A former mayor and an attorney who has campaigned region-wide are locked in a race for a seat in the Maine Legislature representing Hallowell, Manchester and West Gardiner.
Democrat Charlotte Warren, a public relations consultant, is facing Republican Darrick Banda, a Manchester defense attorney, for the House District 84 seat. The area narrowly favors Democrats, and Warren is running a more active campaign than Banda so far.
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DARRICK BANDA
AGE: 38
TOWN: Manchester
PARTY: Republican
PROFESSION: Defense attorney
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degrees in English and political science from the University of Maine; law degree from University of Maine School of Law
POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: Candidate for district attorney in Kennebec and Somerset counties (2012)
CHARLOTTE WARREN
AGE: 44
CITY: Hallowell
PARTY: Democrat
PROFESSION: Public relations consultant
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University at Maine at Farmington; master’s degree in adult education from the University of Southern Maine; master’s degree in social work from the University of New England
POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: Hallowell mayor (2010-2014), city councilor (2002-2010)
Warren grew up in Pittston and was Hallowell’s mayor from 2010 until last January after eight years as a city councilor. Now, she’s touting experience on local budgets and saying if elected, her focus will be on jobs, education and links between those issues.
“The issue that I’m most concerned with is jobs and the economy,” Warren said. “I stand on doorsteps and chat with folks who are working very hard and still not getting ahead.”
Banda, 38, a Bangor native, is best known for his unsuccessful 2012 campaign for district attorney in Kennebec and Somerset counties, winning 44 percent of votes. The former county prosecutor said he’d be best equipped working out finer details of Maine’s legal code in Augusta, particularly around criminal justice issues.
But he said he also favors “legislative restraint,” saying fewer changes can be better than many.
“I’m not professing to have all the answers,” Banda said. “But if you have someone who’s open to talking about things in an intelligent way, I think that’s the most important thing for a legislator.”
Both say they’re non-ideological: Warren said she connects with people, “not party,” while Banda said he’s a fiscal conservative and social liberal who is “not a politician at all.”
But they disagree on some of the key issues sure to face the new crop of legislators in January.
Warren supports an increase in the state’s minimum wage of $7.50 per hour and expanding MaineCare, the federal-state health care program for the poor, under the Affordable Care Act. She said the latter is common sense and “the right thing to do,” providing health coverage and injecting needed money into Maine’s economy.
Banda doesn’t support a state wage increase, and he said he leans against Medicaid expansion, which has been vetoed repeatedly by Republican Gov. Paul LePage.
However, neither candidate is solely party line.
Banda said he favors abortion rights, saying “it’s not the place of government to inject itself into those family issues.” Warren supports charter schools, a law opposed by most Democrats in 2011, because “more choice in education is always going to be a better thing.”
The Democrat is the favored candidate in the race: Warren’s party holds the seat and a slight 200-person edge on Republicans in the district, buoyed by Democrat-heavy Hallowell. However, the two towns lean Republican, and in Banda’s district attorney bid, he won Manchester and nearly won West Gardiner.
But back then, he ran a harder campaign. Warren has been far more active than Banda this year, raising $11,000 as of mid-September to his $350. Both are traditionally financed, meaning they are not participating in the state’s public financing program for candidates.
The candidates intersected in a top Hallowell news event this year: Banda represented the 22-year-old officer who accused Police Chief Eric Nason of sexually assaulting her in June 2013, when Warren was mayor.
Nason denied wrongdoing and the Maine State Police didn’t charge him after an investigation that ended last October. Warren has said she was told of the allegation against Nason shortly after it was made and did her job by taking the information to Hallowell’s city manager.
Hallowell reprimanded the chief in September and banned relationships between supervisors and employees this month. But Banda has been critical of the city’s response.
He said last week that Warren shouldn’t have left it in the manager’s hands after he didn’t act immediately. “There was no follow-up and that, to me, is a failure of leadership,” Banda said.
But Warren said the event is “old news” with no bearing on their race.
“It has absolutely nothing to do with what we’re here to do, which is to talk about why I’m running and what I plan to do in the Legislature,” she said.
Michael Shepherd — 370-7652
Twitter: @mikeshepherdme
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