In a May 22-23 editorial, the Bangor Daily News termed gubernatorial candidate Rosa Scarcelli “a persuasive newcomer.” Indeed, she is that, and more.
She is new in comparison to what the BDN called “the three old-school insiders,” all considerably older than Rosa’s 40 years and each of whom has spent many years in and around state government. If political experience is all that ought to count, Rosa would have been well-advised to stay out of the race.
This year, however, practical experience may weigh as heavily as time spent in the State House. Rosa is the owner and CEO of Stanford Management, a company that employs more than 100 people and provides affordable housing to thousands of Maine people and across the country. In 2008, Affordable Housing Magazine named her one of the nation’s top 50 affordable housing owners. She knows what it’s like to create jobs, meet a payroll and negotiate with vendors.
Rosa is a member of the Young Presidents Organization and its International Network, the International Women’s Forum, and the Maine Women’s Forum. She has been a board member of Ingraham, a nonprofit social service and mental health care provider, and in 2004 was given its Outstanding Leadership Award. In 2009, she was named to the Aspen Institute’s Henry Crown Fellowship Program as one of 20 emerging leaders across the country from business, politics and the arts.
Nor does she lack political experience. In 1987, she was Sen. George Mitchell’s first Senate page, after which she served as an intern in his office. She saw politics and governance from the very top and helped Mainers who brought their concerns to the senator. In 2008, she served on Barack Obama’s New England Finance Committee.
This is a woman ready to take on the concerns of state.
Moreover, she does not shy away from tough decisions. She opposes expanding gambling in Maine, for example, because she believes there are better ways to bring jobs to Maine, and that gambling takes dollars out of the pockets of the poor. She points out that the demand for casinos comes not from Maine people but from ca-sino operators.
She appreciates our demographic diversity, including our original inhabitants, the Native Americans, Franco-Americans and our newest immigrants, Somalis and Asians, and she laments the repeal of Maine’s first in the nation law permitting same-sex marriage, which she calls “an issue of simple fairness and equality.”
She calls a spade a spade, even if it might cost some votes. When the Maine Republican Party scrapped its proposed platform for a Tea Party assortment of radical notions, Rosa was the first candidate for governor to blast the move as a “ backward” step, an “iron curtain of intolerance.” The Republican platform, she said, “re-flects the beliefs of right-wing extremists instead of the hopes, dreams, and values of middle-class families in Maine.”
At the recent Democratic State Convention in Lewiston, the contrast among the candidates was dramatic. The three “old-school insiders” each had assembled a sign-waving crowd of supporters to mount the usual “spontaneous demonstration.”
Rosa did away with the charade altogether and walked to the podium with only a comparative handful of family and student supporters. The delegates, surprised at the lack of noisy enthusiasm, quickly recovered, with many rising to their feet and cheering. Her father, a retired professor at the University of Maine at Farmington, introduced her in a single sentence.
And then she spoke, quietly, personally, passionately, and knowledgeably about her hopes and dreams for Maine. She told the convention why she believes that she may be best qualified to lead Maine but also why she just might be the most electable candidate before them.
“Maine has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rebuild a leaner, more efficient state government,” the BDN editorialized. If Democratic voters in the June 8 primary “believe [such] bigger, systemic changes are needed, they should look to Rosa Scarcelli.” The BDN cautions that major change may not be possible, but that Rosa “has good ideas and enthusiasm for remaking government.” Indeed, a newcomer like Rosa, someone without the baggage of the past and favors owed, stands the best chance of making real, systemic change in state government.
What we need in a governor is not only a great manager but also a superb leader, someone who can inspire us to achieve our highest potential. Rosa Scarcelli has that magic, that hard-to-define “it” — the ability to light up the room and to fill us with enthusiasm. Check out her website, www.RosaForMaine.com, and vote for her on June 8. You can help forge a new future.
Kent Price of Orland was the 2004 Democratic candidate in Maine House District 41.