Leeds Democrat to seek 2nd District House seat Sen. Nutting promises voters ‘my work ethic’

AUGUSTA – John Nutting isn’t waiting for anyone. The Leeds dairy farmer and Democratic state senator announced Thursday that he will seek the 2nd Congressional District seat being vacated by Democratic U.S. Rep. John Baldacci. He is the first announced candidate.

“John Baldacci has done a great job. His shoes will be tough to fill, but my campaign committee and I feel that I am up to the task. I’m offering voters my work ethic,” said Nutting, a 12-year veteran of State House politics.

His work ethic has created a schedule that gets him out of bed to milk his cows from 5 to 8 a.m., after which he heads to Augusta when the Legislature is in session. He gets home at 5 or 6 p.m., milks the cows and completes farm chores, then eats and reads until 10 p.m. Then he finishes the night feeding of his herd before he goes to bed.

“I have been doing that for 15 years. I have worked 50 hours a week on our family’s Registered Holstein dairy farm while working in the Legislature for clean rivers and a fair school funding formula,” he said. In 2000, Nutting and his wife were named Oakhurst producers of the year and the farm was judged as one of the top dozen in the country.

The 1971 graduate at the University of Maine at Orono said he will be able to appeal to Democrats, Republicans and independents as illustrated by the makeup of his campaign committee.

If elected, Nutting, 51, said he would work to extend the interstate to Fort Kent, procure additional funding for special education, end mercury air pollution coming into the state from the Midwest, cut the size of federal government and continue to reduce the national debt. Nutting said protecting Maine from unfair trade agreements would be another priority.

Nutting said his first run for a political position in 1986 was prompted by the unfair school funding formula. He decided to run for the Legislature and unseated veteran Republican incumbent Ray Nickerson. His first priority was changing the state school funding formula, then cleaning up the district’s polluted rivers.

He said the state’s rivers are cleaner as a result of his bill to limit color-odor-foam, which passed after three years of work. “If someone told you in 1985 that someone wanted to build a luxury hotel on the banks of the Androscoggin River in 2001 in Auburn, you would have thought they were crazy. However, it’s being considered, thanks to the improved quality of the river,” he said. Nutting said the next environmental task is to remove the mercury from Maine rivers that is a byproduct of Midwestern coal-fired mills, with the pollution carried by winds to Maine.

The campaign to win the largest district east of the Mississippi River will probably take $1 million and the candidate already plans to conduct most of his campaign from the air, flying from region to region in the district. The candidate said he would work for campaign reform and would self-impose a limit of four two-year terms if elected.

Nutting is the first to throw his hat into the 2nd District ring. Other Democrats mentioned as possible candidates are Secretary of State Dan Gwadosky, Senate President Michael Michaud of East Millinocket and state Sens. Susan Longley of Liberty and Mary Cathcart of Orono. Other Democrats mentioned are Rep. Paul Tessier of Fairfield, former legislator Sean Faircloth of Bangor, who sought the U.S. senate seat in 1996, former lawmaker Patrick McGowan, who twice unsuccessfully challenged Olympia Snowe for the seat, and Lewiston Mayor Kaileigh Tara.

On the Republican side, Senate President Pro Tem Rick Bennett from Norway, who lost to Baldacci in a four-way contest in 1994, has been mentioned as both a gubernatorial and congressional candidate. Former legislator Dick Campbell of Holden, who lost to Baldacci last year, also has been mentioned as a possible candidate.