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Alex Hammer, an independent candidate in the November 2010 Maine gubernatorial election, is not new to the race for Maine’s top executive position. He hopes his campaign will go better this time around.
In November 2005, two weeks after his announcement for candidacy for the 2006 election, he was hit by a pickup truck in his home city of Bangor. He spent 29 days in the hospital and was in physical therapy for almost a year and a half.
The accident, he said, ended his campaign before it really started. Hammer said he used the time to prepare for another run for the Blaine House.
“I’ve spoken to thousands of Mainers over the past three or four years. I’ve spoken to probably 50 or 100 legislators. I’ve spoken to business and political leaders across the state,” Hammer said.
These conversations led him to draw his own conclusions about Maine’s state of affairs in the state.
“I think Maine is doing poorly,” Hammer said.
He said that he has sensed a general frustration in the Maine people with regard to state government.
Education is “paramount” to Maine’s economic future, Hammer said, and the University of Maine system is achieving mixed results.
“We’re doing world-class things here at the University of Maine,” Hammer said. “[My concern] is in the area of leadership in the University of Maine System regarding the financial crisis.”
The gubernatorial candidate doesn’t believe system Chancellor Richard Pattenaude’s New Challenges, New Directions plan to save the system money is bold enough. He said some executive directors in the system are making well over $150,000. He thinks they should be sharing “in the sacrifice and have some modest reduction in their salaries as well.”
“They’re not user-friendly. I mean, when you first walk in the door [of the system office], as one example, the first thing you see is a sign that says ‘this is a private building and no protests are allowed,’” Hammer said.
He said many student resources at UMaine are vastly underused and that many students don’t go to the Career Center until their last semester.
“To me, that’s an incredible waste. I think there should, frankly, be a requirement that before you graduate, you not only have some career services but that you have some kind of internship.” Hammer said. “I think there should be more private-public partnerships so that students at all campuses really have a better sense of what the careers are in Maine.”
That, he said, would make students more likely to go to college in Maine and stay to work after graduation.
Hammer advocates what he calls a “three-step stabilize to invest” approach for economic strength and sustainability in Maine: containment of government spending, global competitiveness, and improvement of the business climate through lower taxes and energy costs and better education and infrastructure.
“Jobs and economic development are the real reason I’m running,” Hammer said. “Mainers are working harder and harder for less money.”
“Maine has to leverage its strengths,” Hammer said. Forestry, environmental, maritime and agricultural sciences and alternative energy are areas in which Maine is already strong, but could be much stronger, he said.
Hammer referenced two interviews on UMaine’s student radio station, WMEB 91.9, and his Feb. 9 appearance in front of UMaine’s General Student Senate as ways he is reaching out to students. He also said he has “one or two people that are coordinating as point people with college campuses” and is “working directly with college students to be leaders on their campuses.”
The candidate thinks his background in and usage of new media has led to Maine’s most technologically advanced and versatile campaign. He owns Media 2.0, a network of Web sites including Politics 2.0, a political news aggregator. Hammer said he tries to use social media to facilitate dialogue between his campaign and potential voters.
Hammer was a track athlete at Orono High School who often trained on the University of Maine campus. His father was a psychology professor at UMaine from 1961-1989. Alex went on to Bates College in Lewiston for a short time before moving back home to UMaine, where he continued his running career and education.
“I really want the best for the University of Maine. I love the University of Maine,” Hammer said. “I think there’s areas where the University of Maine System can improve and I think as a candidate for governor, I’d be negligent if I didn’t at times forcefully point those out.”
