Baldacci in the Second

When he first went to Congress in 1994, Rep. John Baldacci took with him a solid reputation, earned as a Bangor city councilor and a state senator, as a tireless advocate for his constituents. In Washington, he is famous for his work ethic and has enhanced his reputation as a lawmaker knowledgeable on issues and informed on details, as an effective force for moderation and bipartisanship. Rep. Baldacci has served Maine’s 2nd Congressional District well for three terms; he fully deserves a fourth.

Representing Maine’s 2nd District is not easy. Geographically, it is the largest district east of the Mississippi; economically, it is one of the poorest. An overarching theme of Rep Baldacci’s work in Congress is to ensure that the voice of rural America is heard.

A recent example of this is the New Markets Initiative, a program to help bring more private investment to places that have not shared in the nation’s economic expansion. When the details of the developing legislation clearly favored urban areas, the bipartisan Congressional Rural Caucus, which Rep. Baldacci help found, fought for and won changes that will make the benefits of this program available to rural communities throughout the country.

Other examples of Rep. Baldacci’s efforts to include the rural perspective abound. He has successfully worked to reauthorize the Northeast Dairy Compact, to ensure that the needs of medium and small-scale farmers were included in crop insurance reforms. He has secured funding for research in wild blueberries, potatoes, wood utilization and value-added processing. He has been a similarly strong advocate for rural America on transportation issues, most notably in working to reverse the decline in air service at small airports that resulted from airline deregulation.

The dominant public policy issue is, of course, health care and Rep. Baldacci is no latecomer to the subject. He is a co-sponsor of bipartisan managed care reform legislation. He fought for Balanced Budget Act Medicare Corrections to provide relief for home health care agencies, hospitals and other facilities, and to increase Medicare payments for rural health facilities by expanding existing programs and increasing administrative and regulatory flexibility. He signed on early to efforts to increase access for seniors and those with chronic conditions to prescription drugs.

Congress’ approach to healthier reform clearly is incremental; by thoroughly studying the subject, Rep. Baldacci knows which steps must be taken first.

That attention to detail, the ability to identify the doable and the energy to get results show up repeatedly in the congressman’s work, whether the legislation pertains to veterans’ affairs, education or campaign finance reform. John Baldacci was a wise choice for the 2nd District in 1994, 1996 and 1998. He remains so in 2000.