The House District 70 race features incumbent Nathan Wadsworth (R-Hiram)  against challenger Nathan Burnett (D-Hiram). HD 70 includes Brownfield, Fryeburg, Hiram, parts of Lovell and Porter.

The News posed the following questions to the candidates; and their responses are arranged in alphabetical order:

Q. 1 — What qualities, skills and experiences do you possess that make you the best candidate for the job?

Burnett: I believe my experiences and training as a teacher puts me in a great position to transition into being a part-time legislator. (If elected, I still plan to teach my classes as the calendar allows.) I learn, I listen, I explain, and my entire job description could be boiled down to compromising between what’s good for students and fair for teachers. I think a similar rubric can be applied at the Legislature: what’s good for the state and fair for the resident.

Wadsworth: As your State Representative over the past six years, I have gained knowledge and experience in understanding state government and making connections with people in different departments. For example, I helped dozens of folks access unemployment benefits when Covid struck. I currently sit on the Appropriations Committee and that position helps me monitor where your tax dollars go. That experience and those connections make me the best candidate to help the people of my district; especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Q. 2 — As Maine continues to contend with and bounce back from the Covid-19 pandemic, what three area should state government focus on and what possible solutions would you propose?

Burnett: The pandemic was, and still is, a global emergency, so expecting state leaders to have complete and accurate solutions is asking a lot. At the very least, solutions will include continued national intervention and austerity visions are not going to bring us out of this crisis. Progressive policies that put money in the hands of those who will spend it immediately, and locally, will be more effective than another regressive tax break for the wealthiest among us.

Wadsworth: A main priority needs to be protecting the most vulnerable among us. That being said, we must not mitigate the importance of ensuring economic stability. The most important aspect of that task is getting our state budget back in balance. We also need to ensure that our departments have the resources to assist Maine families, and I believe we should consider low-interest loans to help Maine small businesses weather the storm. 

Q. 3 — Where do you stand on the proposed Central Maine Power proposed transmission corridor, good or bad deal and why?

Burnett: The CMP Corridor is an incredibly tricky problem. First and foremost, anthropogenic global climate change is happening at a dramatic rate. Every year that we delay implementing policies that transition us away from fossil fuel energies is a problem, and the CMP corridor appears to be a great step in that direction. 

However, that does not mean I support an incredible wealth transfer from Mainers to a non-governmental organization with so many unanswered questions still on the table. You have only to look at the amount of money being poured into our state from the international proponents (Quebec-Hydro and Iberdrola) of this issue to see there is a clear need to pump the brakes and reexamine who benefits and how.

Wadsworth: Bad deal. The corridor has never received an up or down vote from the Legislature, as complex energy decisions like this are decided by the PUC. I support dispatchable energy made at home like biomass or local hydro-power. 

Q. 4 — If elected, what items/issues would be priorities and what might be ways to address them?

Burnett: Three big issues that I believe would set Maine on a good trajectory for the immediate future are: Decoupling healthcare from employment. Far too many Mainers work 40-plus hours a week, but it’s at two or three places, and none of them are for enough hours to trigger their employer to offer “benefits.” That’s not right. We can fix that with Mainecare for all.

Deploying fiber-optic broadband across the state. In 2012, as part of the ARRA stimulus package, the state of Maine completed the “3 Ring Binder Project,” which is 1,100 miles of “middle mile, dark fiber-optic.” The towns of Baileyville and Calais, through the Downeast Broadband Utility, are now tapping into this resource providing a working template for other municipalities to build off of. At the very least, the Maine Legislature could help to remove the red tape that slowed that project down, if not pass legislation to actively encourage other municipalities to follow suit.

We need to encourage energy independence with local renewable power sources at the residential and municipal levels. The state already does it at the investment level, we just need to offer those incentives at the smaller level too. Net-metering allows people to produce excess power during the day that is credited to their accounts to be used later for when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing.

All of these ideas already have legislation written by interested parties and they just need representatives in Augusta to sponsor the bills. If elected, I will do just that.

Wadsworth: Besides navigating the Covid-19 pandemic, I am committed to continuing the fight for term limits on our members of Congress. I would also like to continue pushing for improved “Career and Technical Education’ in our high schools. This will give our young people more career opportunities that allow them to stay right here in Maine. It is also my desire to continue pushing back against the “Defund the Police” movement and to lend my full support to our law enforcement. 

Q. 5 — What are the three biggest challenges Maine faces in the next three years…

Burnett: We are the oldest state in the nation. We need to do everything we can to encourage our youth to stay here and reinvest in their state. Broadband deployment across the state, so that we could be competitive for remote work jobs, jobs installing solar panels and other green infrastructure, and the increased demands on healthcare that continues to come with an aging population are all opportunities for us to employ the current generation that all too often heads south for greener pastures.

Wadsworth: Obviously, the first issue is getting through the pandemic and its fallout. Our aging demographic is another concern facing the state. Finally, we need to get rural homes connected to high speed broadband. 

Q. 6 — …And how should state government go about addressing those challenges?

Burnett: Education. That is what will bring us into the future. We need an educated population that is ready to keep learning. The U.S. Department of Labor and Statistics says that only 10% of workers right now will have four or fewer jobs in their lifetime, and that percentage is predicted to shrink. So, we need to emphasize in society that knowing how to learn to do a task and how to adapt to doing new tasks are just as important as knowing how to actually do the task.

Wadsworth: For the pandemic, I think the most important things to do are ensuring that we deal with the budget crisis and that we make sure Maine families and businesses have access to the resources they need.

In regards to the demographic issue, I believe it is important that we create a climate where young Mainers can stay in the state with a good career. One of the ways I think we do this is by strengthening our “Career and Technical Education” training in our local high schools.

To address our rural broadband issues, it will take resources from the local, state, federal and private sectors. One of the last bills I supported in the last legislature was for a $15 million broadband bond.