Last in three-part series
Ethan Strimling is best known as a political personality – candidate, former legislator, and TV and newspaper pundit.
THE STRIMLING RECORD
• As a member of the Maine Senate 2002-2008, he sponsored a resolution in opposition to the War in Iraq. Maine’s Senate became the first statewide body in the U.S. to adopt such a resolution. He also sponsored bills that raised the minimum wage to $7.50 an hour, required the state to divest from Sudan, provided juvenile inmates with personal advocates and required domestic violence victims be notified if their abuser tries to purchase a gun.
• He co-chaired the Legislature’s Labor Committee and co-chaired Maine’s Homeland Security Task Force. Also served on the Taxation Committee and Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee.
• In 1997, Strimling reorganized Portland West – a nonprofit that would be renamed LearningWorks in 2009 – by consolidating 10 programs into three departments. He was credited at the time with ending an extended period of in-fighting and poor financial management that led to a $280,000 deficit. He remains executive director of the agency, which helps low-income families, immigrants and at-risk youth.
• Under Strimling, the agency improved accountability and increased the number of clients served, according to data from LearningWorks. In fiscal year 2009, only half of the 977 clients had a measurable goal, with only half meeting their goals. In FY 2015, 77 percent of 3,271 clients had a measurable goal, with 60 percent achieving them.
• From 2009 to 2015, LearningWorks increased operating revenue from $1.9 million to $4.1 million and staffing from 29 to 128 employees, while reducing costs from $5,250 to $1,990 for each client with a measurable goal.
ETHAN STRIMLING ON THE ISSUES
Q: Do you support the referendum proposal to raise Portland’s minimum wage to $15 an hour and the tip-earner based wage to $11.25 an hour?
A: No. I support the upcoming effort to raise the minimum wage statewide to $12 an hour, however, in other cities where initiatives like $15 have passed, the cities provided a gradual 5 to 7 year implementation timeline and started with minimum wages well above the national $7.25. That is not the case with Question 1 in Portland. Economists also warn that a minimum wage over 60 percent of the local median can lead to job loss for low-income workers. In the case of Question 1, $15 is well over 60 percent of the median wage.
Q: Do you support the scenic protection ordinance that will be on the ballot this fall?
A: No. I am frustrated that we were unable to build the compromise needed to avoid governing by referendum. From Congress Square to minimum wage to the Soul of Portland, the process of listening and finding a balance has failed the community and developers. I have met with both sides of the debate on the East End project and both have legitimate points, lending further credence to that frustration. That said, I plan to vote ‘no’ on this ordinance because I am fearful of the unintended consequences and our inability to fix any potential negative impacts for five years.
Q: If state funds are ultimately cut off, should the city of Portland go it alone and continue to provide financial assistance to asylum seekers?
A: Yes. We must do it by making a plan that is affordable and sustainable for the city and that doesn’t take money from our schools.
Q: Should Portland try to contain rising rents and how? With rent control? By requiring developers to build a percentage of affordable units? Other?
A: The cost of living in Portland has risen exponentially in the last few years. Rents went up over 17 percent last year and property taxes have risen 15 percent in the last four (City officials say that figure is 12.1 percent). Meanwhile, median household income dropped $700 from 2011–2013, according to the Chamber economic scorecard. This is unsustainable to Portland people and families and could soon create a city where the middle class gets squeezed out. So yes, we have to contain rents through an infusion of new market-rate apartments and the encouragement of affordable housing developments through subsidy, zoning and stronger partnerships with the not-for-profit sector.
Ethan Strimling
AGE: 48
NEIGHBORHOOD: West End
YEARS IN PORTLAND: 21 years
OCCUPATION: Executive director of LearningWorks
FAMILY: Wife Mary Beeaker, a nurse at Maine Medical Center
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree in U.S. history from the University of Maine, Orono; master’s degree in educational reform from Harvard University; studied theater for two years at the Julliard School
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: CEO of LearningWorks for 18 years.
POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: State senator from 2002-2008 (Chair of the Labor Committee, Criminal Justice Committee, and the Homeland Security Task Force and served on Taxation Committee for six years); political analyst for print, radio, TV (Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, Bangor Daily News, Portland Radio Group, WCSH 6, WGME 13) from 2006-2015.
POLITICAL PARTY: Democrat
SOCIAL MEDIA:
Facebook: Search “Ethan for Mayor”
Twitter: @ethanformayor15
But he says he is most proud of the nonprofit he leads – LearningWorks, which helps low-income families, immigrants and at-risk youth. In some ways, Strimling says, he sees a bit of himself in the kids who come to the West End agency.
His parents divorced when he was 3 years old and the family struggled financially, relying on food stamps to get by. Spaghetti was a frequent family meal when he was growing up, and he remembers his mother adding food coloring to the pasta to make it seem different.
Strimling said he started making “bad decisions” at age 10 after moving from New Jersey to California, including starting fires in piles of trash. He stole from a family friend and ran away from home for short periods of time. His mother eventually sent him to New York to live with his father, an actor.
“I think what I felt growing up was being lost and alone, and that’s what you see here,” Strimling said about LearningWorks, a once troubled organization he is widely credited with turning around. “I acted out a lot. I think I was looking for attention.”
Now, at 48, he is one of two challengers looking to unseat incumbent Mayor Michael Brennan on Nov. 3. The other challenger is Tom MacMillan, a special education technician and leader of the Portland Green Party.
It’s a rematch for Strimling. In the 2011 race, he came in 1,833 votes behind Brennan, finishing second among 15 candidates.
PROMISES TO BE ‘LISTENER IN CHIEF’
Strimling promises to be the “listener in chief” of the city. It’s a message that seeks to capitalize on the frustrations that some councilors and residents have expressed about Brennan, who believes that he has an obligation to pursue his own policy goals outside of the council, rather than simply taking direction from councilors. Four city councilors and seven of the nine school board members endorsed Strimling, citing his ability to listen.
“Your own policies are only as strong as your ability to bring people together and join you in that,” Strimling said.
So far, Strimling has not released a detailed policy agenda, saying he is listening to voters about their priorities. Strimling’s campaign has said he will release a “complete rundown of the vision Ethan has heard Portland residents want implemented,” although he is not campaigning on any major policy differences with Brennan.
Instead, Strimling has been promoting numerous endorsements by labor groups, including city firefighters, and current and former elected leaders. He has touted endorsements through traditional news conferences and videos posted to social media sites such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
It wasn’t until a live televised debate on Tuesday that he announced his opposition to Questions 1 and 2 – contentious issues on the city ballot that would establish a $15-an-hour minimum wage and allow residents to protect scenic views from development, respectively. Brennan also opposes both questions.
Also during the debate, Strimling expressed an interest in creating more accountability in the city’s social service programs, establishing a program to provide property tax relief to the elderly, offering universal prekindergarten citywide and improving access to broadband Internet.
His view of the full-time mayor’s role has changed since his 2011 campaign, when he promised to be a strong, CEO-style leader, even though day-to-day city operations are overseen by the city manager. Now he believes the mayor should act like the president of the board of directors, who would lead and take direction from the council.
“Your first job is to go in and hear what this body wants to accomplish,” Strimling said. “You have to bring people together because if that body is divided, then your organization is divided and your city is divided.”
FINDING A PATH AND A PURPOSE
Strimling said he learned to cope with his parents’ divorce and overcome his rebellious inclinations by becoming involved in the theater.
He attended the Juilliard School from 1985 to 1987 and said it was a safe place with caring adults who allowed him to process his emotions. Juilliard is a prestigious performance arts school in Manhattan, where he focused on acting, but also studied singing, dancing and directing.
But at the age of 19, he was ready for a change, so he moved to Maine and eventually attended the University of Maine in Orono. He graduated in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in U.S. history. There he became involved in the Aspirations Project, which provided educational opportunities for at-risk kids and advocating for school reforms.
“That’s really when I began to see the path to education and the work I’ve been doing at LearningWorks,” he said.
Activism and politics were always part of his life. As a child, he would attend demonstrations and marches against nuclear weapons with his parents, while his dad was involved with the Performing Artists for Nuclear Disarmament.
While attending UMaine, he worked as the assistant field director for U.S. Rep. Tom Andrews. In 1995, he was the campaign manager for Democratic state Sen. Dale McCormick’s congressional campaign.
Three years later, a 29-year-old Strimling ran unsuccessfully for an at-large seat on the Portland City Council. He lost by about 24 votes, but was named the winner after the council awarded him 35 disputed ballots that were marked for a write-in candidate but had no names. Strimling ultimately decided not to take the seat amid public outcries of a stolen election and the launch of a recall effort to unseat five councilors who voted to give him the disputed ballots.
HELPING PEOPLE TOWARD MORE STABILITY
Over the last 18 years in his current job, Strimling has focused and refocused the mission of what was once a financially struggling nonprofit that provided an array of social services to low-income families, immigrants and at-risk youth. In 2009, he decided to focus the nonprofit’s mission on education, changing its name from Portland West to LearningWorks.
Since then, the organization has been able to serve more people, set and achieve more personal goals for its clients, and reduce costs for every person serviced, according to data provided by Strimling. The nonprofit’s operating budget has continued to grow, from $1.9 million in 2009 to $4.1 million in 2015.
Strimling said his philosophy is equal parts compassion and pushing people to take control of their own lives. “We need to have that philosophy in our government programs,” Strimling said.
That’s why he has hit Brennan over his response to a state audit, which revealed that some long-term clients at the city’s homeless shelter had money in bank accounts, but that the city was nevertheless paying for their shelter costs with state and local General Assistance funds. One of the shelter residents had been there a decade. Brennan and other elected officials held a news conference several days later defending the city’s programs, and Brennan argued that the city was a victim of a coordinated attack by the LePage administration but was managing its welfare programs properly.
Strimling has said the city should have been asking how that happened and vowing that it would never happen again.
“We should never say having someone be in a shelter for 10 years is good policy,” he said. “It’s not OK because it’s not OK for that person.”
He has also hit the mayor over his handling of the conflicts surrounding asylum seekers.
Over the last year and a half, much of the debate has been focused on the city’s effort to keep asylum-seeking immigrants eligible for General Assistance until they get federal work permits. Strimling supports that effort, but he says not enough attention has been paid to the more than 100 asylum seekers who had federal work permits, but continued to collect General Assistance.
“We’ve got to create accountability in our programs,” he said. “We need to help people transition from a life of poverty and instability into a more stable life.”
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