Davis and Ziemer compete for Senate District 4

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer
    A veteran lawmaker will be trying to return to the Maine Senate next month while a newcomer to the political scene is hopeful for an upset victory in the District 4 race.
    Rep. Paul Davis of Sangerville defeated incumbent Sen. Doug Thomas of Ripley in the June primary to win the Republican nomination for the sprawling rural district.
    David Ziemer of Orneville, the Democratic candidate, didn’t face a primary challenge.
    Davis, a Dexter Regional High School and UMaine graduate, is a retired state trooper and former chief deputy of the Somerset County Sheriff’s Department. He served in the Maine Senate from 2000-06, was elected Republican floor leader and returned to the Maine House six years ago. He has served both as chair and the senior GOP member of the Inland Fish and Wildlife Committee.
    He is also on the Government Oversight Committee which reviews programs and make recommendations to the full legislature about their effectiveness.
Ziemer was born in Oxnard, Calif., but his family moved to Iowa shortly after his birth and eventually to New England.
    After graduating from college, he was a social worker for the state of Rhode Island until he was drafted in the Army and served with an artillery unit in Vietnam.

    Following his military tour of duty, he returned to social work before embarking on a career as a programmer/system analyst for defense contractors at Newport, R.I. and as a director operations and technical support for a commercial programmer.
    Since moving to Maine in 2002, Ziemer has worked for Microdyne, the Charlotte White Center and currently at SAD 41 as an educational technician III.
    Some of the major topics discussed with the candidates included MaineCare expansion, the East-West Highway, the state’s school funding formula and the economic outlook for Piscataquis County.
    Davis said that he didn’t support expansion of MaineCare during the last session of the Legislature for one major reason. “We simply can’t afford it,” said Davis. “I was in the Legislature when MaineCare was first passed and we’ve had nothing but huge budget problems since then.” Davis said that today’s health care system “isn’t perfect. But we need to find a way to expand coverage and access that won’t bankrupt us.”
    Ziemer, however, said that he favors MaineCare expansion because it would benefit the state economically in the long run. “The federal dollars are there,” Ziemer said. “And the more people we can care for, the better workforce we’ll have. Plus, we won’t have to spend money on unnecessary emergency room visits because more families will have access to preventative care.”
    Davis said that his constituents have made it “very clear to me that they don’t want the East-West Highway. No one has said where it’s going to go or how it will benefit us.”
    Davis said that he grew up in Dexter “when they had plenty of industry without a four-lane highway running through town. So I think the economic benefits are questionable.”
    Ziemer echoes Davis’ views somewhat. “A highway like that might have made sense 50 years ago, but not today,” the Democratic candidate said. “But now that more people are aware of the consequences of climate change, the idea is becoming less popular. It would be like a ribbon cutting right through Maine with two different ecosystems on each side. It doesn’t make sense.”
    Davis said he would like to see the school funding formula changed to help schools in struggling communities. “The formula is better than it used to be, but it’s still not getting the job done. Every time the Department of Education changes the GPA (general purpose aid) formula, property taxes seem to go up. Communities in southern Maine where people make more money can absorb it a lot better than we can.”
    Ziemer said that he sees the problems first-hand at his job as an ed tech. “We have to take a closer look at how we fund schools because any formula that favors one district over another is wrong,” he said. “Population doesn’t tell the whole story.”
    Ziemer said that SAD 41 “is always strapped for money and families are struggling. Many kids who come to school are more focused on keeping warm and eating than learning.”
    On the economic front, Davis said that Piscataquis County “has a lot to offer new businesses. We have the Riverfront Redevelopment Project, Pleasant River Lumber, Hardwood Products and JSI Fixtures. If we could lower our taxes and the cost of energy, we could draw more companies to the area.”
    He added that the cost of electricity “is a real hardship on businesses. There’s no real competition for power. The governor tried to get the law changed to make it easier to buy electricity from large producers like hydroelectric plants in Canada. But it didn’t get very far.”
    Ziemer said that three things would help jump-start the local economy.
    “We need an expansion of high-speed Internet,” he said. “Town in rural areas could even be the service providers.”
    Ziemer said he would like to see the Legislature “start refocusing tax breaks for smaller businesses instead of large corporations. Look what’s happening right now with the mills. Small businesses are the backbone of Maine with greater prospects for growth.
    Finally, he’s a strong promoter of farming and agriculture. “It’s making a comeback in the county,” said Ziemer, “and we should do all we can to support it. We could eventually become the breadbasket of New England.”
    Senate District 4 encompasses of all of Piscataquis County; Brighton Plantation, Athens, Harmony, Hartland, Cambridge, Ripley, St. Albans, Palmyra and Detroit in Somerset County; and Dexter, Charleston, Garland, Bradford, LaGrange and Alton in Penobscot County.