As a state senator, I know for a fact that legislators are an ambitious lot, and that most of the time, our ambition and drive produces some great results for our constituents. Most of the time.

Sometimes, as we see today with Sara Gideon, speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, ambition can be blinding, and unfortunately, debilitating.

Gideon, who aspires to unseat four-term U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, is so focused on this goal that she is asleep at the wheel, bringing work at the Maine Legislature to a grinding halt.

The last week of March, with the enactment of the CARES Act, the federal government expanded reimbursements for the unemployment insurance program to include self-employed Mainers and sole-proprietors who have been put out of work due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Over a month later, Maine’s Department of Labor hadn’t yet sent a dime of this money out the door despite the system being up and running in many other states.

In my opinion, the Legislature should have acted immediately to address the Department of Labor’s needs, so our struggling friends and neighbors can access the benefits they need to keep food on the table and the lights on.

Sen. Brad Farrin

R-Norridgewock