BANGOR, Maine — Two former Bangor City Council colleagues running against each other for a state Senate seat faced off in a debate Thursday that uncovered a surprising amount of common ground.
Republican Cary Weston is challenging incumbent Democrat Geoff Gratwick in Maine Senate District 9 representing Bangor and Hermon.
Gratwick, a longtime physician, and Weston, who owns a small marketing and communications firm in Bangor, served a term on the Bangor council together from 2009 to 2012.
Despite disparate stances on issues ranging from welfare to campaign finance, they agreed almost as often as they differed while fielding questions in front of a small audience at Beal College.
Here’s a summary of the debate:
On whether they would support Medicaid expansion in Maine:
Gratwick has been a strong supporter of expansion, touting the idea of providing medical care to 70,000 Mainers and the “enormous economic benefits” of accepting federal funding for the expansion.
“My sense is this is something we need right now,” Gratwick said. “My sense is that this is something Mike Michaud would sign on his first day in office.”
Weston said he would have supported compromise bills last year that would have allowed the state to accept federal Medicaid expansion dollars, going against most of the rest of his Republican colleagues. He said that funding could be a piece of the solution for issues in the medical field, including how to treat those suffering from drug addiction.
On the recent paper mill closings and the state’s approach to economic development:
Weston said that the state should restore municipal revenue sharing, allowing cities and towns to use that funding to invest in their infrastructure and court businesses and economic development projects. He said Bangor is the top producer of sales tax revenue in the state, yet sees less and less of that money returned by the state through revenue sharing.
He also stressed the importance of institutions, like Beal College, which train people for jobs in specific, in-demand trades — welding and nursing, for example.
Gratwick again touted the importance of Medicaid expansion and the 4,000 jobs some studies have said would result. He also stressed the importance of workforce development and offering appropriate training and education for growing fields.
Both candidates said making high-speed Internet available in Maine cities would be vital to bringing new industry and opportunity to the state.
On the financial problems facing Maine’s public university system:
Gratwick said maintaining “top flight universities” while balancing a budget is not an easy task and that he has no good answer for how to do that. More conversations will need to be had before those solutions emerge.
Research will continue to be key for the University of Maine’s flagship campus in Orono and should be an “incubator” for new business and industry in Maine, he argued.
“There’s nothing more important than education for moving us forward,” Gratwick said.
Weston said the university and community college systems have “enormous amounts of overhead,” each running seven campuses, each with their own administrations.
He said he looks forward to working with Chancellor James Page who has “a big ship to move” and start a “conversation about what our public education system is about.”
Pumping out degrees that won’t help the state’s economy move forward isn’t a productive use of resources, he argued.
On increasing the minimum wage:
Increasing the minimum wage would put money into the hands of those who need it, people who would turn around and pump disposable income back into their local economies, according to Gratwick.
He also argued higher wages would give people on general assistance more of a reason to go to work, rather than relying on welfare. That could reduce the state’s general assistance expenses, he added.
“$7.50 is not sufficient to live on,” Gratwick said.
Weston countered that the minimum wage increase would hurt many small Maine businesses, as well as drive up the costs of goods and services. He disagreed with Gratwick’s assessment that a minimum wage increase would have an effect on how much the state spends on welfare.
“I’d rather be talking about energy, I’d rather be talking about trades,” Weston said, adding that more conversation is needed before considering a minimum wage hike and its potential fallout.
On clean elections:
Gratwick is running as a clean elections candidate. Weston is not.
Weston explained that he weighed both options, but ultimately decided he didn’t want to leave it to taxpayers to fund his campaign. $2 million goes into the clean elections fund to be used in political campaigns, rather than to teachers or health care, he argued.
Clean elections also don’t resolve the issue of outside special interest groups “poisoning the conversation” in political campaigns, he said.
Gratwick said taxpayers who invest in the clean elections fund get a good return and take a step toward decreasing the amount of money pumped into political campaigns, as well as the influence of outside groups with a lot of money to spend.
“The only people I’m beholden to are the citizens of Maine,” he said.
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter @nmccrea213.