially designed as a safety net for the poor and disabled, but over the last 30 years, well-intentioned politicians have made it too easy to qualify for tax-funded medical care,” said Poliquin. “We’re now at a point where the taxpayers of Maine can no longer afford that.”

In education spending, he said the state spends the seventh-highest amount in the country per student between kindergarten and 12th grade.

“We are clearly spending a lot of money on education, but we’re getting average results,” he said. “We have an average high school graduation rate. We have a below average college matriculation rate.”

Still, Poliquin said, “We don’t pay our teachers enough.”

“As parents, there are only three lasting things we can give our kids,” said Poliquin, who has been spending recent weeks taking his teenage son on college scouting trips. “No. 1, is unconditional love. No. 2, is values. And the third thing that can never be taken away is a strong education.

“I also know that a great education is something businesses look for when relocating,” he added. “A good education is the best buffer against poverty, unemployment and alcohol and drug abuse.”

The candidate called for a teacher compensation plan that relied less on seniority and degrees, and more on the success of teachers in the classroom. He also said the state needs a standard for diagnosing students with special needs, because currently, “it varies greatly across the state.”

With a statewide standard for diagnosing special needs, he argued, “more resources will be available for kids that really need that help.”

Poliquin moved on to discuss transportation and infrastructure issues, pointing out that Canadian products arriving at the deepwater port of New Brunswick have no “straight shot” east-west highway across central Maine to use in shipping to Montreal, Detroit or Chicago. As a result, he said, Canadian importers go two hours and 120 miles out of the way to drive on roads that arch over Maine’s northern border. For that reason, the state loses potential revenues generated from shipping.

He also called for government policies that would facilitate improved cell phone and broadband Internet coverage, as well as more convenient flights north.

“To fly from any of (Maine’s four commercial) airports to our major trading partner — Canada — you have to connect through Boston or New York,” said Poliquin, whose Web site, http://www.bruceforme.com, is due to launch May 1. “The private sector has to solve a lot of these problems, not the public sector. But we need to create an environment where those things can take place.”