 So thanks, everyone. Thanks for coming, and I'm gonna guess that that applause was not for me, right? But that's okay, I'll take it anyway. So thank you all very much for coming. I'm James Herbert, I'm the president of the University of New England, and I couldn't be happier to be hosting this event here at UNE tonight. I'd like to acknowledge the Portland Press Herald, who have been our partners in organizing this event, and they've been really terrific partners. So thank you very much to the Press Herald, and thank you also to the journalists who have helped put this together and who are gonna be moderating our panel tonight. And it's very important that we acknowledge the important work of journalism and how vital a robust journalistic presence is for a functioning of a civil society. And most importantly, I'd like to thank the candidates. The candidates for coming tonight, for dedicating their time to this event, and most importantly, for their commitment to our state, to the state of Maine. So thank you very much to all of you for coming and participating. So at the University of New England, we strive to fulfill the role of the university, its primary, most important role to be the ultimate marketplace of ideas, a place where we can mix it up and discuss the important and the hard topics, but to do so in a civil, respectful way. And that's something that's very important to me, and in our new emerging strategic plan that we're working on, we're just finishing up now, it features prominently, this idea of the university is the marketplace of ideas. This kind of debate tonight illustrates exactly that spirit, the idea of having a robust discussion amongst people who aren't gonna agree about everything, but doing it in a respectful way. Tonight, I appreciate the opportunity for our candidates to share their thoughts with all of us and especially to our students. And I wanna especially welcome our students that are with us in the audience tonight. We're also streaming this. Go for the students, thank you. We're also streaming this to our campus in Bideford where we have a lot of other students watching, as well as our campus in Tangier, Morocco, where we have another group of students watching. So I'm so glad that you all are here tonight, not only for all of us, but especially for our students. So with that, I would like to introduce tonight's moderator, and that is Ms. Kultus, who will serve as the moderator and she will introduce our panelists tonight. So thank you very much for coming. Welcome, everyone, and thank you Professor, sorry, President Herbert. Congratulations on your marketplace of ideas. I think that's a wonderful idea to embrace at a university, and he didn't mention it, but he'll be doing a TED Talk on that November 4th, so you might wanna mark that on your calendars. Speaking on behalf of the Press Herald, I and the rest of our team here are delighted to be partnering with UNE at this important event. Clearly, if we are to sustain a robust democracy, we need certain elements, and those include a free press, an engaged citizenry, and committed, capable people who are willing to seek public office. So tonight, we're here to learn about four candidates who are seeking the state's highest public office, the governorship. We have lots of questions to ask, some of which we solicited from our readers, some from the students here at UNE, and all of them are intended to help you discern the differences between the candidates and help you make informed decisions come election day. So let me establish a few ground rules. The Press Herald, its sister publications, and UNE are all streaming this event live, and a video will be archived on our websites. So please don't record this yourselves. That is often very distracting to the people around you. Also, please silence your cell phones, and because it's 2018 and everyone in government tweets, you're welcome to tweet, and if you do, please use the hashtag M.E. Politics. Once I introduce the candidates, please join me in a welcoming round of applause. But I'm asking you to refrain from applauding after that until the candidates finish their final remarks. I'm glad you've got your hooting and hollering out when everyone walked in. As I mentioned, we have a lot of questions, and this will help speed things along. As for the format, each candidate will be given one minute for an opening statement, one minute to respond to the questions, and one minute for closing remarks. They have not seen the questions we are asking, so everyone will be thinking on their feet. With a little more than three weeks until election day, we hope the candidates will be specific in their answers so that we can get beyond some of the general positions that you're already acquainted with through their campaigns, through commercials, advertisements, and so on. Asking those questions tonight will be two veteran journalists, Press Herald columnist Bill Nemitz and editorial page editor Greg Kessage. I can attest to their extensive knowledge of main politics. It's a little bit scary how much they know and how easily they recall it. And now for the candidates. Starting at the far end, we have Republican Sean Moody, businessman and entrepreneur. And next to him, we have Democrat Janet Mills, main attorney general, independent Terry Hayes, mainstay treasurer, and finally independent Alan Karen, political strategist and consultant. So let's together welcome everyone with a good round of applause. Okay, we have drawn straws to see who goes first and that's Sean, he won. So Bill, will you get things rolling with our first question? Opening statement. I'm so sorry, yes, thank you. First we'll have opening statements and Sean is the one who won the straw selection. So Sean will start and then we'll just work our way down the table and thank you for that, Bill. No more goose from the moderator. Okay, Sean, take it away. Thank you Carol and thanks everyone being here tonight, beautiful night out there. The three critical areas that every mainer is concerned about here, the economy, education, and the environment. I have over 40 years of executive experience creating jobs and growing Maine's economy. Moody's has grown to almost 200 co-worker owners in 11 locations and the first person to ever serve on the university system and the community college system boards of trustees. During that time, we've taken $80 million of back office and administrative overhead out of the university main system. It's time to reform K-12 education, take the administrative cost out and put it back with the teachers into the classroom. I've got the experience and the track record to do it. Lastly, Moody's has been recognized as an environmental leader by the Maine DEP. We have a strong track record of investing in renewable energy and other energy efficient technologies. We have a solar array system out on the Maine Audubon campus. Maine's best days are ahead of us. If we work together, let's get it done. And Janet, oh please, folks, please, really, if we do this with every single answer, we're gonna be here till midnight, so please withhold your applause and let's hear what they have to say. I wanna hear the answers to our questions. So Janet, will you make your opening remark, please? Thank you Carol. Thank you to the press arrow for having us here and to you and me for hosting this. Look, I've always stood up for Maine people, whether it was taking on the big drug companies, fighting Wall Street, or standing up to anyone who tries to take advantage of Maine people. I've been there and I've won. I know what it's like to raise a family, to pay the bills, to balance a household budget with five daughters in the household. And I know what it's like when a loved one gets sick and you have to fight like hell with insurance companies just to get the care your loved one needs. Growing up in Western Maine, I learned what hard work is. I learned that Maine people expect us to say what we mean and mean what we say. So as your governor, I'll do just that. I'll fight for healthcare that you can afford, for an economy that rewards people for hard work, for quality public schools where our kids can realize their full potential. It's time we turn the page. Let's make Maine the best place to work, play and raise a family once again. Thank you. Thank you and Terry, would you like to go? Thank you very much. Thank you folks for being here this evening to listen to us. You know I've framed this entire exercise as an 18 month long job interview with about half a million people and tonight is your shot at us, okay? I'm looking forward to the questions. I'm Terry Hayes. I wanna be your next governor because I believe the partisanship that we're experiencing in Augusta is holding us back. It's wasting precious resources. It's turning our neighbors into our enemies and I don't think that's the way we should do our public policy work in Maine. I will be the nonpartisan clean elections option on your ballot on November 6th. I'm thrilled that you're here tonight to answer, excuse me, to listen to us, answer the questions from the members of the press and I look forward to chatting with some of you when we're done so we have an opportunity to get to know each other. Again, I'm Terry Hayes and I wanna be your next governor. Thank you. Thank you, Terry and Allen. In every election we complain about too much money in politics, about negative advertising and the absence of substance in the conversation. That's why I've tried to build a campaign around big and bold ideas for Maine's future funded by myself and without any negative advertising which I will never do. I'm an incurable optimist because I can see what Maine can become because I've lifted myself from the bottom to the top here in Maine. I'm a high school dropout with a master's degree from Harvard and I've built quietly a successful small business even while working for decades to make Maine a better place. I see what Maine can become with leadership, with vision, with the courage of new ideas. This race isn't about personality or political party. It's about who can provide positive leadership that can bring us together, that can create a 21st century economy that will reverberate for generations to come into the future. Thank you. And now Janet, you get the first question since Sean had the first opening remark. Bill, do you want to get things rolling? I will, thank you Carol. Our first question deals with infrastructure and technology. You all say that broadband, extending broadband is a top economic development priority here in Maine and we all know that's important but please be specific. What do you propose? How much would it cost? And where would the money come from? Great question. It's the question of the hour. We're all in favor of broadband but getting there is a difficult challenge. There is more federal money coming down the pike and we should take advantage of that through the Connect America Fund, millions of dollars being appropriated by Congress and we should take every penny that's due us. We also should work with the communities. First we need to have a statewide broadband policy which we really lack right now. Part of my economic growth plan, my economic action plan includes a rural growth workplace grant that includes building up hubs, infrastructure hubs with broadband paired with co-working spaces where businesses can expand and new businesses can settle and share overhead. Funding that involves a public-private partnership and a partnership with the local communities depending on their existing infrastructure. First we need a statewide plan. It does involve some bonding. I'm not talking about $200 million bonding as the Chamber of Commerce was talking about but gradual bonding to get the infrastructure out and connect the middle mile to the three ring binder. Thank you, Janet. Terry, would you like to take that question? Absolutely. Broadband, fiber broadband is the super highway of today's economy and tomorrow's economy and businesses that have limited access or inconsistent speeds are held back and they can't be competitive. My proposal relies on general obligation bonding which you folks will have an opportunity to weigh in on but it looks at building out the middle and the last mile particularly in the rural communities. If you live along the 95 corridor and in the larger service centers you might not be experiencing a significant challenge with your broadband but folks who are outside of that radius have challenges and it's gonna hold us back. This is what we need for our economy to grow in Maine. So I will be asking the legislature and voters to get behind a series of general obligation bonds and match that with federal drawdown money that our senators are already pursuing. And I see this as an infrastructure piece that all of us will benefit from when we finally get it built out. Thank you. Alan? Every generation before us built the essential infrastructure that it needed and that the next generation after it would need whether that was canals, railroads, roads, electrification or telephones. The infrastructure we need today and tomorrow is broadband if all of us across the state are gonna prosper. Maine people will invest in themselves and invest in a new prosperity if they have someone to make an argument that it's in their interest. They have always done that. I will propose a $100 million bond in the first year of my first term and should I have a second term, another $100 million bond. We will match that with private funding and we will at long last stop talking about this and start doing something about it. Thank you. Sean? Going last is a lot of good viewpoints and opinions. We have a lot of locations and they're all serviced by fiber so it's not only just broadband but it's bandwidth. You know, if you're gonna run robust software systems like CAD and software management systems, you gotta have the bandwidth to support those. So I believe the backbone that we currently have within the state which extends to all of our campuses, libraries and schools around the state, we can build out from there and create what we call cloud space, community areas where entrepreneurs and small businesses can congregate and work. You know, close proximity to home. That's critical to our rural areas of our state. How do we pay for it? There's a lot of overlap and duplication within the state government. I just mentioned, you know, the DOT, the MTA, you merge the MTA in with the DOT. There's a lot of duplication in our state services that we need to take out that overhead and reinvest in broadband. Great, thank you. Our second question will go first to Terry. So Greg, do you wanna ask that? So this question about healthcare, in addition to the expansion of Medicaid known here as main care, as required by main law, what specifically would you do to ensure that all mainers, particularly those in rural and other underserved areas, have access to quality, affordable healthcare? Thank you for the question, Greg. The key component here, you already mentioned, expanding Medicaid, that will help at least fund our hospitals, which I think are essential in the more rural areas. But the other piece of this is the question we were just asked about broadband, which is another way that we're gonna stay connected and allow those rural pockets of Maine to be able to access healthcare without necessarily traveling or without requiring duplicative infrastructure if you will. The other piece of this I think is essential, we do not have a wellness and prevention strategy for our citizens. We have dismantled our public health programs. And I think that's to our detriment. Every major employer in Maine knows that the low hanging fruit in terms of saving money relative to healthcare is wellness and prevention. It's learning to take better care of ourselves so we don't need as much healthcare. And I would suggest to you that that needs to be a focus that will help improve across, not just in rural areas, Greg, but for across the state of Maine. Thank you. Allen? Let me start by saying that healthcare is a fiscal and economic and a moral issue. We're the richest society in human history. There is no excuse for us not providing healthcare to every person in this country, none at all. There are limits to what we can do at the state level and we ought to be honest about it. This is a federal and national leadership and we need national leadership again on this issue, which I hope we will soon enough have. What we can do at the state level is to fight as hard as we must for transparency. This is the only product in America that doesn't tell you the price before you buy. It's the only one and it's because it has a stranglehold on the national government. There's no other reason for it. We're gonna have to fight at the state level, maybe even against the federal government and then we're gonna have to incentivize people to make the best choices by giving them some of the savings. Thank you. Sean? Yes, this is very close to us. Our healthcare premiums for our small business last year requested a million dollars. It's not sustainable. It's going up at 20 to 25% per year. Here's the problem. You can't get an experience rated plan in state of Maine unless you have 50 coworkers or over. Well, 90% of Maine's small businesses are 20 people or less, which represent over half of our workforce here in the state. So they have no incentive to have wellness programs, to give gym passes, to lower prescription drug costs. So we have to open up the markets for our small business, our micro businesses to be able to buy insurance through co-ops and associations so they can have the purchasing power of a big company. We need transparency to reduce cost. As Alan said, the other thing that you get, you don't get the price of blueberries. I was just up the wine as they don't even know what they're gonna get for the blueberries yet this year. But we have to have transparency and we don't have it today. Thank you, Janet. Thanks. Transparency is one reason I've been fighting for two years to get legislation enacted to expose the high prices of the pharmaceutical drugs in Maine. Senator Vitale and I worked very hard in the judiciary community to get that done. The burden on small businesses in particular and self-employed individuals is huge. That's one reason I'm proposing a small business advantage program that will allow small businesses to buy into the some of the larger public employee health plans. And also, look, bring back the Dell, the drugs for the elderly program and the Medicare savings program. So our elderly in rural areas and urban alike don't have to choose between health care, prescription drug costs, heating oil and food every month. And the Medicaid expansion is vital to saving the small rural hospitals. The 12 hospitals whose operating margins right now are underwater. Medicaid expansion is critical to saving them and to bringing down insurance premiums for the rest of society to avoid the cost shift from uncompensated care. Thank you. Our third question starts with Alan. So Bill, you wanna lob that one? Sure, this question comes from Kaylee Godwin of Winslow. If you become governor, will you make it a priority to fund social services such as mental health and substance abuse treatment? Yes. I think government, you know, we have a lot, we have many, many needs all across the state right now. As we've gone every day from group to group, every group has a problem, every issue needs more money and there simply isn't enough money to do everything that we must do. Excuse me. Our demands are growing but our revenues aren't. So it's essential that we build a new prosperity, expand the economy to bring new revenues in. It's essential that we streamline a modernized government to redirect resources to where they need to go. What I think about is the two most urgent priorities of any governor must be to grow the economy and to take care of the people among us who are the most vulnerable and most in need of our care and our friendship. And so those two priorities will always guide me as your governor. Sean? Yes, this is personal to me. You know, my mom struggled with mental health illness. I became her actual legal medical guardian in 1994 and that was the difference between getting her on a stable medical regiment and restoring her quality of life. So I'm very passionate about mental health. Now let's talk about root causes of our problems. Mental health is one of the root causes of a lot of societal problems that we have here in our state and cost. So we need to reform our mental health system. We went from institutions back in the 70s to virtually outpatient clinics now today. We, I will vow and pledge as your next governor to reconstruct our mental health system and our substance use treatment facilities here in this state. There's three things that people need to put their life back together. They need to be stable, they need to be sober, and they need a job. And if you take one of those legs, elf them under the stool, any one of them, the percentage of relapse goes up exponentially. We need stability, sobriety, and employment. Thank you. Thank you. Janet? Thank you. I've held the hands of those who've lost loved ones to drug overdose here in Maine. And I've dealt with mental health issues, both in my line of work and in my personal life with family members with mental health issues. One out of five, as they say. In my office, we've dealt with a consent decree trying to wean the state off of the institutionalization that we were married to for so many years and build up community mental health services so that people can work and live in their communities and be healthy once again and be productive members of society. In terms of substance abuse facilities and treatment centers, I've toured many of them, I've talked with many of them, I've helped fund some of them. They need to be accountable, of course, but we need to make sure that they comply with the conform with the hub and spokes treatment model that seems to work in Vermont, for instance. I'm pleased that the legislature just funded six and a half million dollars to that end and I wanna work with the legislature, with both parties in the legislature, to make that happen, to address the opiate epidemic full on. We can do this together. Thank you. And Terry? Thank you. I too have had personal experiences with the gaps in the safety net in the state of Maine around mental health issues. But I think one of the most important things that we need to do is to change the way we think and talk about mental illness and substance abuse. There's stigma and judgment attached to these brain diseases and it prevents people from reaching out for help and it costs us. It costs us in big ways because we lose family members and loved ones. So from a leadership perspective, we have to be willing to talk about it. We have to be willing to bring it up on top of the table and to make sure when folks come forward and they need help, they're asking for help, we need to make sure that we don't put them on hold, that we don't press the pause button. If you have a substance abuse challenge and you say I'm ready for help and we say, well, we'll get back to you in six weeks or six months, we're gonna lose that person and we're all gonna have to find, we're gonna tap you to help pay for what we need to provide that on demand recovery assistance. Thank you. Sean, you get the first stab at the next question. Okay. And that's from you, Greg. Yeah. So I'm gonna ask each of you to try to be as specific as possible. What should the state do to respond to the needs of Maine's aging population in housing, healthcare, and long-term care? And again. Do you wanna repeat that? Yeah, I'm sorry about that. Take a swig here. You know. I'm a print guy, so I, it doesn't, okay. Yeah. The question is, what should the state do to respond to the needs of Maine's aging population? And the areas we're interested in is housing, healthcare, and long-term care. And again, as specific as you can be. Good. Thank you. I can say one thing that we don't need here in the state of Maine is, you wanna make sure you vote no on one. That is a tax on Maine's people, Maine's businesses that we can ill afford. One of the highest-taxed state here in the country. There's a lot of strings attached to that too. Do your homework, that's what I would say. Here's what I believe we need to do. We need to reconnect the former Maineers that left during the recession seven or eight years ago that left for opportunity. Now they're out there. They got talent, they got assets, they got experience. Now we need to incentivize them to come back home, to reunite our families, and re-energize our rural communities. Be a big fish in a little pond. There's no better way to take care of our seniors than by reuniting our families. So I work hard to offer, through private practice, tuition reimbursement, student loan forgiveness, think about some of these companies, folks. They're paying five to $10,000 in signing bonuses. They wanna participate. We need a strategic marketing plan to bring our young Maineers and ask them to come home. Janet. Oh, no, Greg, you have a follow-up? Talk again about how that would affect housing and healthcare. One of the things that we gotta do in housing, if you look at our immigrant population, for example, it takes them 12 to 16 months, oftentimes to get a work permit. So they are in the urban area, right in the city here, which puts tremendous pressure on housing. Now if we can get them a work permit, we got full employment, and to get them out there to help experience the American dream, that can get them to be more mobile, to move outside our urban pockets, which takes pressure off the housing crisis here in the cities and the urban areas, provides better lower-cost housing for the elderly. Thank you. Janet. I'm sorry, Greg, the question was about senior housing and healthcare and long-term care. Long-term care, thank you. I was getting lost there. First thing I will do is issue the housing bonds that have been sitting on the governor's desk for three years without any excuse or reason. Those housing bonds, $15 million to go to senior housing and to weatherize existing housing. Interest rates are low right now. Construction is booming. Let's do it now. Second thing is healthcare. We talked about broadband, and Terry talked about telehealth, and that's important too. I've got a proposal as part of my main economic action plan to have age-in-place grants, to finance communities, suburban and rural communities, their efforts to make it easier for elders to stay in their homes and live independently. It's as simple as building ramps and public buildings. It's as simple as making sure that home healthcare is available. It's as simple as keeping informed and communicating with our seniors and coordinating the transportation needs, their grocery needs, their social needs. Maine has communities that are proud to be age-friendly communities. We can move forward with proper leadership in that area. Thank you, and Terry? Thank you. I think we have to start with what works. What do we have that works already and leverage that? With my treasurer hat on, I sit on the board of directors for the Maine State Housing Authority. $15 million in the bond that you folks have approved a couple of years ago will make a very small drop in a big pond, but it'll be a start. It's a way to get going. It's not even necessarily the best use of that money because of the way the law was written. So we have to look at the tools that we have within the Maine State Housing Authority and focus on our elderly citizens and their specific needs. We're not building enough to meet those needs. The other piece of this is our own families. What are we going to do? What is our responsibility? If you are looking to state government to take care of all of us in our old age and we're not looking to grow those resources within our own families, I think we're going to be very disappointed because there's more of us than there are of them. So we need to work on this together to make sure that the resources are there, both private and public. Thank you, and Alan. Greg, can you repeat that question? Because I can't see you from here. Yes. Let alone hear you. So what should the state do to respond to the needs of Maine's aging population in housing, healthcare, and long-term care? Do you want this in one minute? Yes. Okay. Well, I'm going to build on what I said last time. We have growing needs and shrinking revenues. So first, we've got to make sure we're figuring out how to bring more revenues in. Otherwise, we're just making promises that cannot be kept. And we ought to acknowledge that at the outset. We have got to bring, this won't directly answer that multi-part question, but we've got to do more to make Maine a welcoming state and we have to bring more people in. And the more people we have in a growing economy is the only hope we have of being able to meet the growing needs of an aging population. And those needs are getting bigger every day. Thank you. Janet, you get the first stab at the next question and that comes from you, Bill. Thank you. We're going to turn now to energy. For the last seven years, Maine's energy policy has been aimed at producing electricity at the lowest cost ahead of other considerations, such as local jobs or environmental impact. Is this the policy you would pursue and why or why not? Thanks for the question. I will pursue a policy that weans us off of fossil fuels at the earliest opportunity, including the fossil fuels like coal and oil that are used to generate electricity in Maine. I believe in renewable energy. And by the way, I believe in climate change. I don't believe, I don't believe the Blaine House should become home to a climate change denier. I believe in renewable energy. I will work towards that end on starting on day one with wind and solar, biomass and pellet stoves. I believe in pursuing those modes as soon as possible. So in terms of lower rates, ultimately over the long term, those modes of generating electricity will lower our rates. That's what the research tells us. And I want to continue that research and continue attracting investors, attracting suppliers to Maine. The ones that are now going to New Jersey, Rhode Island and Massachusetts to do these projects, they should be here in Maine helping us. So whom are you referring to as a climate denier? I said the Blaine House should not become home to a climate denier. And are you identifying a climate denier? I know that Mr. Moody has made the statement that we shouldn't overreact to climate change. And during the primary, he said he didn't believe in climate change. It was overblown. So I just, if he's changed his mind, maybe he's changed his mind. Well, let's give Sean a 30 second rebuttal for that. Thank you, Carol. Thanks for getting that out of Janet. She's going to walk around the bond there on that one. I haven't changed my position at all. Well, five years ago, we did the biggest private public partnership with a conservation organization with a renewable energy project in the state of Maine. Senator King was at the ribbon cutting. He's on the Maine Audubon campus at Gilliland Farm. So we have a renewable energy company that produces energy on that campus. Just one more thing, please, Carol. I have spoken to the keynote speaker for Maine Audubon, the Nature Conservancy, Revision Energy. We have an incredible reputation in regards to renewable energy and protecting our environment. So when it comes to your turn for this question, I think we have to give you a little bit less than a minute since you went over the 30 second rebuttal. I'm sorry. You didn't hear an answer? I did not hear an answer. Would you take 15 more seconds? I can remember when the climate, when continents broke off and drifted. You know, he had hundreds of feet of ice on top. You can remember that? Well. It's older than he looks. So really, for anyone to say in this day and age that anyone is in denial about climate change is just such a ridiculous statement. Is it even bear a response? It's not what you said last week at the... If you keep doing this. That's not what you said last week at the Fisherman's Forum. Let's get something else in this. Okay. That's why would someone have a renewable energy product? Seriously. We're going to come back to this topic. So let's just let that lie and Terry, would you like to answer the question? Do you need a refresher of what the question is? I think I'm good on what the question was. Okay. So I want to frame it slightly differently for you though. We have the least expensive power north of Pennsylvania. How many of you knew that? And we're in a region. We function in a region as part of a bigger whole, okay? We're making strides. We've kind of been held back a bit because folks been putting their thumb on the scale one way or the other. I want the private sector to help figure this out. I think we have to leave our minds open to every opportunity. Every opportunity. And I think we're looking at primarily private investment and encouraging that. I don't want to pick the winner as your next governor. I want the private sector to figure that out. And I want to explore from this perspective if people are building things and putting things together and manufacturing them in Massachusetts or in New York. And our power's cheaper. How do we get them here? How do we start up and use that difference, if you will, that we offer from a regional perspective? I think that's something we need to lead with. Thank you. And Allen? If anyone says we shouldn't overreact to climate change, they should ask the people today in the Panhandle of Florida whether they're overreacting. Ask who, there is no scientific debate about climate change that hasn't been for a decade. There's only a political debate and the rest of the country is figuring it out because they're seeing it every day. There's also been no energy policy in Maine. Something that masquerades as a policy which is all about how we get the lowest price today doesn't make investments that we need for tomorrow. That's not a policy. That's an escape from policy. I have proposed that Maine become energy independent within 30 years. That will do two things of great importance to us. One, it will save us $5 billion that we're now sending to oil and gas companies. And we can reinvest that here. And secondly, it's the greatest thing we can do for climate change in this state, the greatest thing. Thank you. And Sean, 30 seconds to maybe refine your comments on this. Now, if I do it 30, I'll try, Carol. No, this is really important. One thing that we feel strongly about is the PUC only has three members. We have small towns in Maine that have a $300,000 town budget that have five select men or women on it. It's a multi-billion dollar industry in the utilities. We would go to the legislature and have two more appointees on that PUC, one specifically with a background and expertise in renewables. Thank you. Okay, so for our next question that goes to Terry first and Greg, you get to ask that. Okay, I've got another multi-part one. So I'll try to talk slow. Maybe we can. In recent years, the legislature has considered multiple bills on the topic of abortion, some making it more difficult to obtain others that would expand access. To help us understand how you would approach these issues, here are two bills that have been presented in the recent past. The first, would you support a main law that imposes new regulatory standards on clinics that provide abortion, forcing some of them to shut down? And the second, would you sign a bill that allows physician assistants in medically underserved areas to perform abortions without a doctor present? Either, both, why or why not? Terry, that question goes to you first. It was multi-part. I think I got it. Okay. The first part of the question, Greg, was about would I support new clinic standards? I haven't read the ones that you're speaking of in terms of the specific proposal, but I'd have to be persuaded in a significant way that the standards that we have now are somehow inadequate and I'm not aware that they are. Where would you, who would you talk to? Where would you get that information? What would you ask? Well, the first thing I would do is go back to the legislation that was proposed and look at who testified and learn from there who I would seek out at that point. I mean, this is a specific proposal that was before the legislature last year. It's not part of the treasury business, so I wasn't paying attention. I just need you to know that. So I would be looking at the legislative record in particular, and then from there, branch out to see who had already shown up because they had a passion on the issue. The second part had to do with whether or not physicians assistants could perform an abortion without a physician being present. I do not have the expertise to answer that question at the moment. I don't know what skills are required, so I have to tell you, I honestly don't know, Greg. I need more information than I have today. Thank you. Allen? I'm always confused by conservatives who argue that government ought to get out of business and regulation and get off their backs. And yet when it comes to this issue, they want government right in the middle of that decision. And that's wrong. This is a decision to be made by an individual woman and her family or her medical caregivers. That's all. And I will not support at any time any bill that restricts that woman's right to make her own choice. And isn't it interesting that if a man was giving birth, we wouldn't even have this conversation? Allen, Allen, what about the bill that would expand the ability to, physician assistants and other nurse practitioners to perform abortions without a doctor? Honestly, I don't know enough to know, understand whether that works or not. And how would you go about answering that? If it was on your desk, what would the process be? Does it interfere with a woman's right to choose? If it does, I don't support it. Okay, Sean, the question goes to you. Again, and I apologize, because these are, I'm sorry, Greg, but I think I understand enough about the second question so that I would say no. I don't, I think if a physician's involved, to me, to go down that pathway of experiencing that, opening up to other people that may not be qualified or whatever the situation may be, I think if I understood the question correctly, I would not support that. The other thing I would not support is the taxpayers' dollars going towards abortion. But I do need a reference on the first. The first one is would you support stricter regulations, regulatory standards on clinics that are presently performing abortion that would result in some of them being closed? I honestly would have to look at that bill to see the details, look at the summary section and read that through. And again, who would you talk to, what would you ask? I think go to the legislative leaders and get their detail, whoever proposed the bill. And then you always want to go to the other side, so you want to make sure you understand both sides of the issue, the details of the law itself. I haven't seen it, so I'm not sure. And I wouldn't want to answer it without seeing it and looking at it in detail. All right, thanks. Thank you, and Janet. We know why those so-called standards for clinics are being proposed in states across the country. They are clearly intended solely to limit the right of access to safe and legal abortion. I would oppose them. And I helped draft the second measure to deal with the scope of practice for any healthcare procedure, including abortion. It should be up to the licensing boards and the regulatory authorities dealing with physicians assistants, family nurse practitioners and physicians to determine whether or not they are capable of performing early term abortions by pharmaceutical means. That's what it's about. And it is about providing access in the rural areas predominantly. Instead of having someone to drive, asking someone to drive 50 or 80 miles to see a doctor when this can be done much more simply, more excessively and safely through non-physician medical experts. Thank you. Okay, Alan, you get the next question and Bill, you're asking it. We're gonna move now to immigration. The question is this. All four of you have said that we should welcome immigrants from other countries to make their homes here in Maine. Should the state pay for English classes, housing, healthcare, food or any other services for newcomers if they are not able to provide those things for themselves? The short answer is yes, and here's why. I, 100 years ago, my grandfather drove over the mountains from Quebec behind a horse in a buggy to take a job in central Maine. And he faced at that time as did Franco-Americans all across the state, massive KKK demonstrations on the bridges in Lewis and Auburn, Waterville, Winslow, all across the state saying to those people and to Italians and to Irish people, the Pappas, as the KKK called them, saying all of the nasty things we've heard in the last eight years said about immigrants. It is the wrong message that we've been sending to the country and it will change on day one if I'm the next governor. We need people. We need not only our young people to come back, we need other young people to come. We need people of all ages who wanna join us in building a new prosperity here. And we shouldn't care if they come from another state or another country. We shouldn't care what the color of their hair is or what their first language is or who they worship. We should only care that they will join us here and help us build a new prosperity. That will be my policy. Thank you. Sean. Thank you. Thank you for having a passionate response, Alan. I know our immigrant population is critical. There's no question about it. And our cousins grew up on Monjoy Hill and back in the 70s. I can tell you when the Irish or the Italians came over here, probably three or four days after they landed, they were laying bark, laying tile, building buildings and construction. What we've done to our immigrant population here borders on inhumane. You cannot suppress the human spirit by preventing someone from going out and gainfully and being employed to provide for themselves and their families. So we get the immigrant here as a visa. We give them a work permit. Shouldn't take a year. You don't have to do that. And here's the most important thing. Have a career counselor and an interpreter to find out what they were doing back in their home country whether they're an electrician, whether they're an engineer, whether they're a nurse. So we can continue their life over here. Instead of stop at dead and expect them to start all over again. I'd just like to follow up, Sean. Are you saying that the state should or should not pay for services, the ones that were enumerated in the interim? We're currently paying for that now, Bill. And I think it's hurting them. It's hurting the taxpayers. We need to provide it just long enough to make sure they're gainfully employed because that's essentially, it's what they want the American dream and setting home, getting assistance, not having a pathway to employment is not doing it. Janet. Thank you. Look, when it comes to refugees and people seeking asylum in this country, I fully support their ability to get a path to citizenship as promptly as possible. But you know, Sean is right. It's taking an awful long time. It's actually taking more than two years for people to get work visas. I believe in providing opportunity. The general assistance funds are being depleted right now by a lot of burdens, a lot of needs on them. Housing is one of them. Food and shelter, food in English second language. The two priorities I would have are English language services and make them continuous so that when somebody does have a get a work visa and does start working, they continue their education to start paying for their housing and their food and shelter. I learned that about 40% of the new mainers in Portland area alone have bachelor's degrees or better. There's no reason why we shouldn't be able to put them to work as soon as possible. We need them in our workforce, as Alan has pointed out. As for housing and immediate shelter, those are absolute immediate needs and the state should help out. We should support the immigrant welcome centers, the immigrant resource centers to help them find housing in local communities. Thank you. And Terry, how many of you, just by a show of hands, have an acquaintance or met someone who's here as an asylum seeker? How many of you? Thank you very much. I want you to think about what it took. What it took for those folks who may have left Somalia or the Congo and brought their families to a foreign country that often don't speak the language well. These are some of the best educated people from their homeland. They come here with degrees and with credentials. They oftentimes are challenged because our language is not native to them and they struggle around that. Immigrants have saved Maine's economy multiple times in our history. And frankly, if we don't welcome them and help support them until our government lets them support themselves, then it's to our detriment. And it's the government that's preventing these folks from working. These are some of the most capable, most resourceful people and we are preventing them from working. And I don't mean the state, the federal government is. Of course we should care for them to the extent that they need until we allow them to earn their own way. Thank you. The next question, Sean, you get it first and Greg, you're asking. Have you got a straightforward one there, Greg? No, this is also a multi-corner. This actually builds on a topical, multi-tasking. This one isn't from me. This is from Pamela Craig in of South Portland who asks, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute has been in the news showing dire sea level impacts on the Maine coast as well as the loss of important fisheries. What does your comprehensive Maine climate change resilience plan look like? So we're looking for a plan here rather than what we were discussing previously. Try to compete with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. Might be a challenge in a minute. But no, I think it really gets down to the fishermen and the lobstermen that are out there in the water every day and that's their natural resource that they harvest and they fish. That's their livelihood. So I think when you couple the folks that are out there doing their work and the experience, the generations that they've had together along with science and data, I think that's the combination. Too often we have climatologists and scientists and like the Gulf of Maine, but they're not talking with the fishermen and the lobster industry. They know, they've been fishing in these waters for generations and they know patterns right on the ground. So we have to make sure that we combine those two resources so we're combining data right on the ground in the fisheries as well as the data and science with Gulf of Maine Research Institute is an extraordinary resource here for the Gulf of Maine. Thank you. As I understand it, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute has been talking to the fishermen up and down the coast and the fishermen are noticing warming waters. They're noticing that the fish, the lobsters are traveling to different areas that some of the supplies are being depleted. We've seen clamped down on the herring fishery, the shrimp fisheries, and this is all in good part because of climate change. We've got to deal with ocean acidification that is putting a real damper on our shellfish industry first and foremost. We've got to deal with rising sea levels. We read the United Nations report just the other day. We can't overreact, but we darn well better react and react now and build up our communities so that they are resilient to oceans rising, to warming temperatures. That means infrastructure in the coastal communities. It means taking serious ocean acidification, taking up the report that was shelved eight years ago in the legislature and taking it seriously and taking action now. Thank you. Terry. Thank you. You may not be aware of this, but you are all part owners in the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. It's right down on Commercial Street and you helped pay for that institution to be formed and created there and for the data that they collect because you voted for it as a general obligation bond. What happens with the data is the key component here. We have it now and how are we going to use it? Will we be making database plans? I'm a data geek. I want to know the data. I want people who understand and analyze it to help instruct us how we can best prepare because that's really the issue here. There are changes we can make in our own behaviors now that can delay some of the impacts or postpone them maybe indefinitely, but there are other parts of this that we're already going to have to confront. And it's not just the fisheries, it's our entire coastline. Our coastline is going to look significantly different. Where are we building? How are we making those decisions? And do we need to move that footprint back? These are pieces and questions that need to be data-driven answers and looking to the scientists that can direct us. Thank you, Alan. I cannot emphasize enough how critical this issue is for Maine. Lobstering used to be done around New England. Now there's no lobstering south of Cape Cod. The lobster population is moving north at four miles a year. In a generation it will be centered not in Stonington where it is now, but in Canada. We've spent eight years with our fingers in our ears and our hands over our eyes on this issue. The fishing industry in Maine was built on codfish. Buy cod now and notice where it comes from, Iceland. It doesn't come from here. We're trying to regulate problems that have nothing to do with regulation because these are natural phenomenons that are now out of our control. What we need is a government that understands the future, the trend lines, where we're headed, and that is composed of people who are in the business of managing change and getting ahead of change, not waiting until it's a crisis that we cannot survive. Thank you. Our next question, Janet, you get to take the first stab at that and Bill, you get to ask it. Thank you. Let's shift to student debt. According to Forbes, the 2016 average student loan debt in Maine was $31,295, the eighth highest in the nation. Given that Maine employers typically pay 80% of the national average in wages, what state resources, and again we ask that you be specific, what state resources would you mobilize or initiate to reduce this burden? Thanks. Basically three things, building up the Maine State Grant Program and other scholarship programs so that people don't have to go deeply in debt, especially in the first two years after high school. Secondly, loan forgiveness programs such as the one Representative Dottray introduced, I believe in having a tax credit and I'm looking at a tax, income tax forgiveness program for those who come here with a post-secondary degree, whether it's a certificate, two-year certificate, degree of credential of some sort, and allow them income tax benefits and credits for the extent that they are paying down their loan. And thirdly, making sure that we have quality job training for people in school matching their curricula with the job needs of today, the workforce needs of today so they can be employed and pay down their debt. I think, you know, we have an aging population, we gotta encourage young people to move here and move back here and stay here when they want. I've got three grandchildren getting ready to graduate from high school the next year or two. I wanted to be able to stay here and get good paying jobs and not go into tremendous debt to get a post-secondary degree of whatever nature. Thank you. Terry. Thank you. There are several things we can do but I think I'm more on the prevention side than the help you make it upside. You know, this typically happens to an individual within four to six years when they're pursuing a higher education. So I'm gonna start with finishing two or finishing four. Those are the least expensive credentials that you can get if you do them on time. And if you're not ready to do that, don't start till you are. That's the first thing. The second part of this is don't do remediation at the college level. It's the most expensive environment to catch someone up to where they need to be. Do that within our adult education programs. Full disclosure. Who's getting the money when you sign those student loan payments? The institution's getting the lion's share of that money. Is there full disclosure? If I'm signing a student loan document at the beginning of my sophomore year, what does the end game look like? If I'm gonna continue and go to a four-year degree, what does the end game look like and who's telling me that? I think the institution should be responsible for doing that. I think we can also encourage saving for college because it's a whole heck of a lot cheaper than borrowing for college. And we have some decent programs here in Maine that incentivize doing exactly that. So I'm not a fan of starting out on a shoot of paying for folks who've accumulated the debt, but trying to make sure that we don't end up in that position with our young people in post-secondary education. Thank you. And Alan? We are impoverishing a generation of American young people and it's coming at a great cost to them and to all of us. My son is one of those people who came back to Maine but he couldn't stay and pay his student debt. He had to go somewhere else and we're still trying to get him back here. Look at my grandfather's generation and eighth grade education was all you needed to secure good life. My parents, my older brother and sister, high school education all but guaranteed you a good life. That's not the case today. Now everyone must have more skills, more training, some higher and more advanced technical skill at a minimum. But we, in the past we always said those things were free, free public education. But now the things that young people need are not free and they ought to be. We ought to move in that direction. I propose a two year free higher education plan. Go to my website, caringforgovernment.com to find out how it works. It's a great deal for everybody. Thank you. And Sean? As the work that we've done on the university system, community college, again, as the only person in the state's history had to be somebody from the outside to see the potential of getting these two systems to collaborate. They were siloed, they were bureaucratic. Now you can transfer credits from the community college system which are $92 each to the university system which are around $300 each. Transfer those credits and be pre-approved to go get your associate's degree and go right over and get your bachelor's degree at USM. Here's the real problem. It's not only the amount of student debt but 30 to 40% of those graduates are not making it, excuse me, those students are not making it to the finish line. That's a real problem. They're not getting that degree so they can be a higher income earner and get the value of that education. Another thing that's really important, blue collar trades. We've got white collar administrators overseeing our blue collar trades programs. They don't know what they don't know. We have a lot of young women and young men that would love to get into the trades but because of guidance counselors, parents, and teachers direct them to go into the white collar world. They end up two years in debt and miserable because they're passionate as they wanna work with the hands and work in the trades. Thank you. Thank you, that's my job. I just wanna, so I just wanna be clear. The question was about the state resources that you would mobilize or initiate and so would you like 15 seconds more for Sean? I think, Janet, I think you answered that and I think, Terry, you answered that also. Directly answer the question to keep cost down. University main system has been the only system in the country, one of two, to not raise tuition five out of the last six years. The community college system is the lowest tuition in New England. That's how we keep cost down. Yeah, go ahead, Bill. I just wanna take one more whack at that. The question is what state resources would you mobilize or initiate to reduce student debt that already exists? Specifically, what would you do to help those people? Thank you, Bill. I said that earlier in my response, I'll say it again, I apologize that that wasn't clear. Companies right now are paying $5,000 to $10,000 in hiring bonuses to try to attract talent into their companies, whether it's Idex, Wex, whatever. Please stop, please stop. Okay, all right, we're gonna let Sean finish his thought. Thanks. So in order to keep student debt down, private companies will offer student loan forgiveness programs that will keep the cost down so it doesn't always have to be state sponsored. Private companies will pay, you don't have to go to a taxpayer every time you wanna supplement a program or subsidize a program. That's my point. Okay, yes, Bill. All right, we're gonna have another easy question. This one's sexual harassment. And Terry, you get that first question, first stab at it, Greg, you get to ask it. Great, so Terry, this is a year into the Me Too movement. As governor, what policies would you recommend to make sure all women are free from sexual harassment, assault, and gender bias? And also, as an employer in Maine, as governor, how would you respond to allegations of those offenses against a member of your staff? Would you hire or appoint someone who had been subject to a credible allegation of abuse? Gosh. So the first part is... What kind of policies? What policies, I think part of this is making it safe to speak up. And encouraging girls in particular, because we learn this young, girls and young women, that we will in fact have their backs when they share with us if they have been mistreated. We need to let them know that it's safe to talk about this, and we will protect them. That's the first part. That's an attitudinal piece, and you lead by example. The second part had to do with, if I had nominated somebody or was in my employ, and there were allegations that they... Well, I wanna know for certain, did this happen, and I would not wanna employ that individual. I mean, particularly if there are people that are still gonna be at risk. If someone believes, I mean, this is a power thing. This isn't a sex thing. This is about power and control. I'm a collaborator at my core. I don't want people working in my administration that are gonna try to force policies and force outcomes on people, and this I see as a power and control issue. So if there are allegations, I would think very seriously about letting that individual contribute some other way, some place else. Thank you, and I'm gonna give everyone an extra 30 seconds on that question. Can I take an extra 30 seconds? Well, you took a little more time, but I think it's an important issue. So, Alan, you get a minute and 30 seconds for this. I've learned the technique. Don't answer the question and you'll get more time. You need to get heckled when you get more time. Of course. Practical. So I'm not answering that question. That's 26. We're covering this, you know. That's gonna be a story tomorrow. I just want you to know, okay. I'm old enough to remember growing up in a time when the bullies and the bad guys always got that just due. So I couldn't be more delighted by the Me Too movement, by what's happening in the country, by the learning that's happening. That is the long-term effect. When we have these moments, when we focus on an issue, we're all learning, and the men of America are learning every day, and it couldn't be better. So, on the questions, are we gonna crack down on people? You bet. Are we gonna hire people who have credible charges against them? No. Okay, thank you. Sean, a minute and a half for this one. Yes. You heard my story about my mom. I mean, she raised us and gave us everything she had, you know, financially and physically. I've been married to my wife, Christy, over 30 years, beautiful daughter, Danielle, two beautiful granddaughters. We currently employ 25 dynamic women in our organization in all areas of our business, and we have to make sure. One thing that we do with the Best Places to Work program, that's an anonymous participation so that everybody can fill out those surveys about culture and about pay and benefits, comp, leadership, communication. All of these things are surveyed so that we get direct feedback anonymously to the point of, you know, people need to feel empowered to speak up. So, when you talk about safety in our company, it's not eyeglasses and ear protection, it's being able to speak up in an environment. So we have driven with employee ownership, you know, our coworkers own 34% of the company. We give 10% after tax profit back to our coworkers. We know how to establish a culture of empowerment. And when it comes time for hiring, we're gonna make sure that everyone is properly vetted to make sure of their background and history so that we don't hire someone that has a track record or a felony or any type of violation that would impair on a woman's right. One more time and you're out. We have these big burly security guards out here and they've been twiddling their thumbs. So that's your last warning. Okay, go ahead, John. I'm fine. You're all set, okay. Janet. Oh gosh, where do I begin? Did I tell you that I was the first woman in the criminal division to prosecute homicides across the state? Did I tell you I was the first and only woman district attorney in New England? And you go to these meetings with 550 men in suits and somebody turns to you and always, you know, ask by your drink or ask you to make the coffee. Look, times have changed but they're changing slowly. Believe me, they're changing slowly. I would immediately issue an executive order as the new governor of this state. If I take office in January, I would issue an executive order that absolutely prohibits sexual harassment, sex discrimination beyond what the statutes say, beyond what the Human Rights Commission does and I would fully, fully support the main human rights commission. I would never dare to threaten them with taking away their funding or to intervene in a pending case as the current executive, chief executive, did. I believe in standing up to bullies and I won't tolerate bullies in my employee or in my cabinet or among my appointees and I would not hire someone with any credible allegations of sexual harassment. Thank you. I think that, I think Terri got a little short change because she was the first person to answer this. So if you'd like 15 more seconds, that's fine. The other challenge that I would put out there for all of us is to make sure that we raise sons who understand how to respect women and what the word no means. You only needed seven seconds for that, very good. Our next question, let's see. Alan, you get first stab at that. It has to do with school funding formula and Bill, you get to ask it. Sure. Main school funding formula is supposed to equalize educational opportunity throughout the state but there is still significant disparity between rich towns and poor ones when it comes to K-12 education. Is there something wrong with the formula itself or is it just not funded adequately? And as governor, what would you do to address the issue of equity? I'm a kid who grew up in poverty. I was walking to school by myself before I was five. There's nothing that touches me more than what happens to low income kids in this state and I am gonna be their champion if I'm your governor. So we'll start with that. What is the principle? We all strive through this formula to ensure that everyone has the same opportunity to succeed. We know that system doesn't work perfectly. It probably never will. The way I would change the system is to take most of the emphasis now is on property values and add more emphasis on incomes because there are places in the state that have very high property values but very low incomes and it happens the other way. So that tends to skew the results of the formula and I would work to change that. Thank you, Sean. Yes, as a work that we've done in the university main system, we've implemented what we call unified budget. That budget process hadn't been changed in 50 years. So that's exactly what we need to do with the EPS. It's not working, it hasn't worked, but again, like most things in government, it becomes static and no one's got the courage or the dynamics to insight that change. The other thing that what I would recommend is a statewide teacher contract. That way you can be more portable in terms of benefits and pay to move from a affluent area, if you will, if you wanna go and teach it in a rural area. They desperately need that talent in our rural areas of our state. The other thing that a lot of people don't realize is when you build industrial or commercial properties of businesses within your community, you basically get penalized because they lower the property tax base value. So if we wanna encourage and direct economic development in our rural and urban communities, you can't be punished by getting less funding from the state. Thank you. Janet, thank you. The school funding formula we have now is not 50 years old. It's about 14 years old or 13 years old, actually, and it does need some fine tuning. There are too many gaps between property rich communities and property poor communities, and that's why there's so many disparities. We gotta look at the efficiency fund that's been developed in recent years and fully fund that. And it means looking at pre-K in early childhood and more aggressively funding the early childhood years in our public education system. My mother was a teacher for 37 years. I'm a product of the public school systems. My five daughters are products of the public school system in Maine, and they got a good education. But I think we need to fully fund education as the people told us to do. With state funding, my goal is 55%, and we need to get there in the next few years. We can't wait any longer, but focusing on pre-K in early childhood years, early childhood development would be my priority. Thank you, and you Teri? Thank you. I served on the local school board in Buckfield for 13 years, and what I learned in that time period is there were three people in the state who understand the school funding formula and there's a law that requires they can't all get on the same plane. Because if they did and it went down, we don't know what we would do, okay? So do I think there's challenges with the formula? You betcha. Do I have a suggestion for how to change it? I wanna change the paradigm. Sean mentioned a statewide teachers contract. That's precisely the way I would go at this. I would say we should have a statewide teachers contract negotiated by the state with the teachers unions, and the state pays for the contract. They pay the wages and the salaries and they pay the benefits, the health insurance benefits. And then they provide that equity across the state. You know, there are two key components for a good education. Teacher and time. You gotta give the teacher, you gotta have a good teacher in the classroom and you gotta have time to do the teaching and the learning. And I think the best way to get at that is to shift the paradigm away from the funding formula. Literally have a statewide teachers contract and put our money there. Thank you, and I can attest to that about how many people understand the school funding formula. My first year here as a reporter was 1986 and I called state government because I needed somebody to explain the school funding formula and the fellow on the other and the line said, only one person knows that and he's on vacation. Yeah. It's magical. So, yeah, now, we, so our final, I'm invoking moderator privilege to ask the last question. There's, you know, we got a lot of reality TV kind of infusing politics today and so I thought we might have a little fun with this last question. So for each of the candidates, imagine it is November 7th and you have been elected the new governor of Maine in the morning as you sip your coffee, savoring your victory, you begin to assemble your administration. Which two, if any of your opponents in this race, would you consider for a job in your administration and for what post? And Sean, I think that question goes to you first. Lead that one right off. I think I'd try to recruit these two guys that are over here. They know policy pretty good, I'd say, with a stamp. Press secretary. No, I don't look at this. I honestly, you know, these obviously, these three folks are working hard, they're dedicated, you know, they're running for the right reasons. When I wake up on November 7th, the one thing I wanna, and Christy and I have talked about this, is wanna make sure that we didn't leave anything in the tank. We give it everything we got. We wanna wake up that next morning known, we gave it it all. So, would you pick anyone for your administration? Why? What's the answer to the question? I don't think we'd be hiring and recruiting anybody on November 7th. We'd be pretty open-minded. Okay, all right, Janet, what about you? Well, I don't have a plan to select specific people. And I haven't even thought that far ahead because I'm game to win the election on November 6th. I do wanna bring the best and the brightest back to state government. I wanna reinvent the planning office, the department of the future and bring people with ideas about the future back to state government to give us their expertise, have a brain trust there of whatever sources, whatever backgrounds. And so, you aren't selecting anyone either? I'm not selecting a name. No, that's way premature. Okay, we have a follow-up question. I know, is it? How about you, Terry? Oh, this is fun. So, first thing you gotta understand is on November 11th, it's my husband's birthday and I'm gonna give him a new title for his birthday. First dude, okay? Because we haven't had one yet. Then, the second thing I would do, I fully expect that when I'm the governor-elect, Janet's gonna run for Attorney General again, so I don't think she'll be looking for a job in my administration. Sean's likely to be busy with the Collision Center, but I would offer him a role and I would offer Alan a role. They both have brought some very interesting ideas to this process. There are four good people running for governor. You folks are gonna have a tough choice. Thank you. Janet, are you revising your thinking? Can I say I would have, I would certainly value their expertise as part of a transition team at the very least. Oh, so we got a transition team and possible posts in your administration. Okay, how about you, Alan? Well, first off, any hiring's gonna have to be done out of my RV, which will be headed to Florida with my golf clubs, taking some time off. How many people's that on? We're all gonna be on that RP by the way. Oh. Look, my wife ran for town council in Freeport some years ago and her opponent made the mistake of saying, you'd be really good on a committee. He lost. So I've learned from that, that you don't talk about these things before the election, but I'll say this much. And I've said it at every event, we're all good people here. We all care about me. We all have different ideas for how to get there where we wanna go. But it's been, there are no demons on this panel, as much as some people might try to persuade you there are, there are. And we're having a fruitful and good conversation about the state we love so much. And I would ask all three of them to join me if I was successful. Thank you. Okay. So before the final remarks, I'd like to thank President Herbert, the university's trustees, the faculty, the staff, the students for hosting this event. The folks at AvTechnik, AVTechnik, right? They kept us on time. And I would encourage all of you to continue to educate yourselves about the candidates, the issues facing Maine's future. Of course, you can do that by reading your Press Herald every morning, or by visiting pressherald.com. So with that, we're ready for final statements. And since we began with Sean for the opening statements, Allen will start with you and work our way down this way, so Allen, Terry, Janet, and Sean. So go ahead, Allen. You've all been great. This has been fun. I can't use up more time than that. Eight years ago, another Republican businessman said because of his business experience, he would move the economy forward. Eight years before that, another Democrat with decades of experience in government made the same claim. And I ask you, how has the last 16 years gone? A few weeks ago, the Labor Department reported that in the next eight years, we will add a grand sum of 100 jobs in Maine. Meanwhile, we've gotten older, we've lost more young people, we can't fill the jobs we have, and we have more crises now than we had 16 years ago. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. The question for you is quite simple. Who has a vision and a plan? Who can bring people together? Are we gonna move backwards? Sideways or forwards? If you share my optimism for Maine, if you want real change, I'm the candidate you've been looking for. Thank you, Allen and Terry. Thank you so much. Thanks to the University of New England and to the Portland Press, Harold, and all of you for coming out tonight. It's energizing for me anyway to be in a room with this many people who are passionate enough about Maine to come out after supper and listen to four people answer the same questions. I appreciate your stick-to-itiveness here. Again, I'm Terry Hayes. I want to be your next governor. I think a nonpartisan is the best shot that we have for focusing on what really matters in Maine. Our challenges are not partisan and the solution shouldn't be either. This is a real opportunity for us to say the gridlock, this tying ourselves in knots and not getting outcomes from our government isn't working for us. You have an opportunity to hit the reset button. I want to challenge all of you, not just those of you in this room, but those of you who are watching this on the internet, I want you to consider this choice. We can be celebrated for our aspirations or we can be defined by our fears. I don't want to live in a Maine that's defined by our fears. Please join me on November 6th. Thank you, Terry and Janet. Thank you. Thank you to you, Carol and to the folks at the Press, Harold. Look, people all over Maine are being left behind right now. The senior citizen choosing between paying for heating oil or food or prescription drugs, families gambling against the next accident or illness that might leave them bankrupt. The fishermen worried about the warming of the sea. Maine can do better. We can turn the tide when it comes to healthcare, fighting the opiate epidemic, bringing back good paying jobs, valuing our teachers and keeping our students safe. I envision a Maine that is undivided where all our seniors have heat in their home, where our veterans have a home to go to, where we generate our own renewable energy and broadband reaches all of our communities, where we support small businesses. We can and will do better when I'm, if I'm privileged to be the next governor on January 3rd, you'll find in my office an open door and open mind and an open heart. I'm running for governor because I know the best chapter in our state's history has yet to be written and I want to write it with all of you. I ask for your vote. Thank you. Thank you, Janet and Sean. Thank you, it has been a great evening. Appreciate the moderators, excuse me, the moderator and the panelists. Participation. I'm sorry I had to answer the question, you know, your questions independently at times. Maine voters have an important decision to make on November 6th. I'm the only candidate in this race has over 40 years of executive experience creating jobs and growing Maine's economy. Our next future will be written by somebody that has experience with growth and opportunity because you don't have growth, there is no opportunity. And now is not the time to turn Augusta back over to the politicians. The problem with politicians, they'd like you to think they believe they have all the answers to the problems. The fact is the politicians are a major cause of our problems. Some say you can't run the state like a business. I say we can't afford not to. Moody's are just named the best places to work in Maine. We're gonna make Maine the best place to work in America. Thank you. Thank you. Please join me in a round of applause for all of the candidates.