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Former Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives and current State Sen. John Martin (D-Eagle Lake) visited the University of Maine Wednesday.
He spent time with students and faculty alike in a series of meetings and discussions.
At noon in the Bumps Room of Memorial Union, he gave an informal talk to approximately 20 people, representing members of the faculty, staff and student body.
The talk lasted just over an hour and was sponsored primarily by the Margaret Chase Smith Foundation’s Distinguished Maine Policy Fellows program.
The program seeks to bring influential members of Maine Legislature to campus to meet with and talk to students and faculty.
Martin spoke on a variety of topics during the lecture portion of his talk.
He started with a brief overview of his history in politics. He was introduced by Mary Cathcart, a former state senator who helped organize the event, as one of “the best parliamentarians in the state.”
Martin began his talk with reminiscences of his time as a student in the early 1960s and of his first political appointment.
“I wanted to change the world, quote unquote,” he said.
He has been in elected office throughout the rest of his life, except for two years when term limits forced him out of his seat.
“I’m basically a small town person,” he said, offering a few anecdotes of his hometown of Eagle Lake.
Early in his career as a democratic representative, he decided that he “didn’t like being in the minority,” and went to the colleges and universities of the state to recruit young democrats to the state legislature.
After the next round of elections, the democrats captured a majority in the House, and Martin was elected speaker, a position he would continue to hold for much of his career.
He also spoke of the frustrating aspects of the job, cautioning would-be politicians that “if you want to be involved in politics you will have some very frustrating moments.”
Martin said that often in the Legislature people are forced to work long hours and keep odd schedules, yet the work is very rewarding.
“You can see what you’re doing for other people,” Martin said. “If you enjoy being involved and helping people, politics is the place to be.”
In the second half of his talk, Martin fielded questions from the students and faculty in the audience.
He began by speaking briefly about his work in West Africa, where because of his proficiency in the French language he is often called upon to help establish democratic practices in fledgling governments.
Among the many topics he touched upon while answering questions was a feeling of general concern about young educated people often leaving the state because of a lack of industry.
Martin listed some initiatives the Legislature has been implementing to help keep young people in the state.
“It takes time. It’s moving pretty fast now,” he said.
A good first step, according to Martin, is to put more emphasis on education, in order to provide a competent work force for the jobs already available in Maine.
He also spoke for a time about “re-tooling” the universities and colleges in the state, to create a workforce for the job openings which Maine already has, such as a need for foresters, veterinarians and nurses.
“You need to put money in education to get to a point where you have students to put in jobs you are going to create,” he said.
He also spoke of a recent initiative of Gov. Baldacci to increase the base line salary of beginning teachers in the state to $30,000 a year.
While the bill has not yet passed, Martin hopes this move will help address the growing lack of teachers in the state.
He spoke about school reform, paying particular attention to budget issues, citing the large administrative overhead that occurs in many public school systems.
The senator attended a number of other meetings and talks throughout the day, visiting classrooms and speaking with faculty.
A reception was held for him at 5 p.m. in the University Club in Fogler Library.
Martin is the second speaker this semester to appear as part of the new Distinguished Maine Policy Fellows program, following a lecture given by former Gov. Angus King last month.
The program hopes to bring two to three speakers to the campus each semester.
Bangor Daily News