Secretary of state brings diverse portfolio to diverse agency

AUGUSTA – If the name Matthew Dunlap doesn’t ring a bell, it probably will soon.

If you drive, you’ll carry his name around on the license in your wallet. As Maine’s new secretary of state, his name will show up on documents ranging from notary certificates to state proclamations and election guides.

On Jan. 7, the 40-year-old Old Town resident will take over one of the state’s most diverse agencies, which has a $30 million-plus annual budget and comes into contact with virtually every Mainer at one time or another.

Dunlap comes prepared with experience and skills to match the challenge. He has been a radio show host, proofreader, waiter, textile worker, dishwasher, editor and bartender, not to mention politician. He’s also an avid reader.

When he had more time, “I used to read a book a day,” said Dunlap.

While in graduate school at the University of Maine, where he studied literary theory and poetry, he was a dining hall cook and prepared meals, on occasion for the likes of Johnny Cash and Hillary Clinton.

Dunlap still returns to Orono to flip burgers at special athletic events and is active in UMaine alumni activities.

Dunlap is also a member of the Biggest Bucks in Maine Club, although one House colleague playfully dismissed Dunlap’s honor in a speech nominating him for the secretary’s job on Dec. 1.

“That was the only deer he ever put to death,” chided Rep. Janet Mills, “and he had to enlist the help of two young women in a Hyundai to haul it out of the woods for him.”

Only half-true, retorts Dunlap with a wry smile. “I’ve shot more than one deer,” he said.

One of the first things Dunlap mentions when asked about his background is that he was captain of the Mount Desert Island High School track team when he was growing up on his parents’ farm in Bar Harbor.

At UMaine, where he studied Roman history as an undergraduate, he continued competitive running in cross-country and track.

His coach, Jim Ballinger, said Dunlap logged about 60 miles a week to earn his way to one of the top positions on the cross-country team. But Dunlap, recalls Ballinger, always had a quip and never took himself too seriously. “He was not a gifted runner,” said Ballinger. “Whatever success he had, he had to work hard for it.”

Ballinger said Dunlap displayed another quality years ago that would turn out to serve him well in politics: to take a loss in stride and to persevere. “When things don’t go right, he’s able to go on,” said Ballinger.

Elected to his first of four terms in the Legislature in 1996, Dunlap was assigned to the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee, which he went on to co-chair for three terms.

Paul Jacques, a deputy commissioner of the fish and game department who previously chaired the wildlife panel, said Dunlap took time to master the details of all issues, even those that predated his legislative service.

Taking his chairmanship seriously, Dunlap demanded decorum at committee meetings, but at the same time used his disarming wit to make hunters and trappers who tend to be unfamiliar with the finer points of procedure feel welcome, said Jacques.

“He had a good way of making people relax and make their case,” said Jacques.

Dunlap’s area of expertise went well beyond hunting and fishing. A Democrat, he became involved in the complex and politically thorny issue of redistricting.

“Matt became the go-to guy for folks on both sides of the aisle, on so many issues – from taxes to terrorism, education to wolves, ATVs to great ponds, and everything in between,” said Mills, D-Farmington.

Along the way, he honed his mastery of parliamentary procedure and often served at the rostrum as a fill-in for House speakers. Dunlap’s trail even leads to Russia, where he visited the city of Archangel to help to weld Portland’s relationship with its sister city.

With his House service reaching its four-term limit, Dunlap saw an opportunity to move on as outgoing Secretary Dan Gwadosky also faced term limits. Dunlap acknowledged he was “burned out. [I] took on too much over the last two years.”

Prospects of a waiter advancing to secretary of state raised some eyebrows in Augusta, acknowledged Dunlap. But he nevertheless defeated former Republican U.S. Rep. David Emery, a respected and well-known political figure, for the secretary’s post.

The background of the man who will become Maine’s 47th secretary of state is not unlike that of the first person to hold the post, Ashur Ware of Portland, a student of Greek history who became a newspaper editor and politician before he became a federal judge, Mills said.

In the 1820s, the Constitution listed the secretary’s duties as keeping records and “attend[ing] to the Governor and Legislature.” Since the state’s infancy, those duties have expanded and become more carefully defined.