2 Dems seek MDI-area House seat

BAR HARBOR – Registered Democrats in several Mount Desert Island towns will have a choice next month when they decide who will represent the party in the race this fall for Maine House District 35.

Elsie Flemings and Gary Friedmann, both of Bar Harbor, will face each other in the June 10 primary for the right to run against Republican Rick Savage in November.

Flemings, 25, works as the coordinator for the Union River Watershed Coalition. A 2006 graduate of College of the Atlantic, Flemings worked that summer on Zack Space’s successful congressional campaign in Ohio and then as an aide on his staff in Washington.

While a student at COA, Flemings helped develop a statewide planning initiative that was adopted by the Legislature as the Informed Growth Act, which requires developers of stores greater than 75,000 square feet to help fund studies on the impacts their stores would have on surrounding communities.

She serves on the state’s Citizen Trade Policy Commission and, through her job, has helped area schoolchildren learn more about river watershed environments. She has volunteered for the Maine Won’t Discriminate campaign and is on the advisory board for Healthy Acadia.

Universal access to health care, protecting fisheries, and property tax reform are among the goals she would pursue in Augusta, she said. She also supports developing alternative energy sources, allowing municipalities to adopt local option taxes, and promoting small businesses. She said she would like to serve on the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee.

Flemings cited her experience in Augusta on the trade commission and helping to craft the Informed Growth Act and working in Washington as factors that differentiate her from Friedmann.

“I can really hit the ground running,” she said.

Flemings is single and has lived in Bar Harbor for six years. More information is available at her Web site, www.elsieflemings.org.

Friedmann said this week that he has extensive experience working with issues and organizations at the local level. For years, he owned and operated Gary Friedmann and Associates, a business that specialized in fundraising and consulting for nonprofit organizations throughout Maine. Friedmann, 52, sold the business last year.

Friedmann said he has worked with various successful statewide campaigns over the years, including Maine Won’t Discriminate and in favor of the Sensible Transportation Act. He has served on the local conservation commission and is a current member of the town’s warrant committee. In the 1990s, he said, he helped the town work with state officials to mitigate the impacts of widening Route 3.

Friedmann said his experience running a business and in providing health care coverage for his employees will help him make sound decisions in Augusta, where he would like to serve on the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee. His business experience and his work with nonprofit organizations throughout Maine help differentiate him from Flemings, he said.

Striving for universal health care coverage, protecting the environment, promoting the use of renewable energy, pursuing property tax reform and maintaining a healthy economy are among his goals. Fisheries, tourism, boat building and the biotech industry all are key components of the district’s economy, he said.

“If you don’t have a solid economy, you can’t do anything else,” he said.

Friedmann is married to Glenon Friedmann, with whom he has two adult daughters. More inofrmation is available at his Web site, www.garyfriedmann.com.

District 35 comprises the towns of Bar Harbor, Cranberry Isles, and Southwest Harbor, and part of the town of Mount Desert.

btrotter@bangordailynews.net

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