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Gubernatorial candidates met at the Maine Center for the Arts Wednesday night to debate in front of about 250 audience members. Republican Chandler Woodcock, Green Independent Pat LaMarche, Independent Barbara Merrill, Independent Phillip Morris NaPier and incumbent Democrat Gov. John Baldacci spent more than two hours answering questions from both those running the event and students alike. The debate, broadcast live on the Maine Public Broadcasting Network and its affiliates, focused on taxes, education and stemming the flow of people, money and jobs out of the state.
Chief among the issues was lowering the cost of higher education and providing more opportunities for graduates of Maine high schools to attend college. All of the candidates agreed on its importance but differed on possible solutions.
“We need to invest in Maine students,” LaMarche said. “I would like to take a percentage of the money that Nestle makes from our water and use it to fund higher education in the state.”
Woodcock stated his concern for students, arguing that the best way to achieve this goal was to control budgeting and spending.
Despite several verbal spats between Merrill and Woodcock throughout the evening, Merrill agreed that “exercising fiscal discretion” was the best course of action.
When confronted with recently released data stating that more than 50 percent of the University of Maine System’s funding is provided from student tuition, Baldacci referred to his Pine Tree Scholarship program.
“Students’ high school educations are being wasted,” NaPier said in response to the statistic. “We need to provide apprenticeship programs so those who do not continue to college have additional job training for their chosen career.”
NaPier, who once spent nine months in prison on a weapons charge, dropped one of the larger bombs of the night by using his opportunity to question his fellow candidates to ask Gov. Baldacci to immediately pardon him and all other convicted felons in the state of Maine. Baldacci argued that there were previously established state laws and statutes already in place to evaluate such requests.
The Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) came up twice during the debate, eliciting even support from the audience both for and against. When asked about possible benefits of the initiative, the candidates quickly polarized.
“It is far too extreme,” Merrill said. “It doesn’t do enough at the state level and does too much at the local level.”
Both Woodcock and NaPier came out strongly in support of TABOR.
“It will bring a necessary reprioritization to government spending,” Woodcock said.
The issue was raised once again during the question-and-answer session following the debate, when one person asked whether it would be better to create a separate initiative for Maine than TABOR, which was created in Washington, D.C.
“It’s being used for political reasons,” Baldacci said. “As I stated earlier, it’s the wrong solution to a real problem.”
Baldacci went on to reference his plan to cap property valuations to free Mainers from excessive property taxes.
Although all the candidates reached out to the youth voting bloc, LaMarche made one of the most direct attempts at including tech-savvy students. At the end of the scheduled debate, she invited everyone attending to text “Pat” to 30644. They would then be sent a text “ballot,” which could be used to vote for the candidate they thought had won the debate. Results of the vote will be posted on her Web site sometime Thursday.
The candidates also fielded questions regarding road repairs, state poverty rates, health care, liquid natural gas terminals, gun ownership laws, school district consolidation and bringing new jobs to the state.
Audio and video recordings of the debate can be accessed via MPBN’s Web site, http://www.mpbn.org.
Bangor Daily News