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Les Otten, a Republican candidate for governor, believes talk of program and faculty cuts in the University of Maine System stem from lost revenues from a massive amount of layoffs since January 2008.
“Every discussion that we have in the state of Maine about lack of funding relates to the fact that we’ve lost 32,000 jobs,” Otten said.
He believes the Maine Legislature responded slowly to the nationwide financial crisis, leaving state budgets haphazardly cut — which, in turn, affected the University of Maine System.
“The cuts that we should have made 12 or 24 months ago, we’re being forced to make now. Instead of having them made rather judiciously, logically over a period of time with the ability to sort of respond to them, we’re now faced with the fact there literally is no money,” Otten said.
He said UMaine’s Advanced Engineering Wood Composites Center is “the gold standard” for the system’s involvement in Maine’s economy.
Otten said Maine could be a nationwide leader in industries like biomedical, energy and wood technology with help from the system, but budget issues must be addressed before expanding.
“My route to attacking this is a longer route than just being able to say, ‘We’ve got to find some other place so we can borrow some money’ or ‘We need to find somebody that we’ve got to tax in order to fix this in the short term,’ because borrowing money and borrowing our way out of the recession that we’re in isn’t going to work,” Otten said.
The candidate said Maine’s economy relies on a cohesive populous from Kittery to Madawaska, and believes many people from highly populated Southern Maine may not understand the benefits of rural University of Maine System campuses, such as those in Presque Isle, Fort Kent and Machias.
“Until you go to those schools, until you meet with those students and you see what value for education they’re getting for the dollars spent, it’s hard to understand how much value is being achieved in some of these rural colleges we’ve got,” Otten said. “They’re important parts of their society — they’re the fabric of those towns.”
Otten said job revenues will directly impact the future of the system, especially under his administration.
“We have the ability to go forward, correct the mistakes of the past, but create the jobs of the future so that the state can have the revenues so that we can properly educate the kids that we have in the state of Maine who want to go to college, and have a university system that is attractive enough so that kids from out of state will want to come to Maine to get educated,” Otten said.
The candidate lives in Greenwood, a town of about 800 in Oxford County. Otten was the chief executive officer of the American Skiing Company — which owned Maine ski resorts Sugarloaf USA in Carrabassett Valley and Sunday River in Newry — until he resigned amid a budget crisis in 2001.
The company, which dissolved in 2007, also owned resorts in New Hampshire, Vermont and Utah.
Otten bought Sunday River in 1980 and said he created anywhere from 1,200 to 1,400 jobs – 400 of which, he said, were full-time. He says his experience creating Maine-based jobs resonates with Maine voters on the campaign trail.
“Jobs are the No. 1 issue, taxes are the No. 2 issue and welfare reform is the No. 3 issue,” Otten said. “That hasn’t changed one iota wherever I’ve gone.”
The candidate, who is the president of Maine Energy Systems, a Bethel-based company encouraging renewable energy for homes and business, advocated a liquefied natural gas plant “somewhere on the coast of Maine.”
This would be a move to cheaper electricity, which he said would benefit citizens and the traditional potato industry of Northern Maine.
“It’s available in North America and we don’t have to buy it from a foreign country, so the dollars stay in the United States,” Otten said.
According to opensecrets.org, Otten has given $5,000 to Maine Democratic candidates for Congress since 2008, including Reps. Chellie Pingree and Mike Michaud – while giving $12,900 over the same period of time to Republican politicians, including Sen. Susan Collins and Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown. He said the contributions to Democrats have been no more than business decisions.
“Whenever I give money to a Democrat, it was for the specific purpose of being able to foist my conservative business agenda on them,” Otten said. “If I had the opportunity to influence a Democrat, I wanted to influence them to my way of thinking.”
Otten was a minority owner of Major League Baseball’s Boston Red Sox from 2002 to 2007, and counts among his greatest successes the two World Series championships the team won during his tenure. He also says his plan saved the team’s iconic stadium, Fenway Park, from possible replacement.
“I hired [current Red Sox President and Chief Executive Officer] Larry Lucchino on the basis of saving Fenway Park and I sold the rest of the [ownership] group on the idea and Major League Baseball that Fenway Park was a venerable institution that was perhaps the most noteworthy monument in sports,” Otten said.
The candidate said revenue driven by improvements to the stadium allowed the Red Sox to put championship teams on the field. He said another championship team is in store for this season.
“I have Red Sox blood running through my veins,” Otten said. “We’re going to win it all.”
