1 in 5 homes in Maine are abandoned or otherwise unoccupied. I'd like to form a team of auditors to survey each and every property on that list and determine if they can be salvaged. Salvageable properties would be transferred to a new team of contractors who would take charge or necessary renovations before passing the land off to a team of real estate agents who will be instructed to sell said properties AT COST. This department will not profit from this endeavor and the bank/town/original land owner will be on the hook for up front costs for said contractors and realtors. This provides original owners with incentive to sell off these properties before big government comes and takes away their potential profits.

Properties deemed uninhabitable due to safety or other coding concerns will be audited at a value of zero dollars. Banks, towns, privately owned, it doesn't matter. If its unoccupied and not maintained or otherwise unlivable then that property is not fulfilling its function as a residential zone and should be labeled as such. Worthless. In this case, worth 0 dollars specifically. Using the power vested in the Maine State Government, I would seize these properties under Eminent Domain. Under the US Constitution, I would be required to offer "just compensation" for these lands. And with a value of zero dollars, I feel it would be fair to offer $1 for each of these worthless properties. Once in the hands of this new department, the lands would renovated and rejuvenated. Split up by location and prioritized based on proximity to city/town amenities, favorable locations will be re entered on the housing market at low costs. With the odd property block being repurposed as a position for a cul-de-sac of tiny homes to be allocated to currently homeless individuals (see Taking Care of the Homeless goal for more information)

All of this would be done with the intent of flooding the market with very affordable homes to prevent the market from rising even further. With such a supply available, the demand will hopefully be sated, and the normal housing market can relax costs back to where they should be.

In-Network, Out-of-Network, Insured, or uninsured, the prices Maine citizens are paying for even routine check ups have gotten far too high. We're a first world country with top notch medical care and medical care facilities. Why does it cost so much to request these services?

I don't have a good answer besides "we're being suckered" and I don't wish to add any fuel to some conspiracy fire. Plain and simple I want the same answers you all do. So as Governor, I'd like to absolutely ransack the books of every Maine based hospital and clinic to determine where exactly our money is going.

Not only that, but I'd like to establish a firm listing of every practice or procedure our State's medical establishments are capable of and do some cost comparison to other states as well. I want to know what each thing costs and why/how that number was determined.

I personally waited 5 months for a bill for medical care that I received. 5 months of deliberation between insurance agencies and medical staff to determine what I owed for a single procedure. But its not so simple as what my insurance covers or what methods the medical staff employed, the hospital itself must consult THEIR insurers to determine the costs of USING the equipment necessary for a given procedure.

I want it all. Give me all the numbers, I'll gladly work up a spreadsheet and happily call whomever made this complex system of tail chasing for an extra hundred here and there an idiot, before suggesting something new. This may not be as concrete a plan as people are hoping for but if "knowing is half the battle" then at least we'd be half-way to a solution.

Maine citizens are paying more and more for energy these days. A quick apology letter or email from the energy companies, and then a price hike that hits like a rug pull. Didn't we all switch to LEDs and Eco Friendly ACs to reduce that power draw? Maybe it wasn't enough to offset all the new things we're plugging in these days. More people than ever relying on computers and the internet for work probably isn't helping. The influx of sales and operation of electric vehicles probably isn't helping. Having to import 10-20% of our power from Canada and another 10% imported from our neighboring States probably isn't helping. The proposed inclusion of AI data centers certainly won't be helping soon.

Its official, we need more power and our dependence on others is starting to hit us in the pocket book. What I believe Maine should strive for is complete energy independence. I'm a fan of renewable energies and fully encourage those ventures to continue. But what I'm aiming for is a bit more radical. I'd like to bring Nuclear Power back to the state of Maine.

Since the shutdown of Maine Yankee Nuclear Power Plant in late '96, we have struggled to maintain our energy needs internally. But given the improvements in technology and the improvement of safety factors, there isn't a better time to invest in new Nuclear Plants than right now. Maine uses a bit less than 12 Billion Kilowatt-hours in a year. A single Nuclear Plant can produce 8 Billion Kilowatt-hours in the same time.

1 Nuclear Plant added to our current grid can make Maine energy independent. I propose we make 3.

1 located in Southern Maine that could power our costal regions and have excess sold to our neighboring states. One in Central Maine to allow for a robust grid in a key growth center. And one in Northern Maine to provide stability to the existing grid and to sell excess to our neighbors to the north. Each capable of powering half the state alone, to serve as fallback energy sources during periods of inclement weather. Because there's nothing worse than spending Thanksgiving or Christmas without power.

This introduces high tech, high paying, stable employment opportunities to parts of the state where such things are lacking. Not to mention a boat load of contract work for construction and maintenance of said facilities and their outlying networks. And at the same time we'd be updating and improving our existing energy grid, something that we've been growing lax on in recent years. Our increased demand deserves and increase in supply, and once supply outweighs demand, we'll see energy prices go down.

As Governor I'd endorse all of this and more. Lets make Maine as cozy and carefree as advertised.

I don't know about y'all, but I'm tired of pulling the same three advertisements out of my mailbox every week, only to walk straight to my trashcan to throw them away unopened. I also hate the paranoia that takes hold when you're waiting for a build and you can't quite remember if that was in the pile of crap you threw away last Monday or if you just haven't gotten it yet.

Its your mailbox. The only things going in it should be for you. Not "current tenant" not "potential customer" and LEAST of all "Maine Voter". That's right, I may be running for office but it'll be a cold day in hell before I send out a pamphlet with my dumb face on it to beg for a vote. If you're anything like me, nothing will make you hate a product more than receiving ads for it over and over.

As Governor of Maine, I'd ban ALL Maine based spam mail. No more leaflets advertising a new credit card, no pamphlets encouraging you to switch your internet provider, and certainly no more politically backed propaganda printouts about how so and so is great or his/her opponent is bad. No more. If it aint a bill or a letter from a relative wishing you a happy holiday, it shouldn't exist.

What a waste of time and resources on everyone's part to create, mail, and then dispose of such a meaningless relic of post-internet advertisement.

All of this "mail" can be returned to your local US Postal Service, who can then report it to a new agency I'd create that would track down the source and financially penalize them. Assuming they're based in Maine anyway. Out of State Spam I'd require to be reported similarly and I'll have to find a way to either popularize this with other state governments or find a fitting punishment (I'm thinking extensively stupid litigation) to penalize these sources of trash with. And hey, lets call this an environmentally conscious effort and not just me being bitter about seeing the same Fidium leaflets every week. Less spam permitted means less spam in our landfills right?

This one I'll keep fairly simple:

If the government shuts down, people go without pay. Regular people, who have no say in whether the government "re-opens", are forced to pay the price whenever politicians don't get along to such a degree that the only way they can get what they want is to put each other in time out. These politicians don't suffer the consequences of this, some schedule their vacations during these shutdowns. Many of them don't miss the paychecks because they're so well invested that their money makes money. We pay the price for every temper tantrum that comes out of the big white buildings. No more.

As Governor of the State of Maine, for every government shut down, I'd work in tandem with US Treasury Officials to full on freeze the assets of every politician on both sides of the aisle. No withdrawals from their money market accounts or hedge funds, I'd make it so their Bank PINs don't even work. These are public servants who are actively refusing to serve the public. I don't care how long it takes, I'm going to leverage their very livelihoods to get them back in those rooms and shake some hands until such a time that the government can "re open". Meanwhile all those who would normally go without during such shutdowns will be paid fully the entire time using said seized assets as capital.

This may be seen as "mean spirited" or "politically motivated" depending on when I enact this but I assure you I have no friends on capital hill, nor investors seeking to get beneficial bills passed. I'm a regular guy who's tired of seeing regular people suffer at the hands of some of the petulant children we've somehow made into lawmakers.

I’m not the only candidate thinking this and I’m certainly not the only person smart enough to know that Maine is cold. 0.2% of a population may not sound like a high number but 192 out of 100,000 people is still too many people braving the elements in a state that spends half the year below freezing.

While its nice to see our rate of homelessness is on a downturn, any one person forced to live on the streets in the state is too many. Democratic Candidate Kenneth Pinet once suggested we should build a fleet of tiny homes to accommodate our homeless population. I’d like to take this idea and expand upon it. As a part of my previously discussed housing price reduction strategy (see Reduced Housing Costs goal for more information), I’d like to create small communities for the unfortunately displaced and downtrodden.

A cul-de-sac of tiny homes could be just what some people need to get the rest, the recuperation, and the reintroduction to society that these unfortunate individuals desperately need. Not to mention the security of locking doors and the shelter of insulated walls. And the housing is just the start.

As any one of these individuals enrolls in this yet-to-be-named tiny home program they also will gain a professional counselor. Someone who is there to help ease them back into the world. Once they have a home to call their own and traditional and medical expenses covered for a period of time, these counselors will urge them to reenroll in traditional employment or other paid working opportunities. They will then work through the remainder of their introductory period until they’ve established a savings. During this period said counselor will walk through any necessary addiction prevention and recovery practices an individual might require. Once the intro period has passed and provided the individual has recovered sufficiently both mentally and economically, the deed of ownership for the tiny home will pass to said individual and they can rest well now fully financially independent once again.

Those unable to participate in this personal renewal program due to disability or advanced age will be cared for in other manners yet to be determined.

I stand by a woman’s right to choose. THAT said, I despise the dichotomy our society has created regarding the binary choice of Abortion vs No Abortion. I don’t want to debate the rhetoric surrounding a fetus, embryo, clump of cells, or otherwise. There is a third option that can appease both sides of the aisle: Embryonic Cryostasis (see also Embryonic cryopreservation)

Similar process, the embryo is retrieved from the patient by medical professionals. Where things differ is in the methodology. In this method (still experimental in humans but widely adopted by researchers and scientists for utilization regarding lab animals), the embryo is flash frozen (preferable before organelles can fully form and larger blood vessels are still in their infancy for the best chance of preservation) and removed fully intact before entering cold storage. Then, based on blood type of the donor DNA, the embryo can be reintroduced and carried to term in a process similar to in vitro fertilization via an albeit more complex “adoption” situation.

Its time to expand our horizons and quit bickering semantics. Women have right to choose and THIS choice satisfies both sides of this conflict. Abortion used to be the progressive option, but the procedure has remained largely the same since the 1970s. Its been 50 years and its time to offer a new, affordable, safe, and hopefully condonable option to pick from.

Don’t panic! Let the Ethical part do the heavy lifting. This is all about Organ Transplants.

The organ donor list can be a terrifying obstacle for those in need. Being waitlisted for such a necessary thing on top of the already lucrative medical bills is downright inhumane in my opinion. I’d like to greenlight practical application human organ cloning for the intents and purposes of helping these individuals help themselves. By taking bone marrow and/or other DNA from patients in need of a transplant, we can selectively grown a genetic copy of whatever organ they may need. This takes the wait listing process down to the time it takes to grown an organ from scratch, and feasibly cuts down the risk of organ rejection as the donor organ technically IS the organ being replaced. Or in the case of a more immediate need, improving the stockpile of existing organs beforehand to better alleviate the wait for everyone in need.

This can take general blood, plasma, bone marrow or other genetic material donations (with the consent given by signing all kinds of new releases I’m sure) and grow the US stockpile of organs. This may be experimental but I believe its ready for clinical trials and I’m prepared to approve funding and invite researchers to do just that.

And hey, maybe the patients can get a discount on the organ replacement if they’re also their own donors. I’m spit balling but its truly difficult for me to live in an era of both innovation and stagnation. I want progress but we need to make scientific advancement attractive and advertisable because helping those in need doesn’t often move the needle as much as I’d like. Otherwise things travel at a snails pace. I’d like to be the candidate that can get the ball rolling on bringing the future closer to home.