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At the polls this November, Orono residents will have two candidates to choose from to serve as their state representative. Peter Fullerton, a University of Maine senior and political science major, is running as a Republican candidate against incumbent Jonathan Thomas, a Democrat.
“Democrats have had their opportunity [to improve the job climate] because they have had the majority in Augusta. Now the Republicans need to come in,” said Fullerton, originally from York.
Fullerton chairs UMaine’s College Republicans organization.
Maintaining funding for the university is a priority in his campaign, Fullerton said.
“I want to make sure that tuition at UMaine doesn’t go up and more state funding doesn’t get taken away. As far as budget cuts go, I would make sure that it doesn’t happen again – there’s really no need for cutting the budget for the university,” Fullerton said.
Thomas, who was elected to the Orono House seat while a student at UMaine, said he worked to mitigate the budget cuts that the university system saw in January.
“If it weren’t for Sen. Cathcart (D-Orono) and I, the university would be in a much worse situation financially,” Thomas said.
In his first of two terms, Thomas initiated a bond package that gave the university system $10 million for an advanced manufacturing center on the Orono campus. This year, he passed a bill prohibiting individuals from making indiscriminate challenges against voters.
Thomas said he initiated the bill because at the November 2002 election, some Republicans challenged selected students’ rights to vote at the Orono polls. The Republican group asked students to sign affidavits affirming their name and address in order to ensure that they were not committing voter fraud, he said.
“With my bill I’m really hoping to avoid these indiscriminate challenges we saw against students last election cycle,” Thomas said.
If elected, Fullerton said he hopes to improve the job climate in Maine, and that it is important to have a Republican majority in the Maine Senate to do so.
The conditions for small businesses in the state have to be improved, Fullerton said, as Maine is ranked one of the worst states to own and operate a small business.
“Maine is made up of small towns with small businesses,” he said. “Small businesses are really a huge part of Maine, and we need to make it more business-friendly in general.”
Having grown up in southern Maine, Fullerton said he remembers hearing much talk about the two Maines: a southern, more economically developed half, and a northern, poorer half.
“I would make sure that we are getting our fair share of funding and representation in certain committees,” Fullerton said.
Fullerton said he is also running to support the democratic process. In the past two elections, Thomas has gone unchallenged.
“I think that I’ve served Orono and the university well,” Thomas said. “I’ve brought a younger voice to the Legislature and I’ve accomplished a lot in the almost four years that I have been down here.”
