Change of heart favors Baldacci’s re-election

Over the last couple of weeks, I have read several different editorials describing Gov. Baldacci’s failures and why he shouldn’t be re-elected. I find it ironic how time has changed my way of thinking.

On Election Day four years ago, I didn’t cast my vote for Baldacci. Honestly, I didn’t like him. I thought he was just the typical politician who couldn’t make the tough choices, unwilling to take a stand that would upset a particular side. I was very wrong and today I can say I made a mistake four years ago.

To be fair, I have to explain that during that election I was running as an independent candidate for state representative, after running as a Republican the previous election. I also won my election and I have served with Gov. Baldacci throughout his term. In that time, I have had a complete change of heart with the governor’s leadership.

Health care has been my biggest reason for running for the Legislature, and in his first year the governor pushed for DirigoChoice to provide affordable health care to Mainers. While this program is still a work in progress, I feel the governor’s com-mitment to working to find a solution to the health care issue is by far his greatest achievement.

He has supported education and the creation of the Community College System, and eliminated the tax on business equipment to spur investment in Maine. He defended overtime pay for workers by rejecting the Republican plan to create supervisory classes, and he increased the minimum wage for our neediest people. He worked tirelessly to get mills back up and operating to put people back to work, and all during a time when he has made a commitment to not raise taxes and to control spending.

I believe with everything taken into account, this is a pretty decent body of work. There is certainly more to be done, which Baldacci is the first to admit, and I haven’t always agreed with him, but he makes his decisions on what he feels is best for the people of Maine.

In my first session, I co-sponsored a bill that would allow loggers to collectively bargain with large landowners. The legislation was contentious and took two years to come up for floor debate. In the last weeks of the session, there was a large amount of lobbyists hired to kill the bill. I remember one lobbyist telling me that everyone in the building is working against you. With all the pressure of pos-sibly losing the bill, I started to become nervous that I had made a mistake by putting some of these loggers’ jobs in jeopardy.

Late that evening, I ran into the governor and he commented that I looked worried. When I explained that I was scared that I had pushed too hard, and that if this bill didn’t pass some hard-working people could be retaliated against, he said, with complete sincerity, “Well, then, we have to pass this bill.”

I was shocked. Just like that, he waved off all that money and influence and sided with some everyday working people who could only offer him their gratitude.

This is what I want in a governor, and I am pleased to have another opportunity to rectify the mistake I made four years ago. Please join me in casting your vote to re-elect John Baldacci for governor.

Troy Jackson, of Allagash, is a Democratic representative from District 1.