By: Jackie Mundry
FALMOUTH, Maine (WMTW) — Angus King III, like many candidates in the gubernatorial race, is looking to lower costs for Mainers. He points to his experience in both the public and private sectors as reasons he is the right candidate for the task.
King was born in Skowhegan and raised in Topsham.
“Couldn’t be luckier,” he said about growing up here.
He attended Dartmouth College and quickly became interested in public service. Working on Mike Dukakis’ and Bill Clinton’s presidential bids, and former Governor and current U.S. Sen. Angus King Jr.’s race for the Blaine House.
Once his dad was elected, King went to Washington. He worked as Clinton’s chief of staff’s domestic policy staffer.
“It was easily the best job I’ve ever had. You walk into the White House every day, and you get to work on the most important issues in the country, and you really get to feel like you’re making a difference for literally millions of people,” King said.
He then changed careers and eventually returned to Maine, building a renewable energy company in Clinton.
Some have been critical of King, pointing to the fact that he has not been in public service in Maine and has the same name as his well-known dad.
“I think it’s the same advantage that if Wayne Gretzky’s kids stepped out on the ice and someone said, ‘ Do you think it helped you that Wayne Gretzky is your dad? ‘The kid would say, ‘Well, of course it does, but I still have to skate. I still have to shoot the puck,'” King said.
He added that he has built a business, Peaks Renewables, and created jobs in Maine.
Now, he wants to be the state’s chief executive.
“Why now? Why not now is the moment. I mean, this feels like a moment where all good people come to the aid of their country. This is a moment where we’ve got a lot of really serious challenges,” King said when asked why now was the time to get in the race.
As governor, he said his number one priority is how to make lives easier for Maine people.
Focusing on costs, specifically energy, housing and healthcare.
He also said he wants to bring more business to Maine.
“This is a hard place to do business, and we’ve got to make it easier for the small businesses who really power our economy to grow and thrive and create more and better-paying jobs,” he said.
He’s proposing a plan to lower energy costs. Gov. Janet Mills has several clean energy goals she wants to hit, he said he would have similar goals, but some might be hard to meet given decisions from the federal government.
“The current goal involves a ton of offshore wind, and I think the president has effectively killed offshore wind for the foreseeable future,” King said.
On education, he wants to create more job training opportunities for students who want to work in the trades. Adding that by investing in these types of educational programs, it can redevelop rural Maine.
“We have to do a much better job training kids so that they’ve got exposure to all of the jobs, both of today, like in the trades and of tomorrow in terms of technology,” he said.
Immigration enforcement has been in the news over the last year. He said he agrees with a proposal Mills allowed to become law earlier this year.
“What the President has done is profoundly un-American. And yet I still believe in America. And most of the reason I believe in that is because of what Mainers did in the face of that onslaught of ice crashing onto our shore,” King said, pointing to an increase in ICE enforcement this winter.
King will face four other Democrats in a primary in June, but says he’s the right person for the job.
“I have four very capable opponents who are good people, and if the state were in terrific shape, I think they’d be good people to continue on that path, but I think we need something different,” he said.
Read the story at WMTW.