Vote or Quit Bitchin’ 2006
Local election coverage
Your District 119 candidates (from left): Matt Reading, Herb Adams and Jason LaVoie. (photos/courtesy Reading; courtesy State of Maine; Chris Busby)
Voters’ Guide: State House District 119
Adams faces another fresh, Green face
By Chris Busby and Erik Eisele
They don’t make state lawmakers like Herb Adams anymore, which is a damn shame. The Democratic incumbent, a veteran legislator, is an orator in the tradition of the Mainers who talked their fellow fishermen, farmers and foragers into casting off the chains of oppressive Massholes lo those nearly 200 years ago, in order to establish the 23rd state in the Union.
Ask Adams what’s happened in Maine before or since 1820, and he may ask you what day you’d like to know about – that’s how deep this guy’s knowledge of state history runs.
A passionate progressive and dedicated public servant, you’d think Adams had a lock on another term in the House. But modern history, that fickle bitch, just may prove otherwise.
If Adams has an Achilles Heel, it’s a susceptibility to be dethroned by young progressives of the Green persuasion. Witness the loss of his seat on the Portland School Committee in 2003, when a political unknown with Green party affiliation named Stephen Spring beat Adams in his own backyard.
Granted, that was the local school board, not the state House, and the two seats’ voting districts overlap, but are far from identical – most notably, the Green-friendly West End is not part of Adams’ House territory, which includes the Parkside and Bayside neighborhoods.
However, there is a new Green in town, Matt Reading, and if anyone’s got a shot at Adams’ House seat this year, it’s him. The Republican in the race, conservative candidate Jason LaVoie, is unlikely to win the hearts and minds of many voters in this liberal-loving district, though to his credit, he’s still campaigning.
Reading and Adams are both pro-choice, anti-TABOR, and supportive of gay rights (mark LaVoie down in the opposite boxes on these issues). Reading and Adams are also for an assault-weapons ban, against the death penalty, and against more gambling in Maine (LaVoie agrees with them on the gun and gas-chamber issues, but gave no answer to the gambling question).
Reading said he was undecided on the topic of creating more “drug-free safe zones” around places kiddies frolic, but Adams took the bait and endorsed this feel-good nonsense (as did LaVoie, who may genuinely support the measure). On the question of what can be done to salvage what’s left of Maine’s groundfishing industry, Reading and Adams blathered on about a bunch of stuff, none of which gets to the heart of the problem, according to industry experts. LaVoie simply suggested Maine improve its business climate.
Bolstering Adams’ chances for a third term in the House this millennium (he served four terms in roughly the same district last century, in addition to two terms on the school board and a stint as the county Register of Probate) is Reading’s relative youth and inexperience. Spring was in his late 30s when he toppled Adams, then 50, and had years of experience as an educator behind him. At 25, Reading’s got a failed bid for a state House seat in Auburn behind him and some experience advising non-profits on fundraising strategies (“beg!”).
So, yeah, you can say it: the Green in this race may be too green to win this time. Even The League, the youth-centric political action group formerly called the League of Pissed Off Voters, gave Adams the nod over their progressive peer this year, suggesting in their endorsement that Reading stick around for ’08. LaVoie, also a peer at 22, was not encouraged to do the same.
