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Karen Heck is a former mayor of Waterville, co-creator of Hardy Girls Healthy Women and three other nonprofits, co-owned Tree Spirits Winery & Distillery and worked in philanthropy for 14 years.
As someone who has studied government since I graduated with a degree in the subject 51 years ago, I have a few thoughts on what I am looking for in a candidate, specifically in a candidate in the upcoming U.S. Senate race in Maine.
I know people generally value experience over interest in a position. As someone who hired people for 17 years in my full-time job, I came to value enthusiasm and interest in a position as more valuable than experience. People with experience often don’t easily adapt to change because they feel they know how a job is done. I would routinely hire the ones who came to the interview with interest in learning new skills and were enthusiastic about the difference they could make.
The same is true for me when I look at the Senate race. Experience with the way government is run and how things operate has brought us to the point where people no longer think government works for them. We see health insurance premiums go up and drug prices soar while the availability of providers shrinks and hospitals reduce services and close. We see people who invest, but don’t work, taxed at a lower rate than those who work two or three jobs to make ends meet. We see housing for the working and middle classes soar while mansions occupied for a few weeks a year blot out the view of our coastline.
And, most recently, we saw the federal government shut down and representatives and senators continue to get a paycheck while they decided whether to restore Medicaid, eliminate the administration’s power to curb the illegal rescissions and extend health care premium subsidies. Of course, you didn’t see those first two issues being fought because the Democrats gave up on them before the battle to open the government was even really begun. We see who is really listened to when health care and tax-and-spend policies are being decided and it isn’t us.
So, when it comes to experience, I don’t want a senator who is going to hit the ground running in a Senate more attached to decorum than to making life livable for those of us outside the Beltway.
Rather, I want someone with the values I have fought for over the last 45 years — fair taxation, universal health care, food policy that supports small farmers, wages that support families’ housing, food and education needs — and isn’t afraid to buck the system that has led to the disillusionment and anger people are now feeling.
My support for Graham Platner is based on my belief that he says what he believes when it comes to the policies he will fight for. Would I rather have had a long-time feminist candidate? Well, we did when Betsy Sweet ran seven years ago, but I believe the Democratic establishment put a stop to that and is trying to do the same now.
I’m supporting Platner because I believe him when he talks about how the system isn’t broken. It’s working just fine to serve the rich and powerful. I want someone who will stand up for what’s right, not what’s expedient.
While I have nothing but respect for the governor, who has broken glass ceilings and stood up to the tyrant in Washington, I would rather have someone in Washington, D.C., fighting for what we need here in Maine who hasn’t been a part of the system that got us here. Someone who respects tribal sovereignty, who will fight for farm workers and union members, who will tax the rich, prohibit Immigration and Customs Enforcement from using local law enforcement, and someone who understands the need for breaking with the old ways that no longer serve us.
For those reasons and more, I am enthusiastically supporting Platner.
