Jon Reisman

The legislative candidates who hope to represent Cooper were invited to a forum at the Cooper Community Center (formerly the Grange) by the Select Board. On a rainy Tuesday evening, House District 10 Candidates Kenneth “Bucket”Davis (R-East Machias) and Melissa Hinerman (U-Machiasport) were joined by Senator Marianne Moore (R-Calais). Jonathan Goble (D-Cherryfield) did not respond to the invitation.

I e-mailed all the candidates the following:
Please look over this chart of public (federal, state, municipal) land ownership by County in Maine. It was (reluctantly) prepared by the State Dept. of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry in response to a bill put in by Rep Kathy Javner to limit public land ownership to 33% of the State and no more than 50% of any county.

Please note that 30% of Washington County is now publicly owned (tops in the state). 15% of the state is overall in public ownership, most of it in the 2nd CD. Gov. Mills has established a 30% overall goal for climate action purposes. If current acquisition policy and patterns continue, we can expect almost 2/3 of Washington County to come under public ownership in the years to come.
I’ll be asking what, if anything, you plan to do about it.

All three candidates were appalled, concerned and determined to address this.
Senator Moore led off by noting her support for Rep. Javner’s bill and agreed that the State ACF Department was not enthusiastic about releasing the information. She discussed her past and ongoing efforts to craft legislation compensating towns for lost tax revenue as a consequence of public and land trust acquisition (payment in lieu of taxes or PILT).

Bucket Davis was quite well informed on the history and consequences of public lands/conservation policy from his many years as an East Machias Selectman. He related his previous experiences fighting with then Governor King over salmon weirs on the East Machias river, and his current concerns over the public lands implications of Senator King’s and the Sunrise County Economic Council’s Heritage initiative. Bucket said he had alerted former Gov. LePage on the issue, and had secured his support.

Melissa Hinerman was in broad agreement, and lamented what might be seen as connected attacks on fishing (especially lobsters), farming and forestry.

I have also asked the LePage, Mills, Golden and Poliquin campaigns, but got no response.  Since the current public land ownership distribution pattern and goals reflect Democratic and climate alarmist policies and priorities, the silence of the Mills and Golden campaigns is not surprising. Poliquin has never exactly been a profile in courage, so silence is about what I expected.  LePage, on the other hand, has never been shy and is campaigning as an honest truth teller. I am hopeful that with a nudge from Bucket Davis we will hear from him on this issue. It is likely to exacerbate the tension between northern and southern Maine, further dividing the state, especially given the likely biased coverage by the Pravdas on the Presumpscot (PPH), Penobscot (BDN), and the Progressive payroll (Maine Public).

Bonus commentary- Best Political Transactions News of the month: Tulsi Gabbard was traded straight up for Liz Cheney. The former Hawaii Representative, Democratic National Committee Vice-Chair and current Army reserves Lt. Colonel promptly began campaigning for Republican gubernatorial and Senate candidates in New Hampshire, Michigan and Arizona, with more to come. Rep. Cheney vowed to protect “Democracy” from domestic extremists and MAGA Republicans. A Fox News show for Gabbard and a CNN/MSNBC slot for Cheney seems almost certain.

Jon Reisman is an economist and policy analyst who retired from the University of Maine at Machias after 38 years. He resides on Cathance Lake in Cooper, where he is a Selectman and a Statler and Waldorf intern. Mr. Reisman’s views are his own and he welcomes comments as letters to the editor here, or to him directly via email at [email protected].