A chef and an innkeeper are vying for Gorham’s open seat in the Maine House of Representatives.

Current Rep. Linda Sanborn, a Democrat, has been elected four times in District 26 and has reached her term limit.

The two candidates to succeed her are Democrat Maureen Fitzgerald Terry and Republican Matt Mattingly.

Terry, 48, is a chef who owns Three Daughters Cookie Co. and does not have any political experience.

She said she is running to “make sure Maine industries grow and invest in our kids.”

“I want to make sure that my three daughters can call Maine home after college, and make a living for themselves,” she wrote in response to a Portland Press Herald survey. “My husband and I work hard, and encourage them to do the same, but have seen financial insecurity that we don’t want for them.”

Mattingly, 48, owns PineCrest Inn in Gorham and previously served one term on the Town Council.

He said he is running because he wants to make government “more responsible to the people.”

“I am running for everyone who feels that our government no longer represents the people of Maine. … The actions of the government must reflect the will of the people and not the desire of special or out-of-state interests,” Mattingly wrote in his survey response.

The two candidates diverge on key issues in the 2016 election.

Terry supports background checks for privately sold firearms in Maine, raising the state’s minimum wage from $7.50 to $12 an hour by 2020 and legalizing marijuana for recreational use.

“As with alcohol, Maine stands to gain millions in tax revenue from the sale of regulated marijuana,” Terry said, adding that she wants clear systems in place to address misuse and avoid interfering with the state’s medical marijuana program.

Mattingly is opposed to all of those measures.

“Maine suffers from an opioid epidemic,” he said in response to Question 1, the ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana. “Death is at our doorstep. Marijuana may be a very useful tool in dealing with these issues but we need to take one step at a time. We must deal with our spiraling opioid issues before introducing other measures which may only make our problems worse, creating yet another financial drain on our society.”

Mattingly said he agrees with Gov. Paul LePage’s proposal to lower Maine’s income tax rate and eventually eliminate it, by applying the state’s sales tax to more goods and services. Terry, however, said she disagreed with that idea.

Both candidates are traditionally financed, meaning they are not publicly funded under Maine’s Clean Election Act. The latest financial reports show their receipts and expenditures through Sept. 20.

By that date, Mattingly had raised $1,400, which includes a personal loan of $625; he had spent $135.

Terry’s fundraising totaled about $3,318 in that same period, and her spending came to about $1,064.

House District 26 covers the western portion of Gorham.

 

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