Describe your state legislative district/districts

[Kevinstat]

Maine Senate District 15, one of two state Senate districts entirely in Kennebec County (there are five other Senate districts which include at least one town in Kennebec) consists of Augusta, China, Oakland, Sidney and Vassalboro.  It's been the same five towns since 2003.  For the previous 10 years it had most of Winslow instead of Sidney and Oakland (the remainder of Winslow being in a really ugly-shaped district), and before that it had Hallowell and sometimes Chelsea so it was more centered on Augusta.  Before the 1968 elections State Senators were elected at-large by county, with smaller counties overrepresented in the later years.  Augusta is the state capitol, which is on both sides of the Kennebec River.  It's roughly in the center of Kennebec County, but it does have a very small boundary (like less than half a mile I think, and with no roads crossing it), with Whitefield in Lincoln County.  There used to be separate junior high or middle schools for the two sides, and separate teams in the Little League All-Star tournament (probably separate leagues for the regular season too).  I assume there's only one Little League now.  The Augusta East All-Star team were State Champions one year in the '90s).  The two middle schools did combine Cross-Country running and Track & Field even when they were separate, and I got to be friends with the Augusta Cross-Country coach as a precocious member of the Gardiner and later Maranacook Jr. High teams.  One of my future coaches at Maranacook didn't know what to make of this (West) Gardiner kid who was so interested in meeting the other team's coaches, although later on we grew to like each other a lot.  Okay, I'm majorly digressing here, but thinking of my local districts brings such memories to mind.

Vassalboro is the town to the north of "Augusta East" (wanting to describe the locations of the various towns and wanting to explain what I meant by "Augusta East" and "Augusta West" is what led to my digression above), and China is the town to the west of that (which doesn't touch Augusta, as the boundary with Vassalboro shifts first just a dite west but then east along a lakeshore to give Vassalboro a border with Windsor which is the town just east of Augusta, with a minor road crossing it).  Windsor's in the "Lincoln County Senate District", and was in a House district mostly in Lincoln County from the 1994 through 2002 elections.  (I had my hair cut a couple times by a barber from Windsor at Duke's Rotary barber shop in Augusta (whose owner used to poll the clients before elections which was quite notable statewide, but they started to have a notable Republican lean in by the decade of the 2000s), and we talked about Windsor's districts in 2003 I think both before and after the reapportionment was done.  Anyway, Vassalboro and China don't have a set High School, but many kids from those towns (particularly China) go to the "semi-private" Erskine Academy in South China (part of the town of China, unlike West Gardiner, well obviously that's not a part of China but you know what I mean).  A decent chunk of the village of Palermo is in the town of China too (some online mapping sites will have you think Palermo is in Kennebec County rather than Waldo County), and Palermo is definitely in "Erskine territory", but the legislative districts have (IIRC) always followed the county line between China and Palermo.  Some Vassalboro kids probably go to Cony (Augusta's high school) or Windsor, and even some kids from China might (Erskine can keep undesirable students out as it's technically a private school), but it's generally an "Erskine town" I think.  It's now in a loose school union with Waterville, which it only borders by a single point in the middle of the Kennebec River, as part of the Baldacci-era school consolidation - some existing districts formed unions with other districts intentionally far enough away that the schools wouldn't consolidate.

Sidney is the town north of "Augusta West", and Oakland is the town to the northwest of Sidney (better known as the town the west of Waterville, away from the Kennebec River).  Those two towns are in a school district with Belgrade and Rome to the west, with Messalonskee High School being in Oakland.  That district, like Augusta, wasn't affected by the Baldacci-era school consolidation, although it might have been at that time when Rome formally joined the district, as in the 90's I know it was it's own district but had long had a contract with the Messalonskee district for all grades.  The regional head of my company is the son of a recently retired receptionist at Maranacook, who I found out recently had been the receptionist at Rome Elementary School and came to Maranacook when that school closed, her son still went to Messalonskee schools so I didn't know him growing up (he was a few years older than me besides), but he seemed to know me, possibly as I was the kind of guy who would be in the front office more than most because I left my lunch box in the cafeteria or had to call my dad to bring the homework I'd left at home, or something like that.

The district is pretty marginal.  It was held by Democrats from the 80s (if not earlier) to 2010, but there was a close race for an open seat in 2004, and also in 2002 when the termed-out State Rep for the main "Augusta West" district challenged the third-term State Senator and then Democratic Leader, who won (and Democrats kept their majority gained in a special election that spring, the Senate was 17-17-1 before that vacancy occurred) and became Senate President for her final term.  Then-Augusta Mayor Roger Katz, son of maybe the last Republican State Senator for the Augusta district, won the seat for the Republicans in 2010, and has been reelected in landslides ever since.  He's a lawyer (who represented a family member in a divorce a few years ago, although at the time my parents were "on the side" of the soon to be ex brother-in-law - to say it made family relations tense would be an understatement).  He's super popular and quite personable, but I haven't been very impressed by his responsiveness to my e-mails.  When he does respond it's like, "Although I think what you propose May (sic) well be a good idea, I have already committed to submitting a significant number of bills the session and don't want to spread myself too thin."  (That's an exact quote from last November, and the same thing happened with my request for the same basic idea two years before.)  He is one of two noted moderate Republican State Senators.  A lot of people expect him to run for governor in 2018 when he'll be termed-out (Maine has a voter initiative-enacted statutory limit of no more than four consecutive terms in the same chamber in the Legislature (all terms are for two years, except for one of the three non-voting tribal members of the Maine House), plus a state Constitutional limit of no more than two consecutive four-year terms as Governor), but others say his only hope would be to run as an Independent as he would be able to win a Republican primary the way Maine Republicans are now.

[House District and Legislator description coming]

[Kevinstat]

Until 1974, no municipalities were split between House districts, and for some time going into 1974 Augusta elected three State Representatives at large.  The "far east" of Augusta (geographically almost half the city) was moved to another district in for the 1974 elections, the three-member main Augusta House district was divided along with all the other multi-member districts for the 1978 elections (with two districts being on the west side and one on the east side except that the Augusta Mental Health Institute on the east side of the Kennebec River was added to the southwest Augusta House District, at a time when people under guardianship for mental illness couldn't vote, but they could be used to bring districts within appropriate population balance), the city went down to exactly three districts in the 1983 redistricting, and two whole districts with an ever-smaller remainder from the 1993 redistricting on.  The general trend has been for the originally northwest district to gain from the southwest district, which gained from the southern part of the "near-east" district or directly from the original remainder and the original "near-east" district first gained the rest of the original reminder, and then towns to the north or west as it has gradually been pushed out of Augusta.  There have been shifts "the other way" on the west side though in 1993 and 2013 (along with shifts of presumably more people the way I described earlier).

For the first four years of my life (1981-1985), I lived in the original remainder (with Sidney, Vassalboro and Windsor, which remained in a district together for 10 years after the Augusta portion left) and, after Legislators took office in December 1984, the southern Augusta district, as it broke out from its AMHI beachhead while losing a small amount of territory on the west side.  When I moved to Augusta in April 2013, I was in the northeast reminder with Vassalboro and Windsor, represented by a newly elected Democrat from Vassalboro (who was ousted this past November after serving two terms), but my side of Riverside Drive was moved to the cross-river district (represented by a first-term Republican who chose not do run again in 2014 as I think he was taking a job that would render him ineligible to serve in the Legislature; he's on the City Council now) in the redistricting that May or June.  That district still contains my first home, as well as where the Hospital was back then (which it might not have gained until the 1993 redraw, I'm not sure), so I am thus undisputedly a native of both my (current) House and Senate districts although I grew up mostly in West Gardiner and Manchester.

My State Representative, elected in 2014 when the new lines took effect, is Donna Doore (D), a South China native (of the Farrington family that used to own a noted clothing store in South China) but one who I'm pretty sure has lived in Augusta longer than I've been alive.  She served on the City Council in Augusta in the 2000s and maybe the late 1990s, representing the southeast Ward 2 (which crosses the river and included the Governor's mansion until 2014 - it's still in the cross-river House district).  Her husband ran for the State House in 1992 against an incumbent who had just faced a Scott Walker-type situation (his 1990 victory over a Democratic incumbent was disputed as people had voted in the wrong district and the Democratic House provisionally seated him but then voted to hold a special election, which he won handily by campaigning against the longtime Democratic Speaker rather than his actual opponent; he beat Donna Doore's husband by 17.5 points in 1992 and ran for Governor in 1994, finishing second to Susan Collins in the Republican primary; Collins finished third that fall, two years before being elected to the U.S. Senate) and in 1996 when Bev Daggett was termed out of the State House (part of the first term-limited class, although she had only served a partial term before her four full terms unlike some who were termed out that year) and was elected to the Maine Senate.  He lost the 1996 race by 75 votes (although that was a 2.25% defeat; Maine House districts are small) to the Republican who had given Bev Daggett a scare in 1994 (Daggett had represented the Augusta district entirely east of the river going into the 1994 elections, in case you're wondering how the 1992 and 1996 facts jive).

Representative Doore is fairly responsive (certainly more than Senator Katz), and recently did what everyone probably hopes their Legislator will do when they Cc: their Legislators on an e-mail to a government agency, in my case asking for information on voter participation in the past two general elections by party which has ramifications for ballot status in Maine.  She sent an e-mail within a couple days asking her staffer to ask the Secretary of State about that, and the staffer contacted a few people in the Secretary of States Office including the Deputy SOS who head the bureau covering elections who then answered my questions.  She did twice refuse to put in the same bill Katz was too busy to put in, and in her case because she didn't agree with it (well, the first time she thought it might have merit but she didn't want to clutter more important things; she was then one of two members of her committee that voted "Ought to Pass" on a bill to designate the Labrador Retriever as the Maine State Dog).  My bill was first to alter, then last time to eliminate staggering of county commissioners' terms to eliminate the "deferral" and "acceleration" phenomena.  Also, when I mentioned my idea of changing the participation threshold in certain local referenda to be based on affirmative votes rather than total ballots cast, and tried to explain how the current method can give people who oppose a change an incentive to stay home, she replied, "Well, you can't make people vote."  I think she was a forceful party and maybe state employee union activist back in the day, but she can come across as rather clueless at times now, like with what I just mentioned.  She had cancer in 2014 when she first ran (she was very open about her having it but that it was definitely beatable), and she would later post successful news on her recovery, but I read something on her Facebook recently that made me think she was back in treatment or something.  Local Democrats have had a fair amount of loss in recent years (Hon. Bev Daggett, then a county commissioner in 2015, Probate Judge Jim Mitchell (2010 Gubernatorial nominee Libby Mitchell's husband) last year, and former County Treasurer Bob Crockett, husband of the current commissioner, about a week ago.  While I have been frustrated with her at times and have even given thought to challenging her in a primary, I definitely hope Rep. Doore pulls though any health issue that she may have.

Okay, I'm done.

[Kevinstat]

Alas the district doesn't include the town of Readfield. I have fond memories of Kents Hill in 1979-1981. A close friend of mine from college took a teaching position at the school and I had a couple of visits there from my grad school outside of Boston. I stayed at a guest house with a fabulous view of one of the many ponds in the area. Later that same decade my wife-to-be and I liked to come up and visit the shops of Old Hallowell, which also is just outside your district.

Readfield, as you may know, is where Maranacook Community Middle and High Schools are (it was one 7-12 school when I went there; now separate 6-8 and 9-12 schools on the same campus).  Some who were classmates of mine at Maranacook in 7th grade went to Kents Hill beginning after their 8th Grade or Freshman year, or in the case of one classmate, a neighbor actually, skipped over 8th Grade.  My mom actually works part-time at the student center at Kents Hill now, along with the woman of the couple across the street whom she has become good friends with.  They'll sometimes carpool together, although the neighbor has more hours so that doesn't always work.  I drove my mom there one Saturday or Sunday afternoon after grabbing something from my parents' place so she could avoid a round trip and ride back with the neighbor.  It was nice seeing old sights, although it actually hadn't been that long.  I went to the Readfield Democratic caucus at the town hall (about halfway between Maranacook and Kents Hill) last spring in support of a friend who was running for the State Senate in the Gardiner-Winthrop district.  (I was there for the full Manchester caucus and the pre-presidential portion of the Readfield and Winthrop caucuses, while voting absentee in the Augusta caucus which conflicted with Manchester's.  He later withdrew and through his support behind one of his two opponents.  The other opponent, who had ran against Susan Collins in 2014, won the primary 82% to 18%.  Manchester was her hometown and a lot of people would sign her petitions (another former neighbor was her circulator in Manchester) but not my candidate's.  I don't think I'll ever miss my own caucus for someone else's campaign again.)  I also went to Maranacook for a Spaghetti supper for my old cross-country (running) team last November, although that was in the evening and in November so I didn't really see sights.

Manchester is now in a State House district with Hallowell (which is uber-Democratic) as well as West Gardiner where I lived from when I was 4 to when I was 12.  It was kind of frustrating to see that happen after I moved to Augusta, although who knows if I would actually have been able to get elected anyway.

[Kevinstat]

I forgot to mention that Rosenberg has this fascination with Pskov Oblast in Russia and is always trying to establish economic and cultural links between Western Massachusetts and Pskov.

Do you know if he (or a partner of his) has any family connections to that part of Russia.  And by "family connections" I would include hosting or being hosted in a foreign exchange program.  My parents hosted a student from L'viv, Ukraine my sophomore year (from a publicly funded program that later lost it's public funding; they weren't rich people like a lot of the AFS kids, although the local AFS group included Igor in events and even after he went back included my family in AFS events so I shouldn't be knocking them; my parents later hosted an exchange teacher from Thailand for several months probably through AFS largely while I was at college).  Anyway, my parents, particularly my mom, were very involved with Igor (I had my own issues at the time but I later developed a good relationship with him and his brother whom I met when I went to Ukraine in 2004), and they have gone to Ukraine three times (I went with them the second time).  I think them hosting a teacher was the most they were willing to do for AFS because they really spent themselves hosting a student, not because of anything about that person but just how they are.  Turns out hosting a teacher had its own stresses.  The Thai teacher basically kicked my mom out of her own kitchen as she felt she should always be the one to cook to repay my parents.  They liked her cooking but my mom wanted to be able to cook meals herself occasionally.

Anyway, I definitely feel a connection with Ukraine and western Ukraine in particular.  Not so with Thailand, and I think it's the same for my parents, although they also have pleasant contacts with the Thai teacher and I think my mom uses some of her recipes.

[Kevinstat]

In my mammoth description of my legislative districts last night, there are a couple important things I left out, while I included a whole lot of extraneous stuff.

1) House District 85 (my district, most of the east side of Augusta and part of the west side) has, I've heard, more MSEA (Maine State Employees Association (union)) members than any other House district in the state.  I'm pretty sure the State of Maine is the largest employer.  Quite likely for the Senate district too.  Of the two main Augusta districts, HD 85 is the more historically middle class, Anglo district, while HD 86 (the western Augusta House district) includes Sand Hill (historically the French Canadian part of town, still with a lot of French Canadian ancestry although Franco-American kids started learning English at home in Maine in the 60s, I think, 70s at the latest).

2) I mentioned Representative Donna Doore's husband's election results but not hers.  She won her first race in 2014 56.3% to 43.7% (not counting blanks) over a former State Representative who was defeated for reelection in 2006 after a single term.  That former State Rep. had served with now-Rep. Doore on the City Council as an at-large member, but was defeated for reelection in 2005, which kind of presaged her House reelection defeat.  She challenged Senate Majority Leader Libby Mitchell in 2008 and got clobbered, and Libby Mitchell became Senate President and then ran for Governer and got 19% in 2010.  Representative Doore was unopposed in 2016 after a paper candidate, the Vice Chair of the Planning Board of Augusta dropped out too late to be replaced.  He was possibly a placeholder in the primary (happens a lot in Maine) but might have dithered at staying in the race when so other willing Republican candidates emerged.

Senator Katz won his first State Senate race in 2010 63.8% to 36.2% (not counting blanks) over State Representative (2006-2010) Patsy Crockett of the western Augusta House district.  Katz has been reelected over Democratic challengers in 2012, 2014 and 2016 with (not counting blanks) 62.3%, 72.2% and 77.0% respectively.

Patsy Crockett tried to regain her old House seat in 2012 in an open seat race (the Democrat who had replaced her ran successfully for District Attorney that year) but lost 48.2% to 51.8% (not counting blanks) to Matt Pouliot (R).  Patsy Crockett is now my county commissioner, replacing the late Beverly Daggett, and is the recent widow of the former County Treasurer, the last of several recent notable local Democratic deaths.  Pouliot won his second race 67.3% to 32.7% (not counting blanks) over a former top staffer to Congressman Mike Michaud who raised a lot of money but I've heard didn't do much door-to-door, and when she did she didn't always come across now (allegedly telling a Pouliot supporter, "That's too bad.  He's not going to win.").  A Democratic placeholder ran in the primary in 2016 but no replacement candidate could be found after he withdrew, so Pouliot, like Donna Doore, was unopposed.  Rep. Pouliot's mèmé (sp?) (grandmother, not sure which side) is kind of a matriarch on Sand Hill a very outspoken advocate on his behalf (I heard her radio ads for him in 2014).  Patsy Crockett cited that family influence when I asked her about her loss in 2012 when she was seeking my support for the Democratic nomination for county commissioner.

3) Rep. Pouliot will likely be the Republican nominee for Katz's open State Senate seat in 2018.  I've heard of a high-profile candidate for the Democrats but don't feel at liberty to share that openly now.

Okay, I feel like I've covered all important bases now.  Look what you started, modern maverick!

[Kevinstat]

Smith is in his last term, so he might run for the Senate, trying to replace Chapelle-Nadal.

Does he live in Senate District 14?  There didn't seem to be much overlap, with Normandy the only city you listed in both districts.  Of course, there might be some other municipalities a small part of which are in either district, and for all I know Normandy could make up a majority of the population of Clem Smith's Representative District 85.  Or you mentioned the smaller cities or towns in your Representative district description but not in your Senate district description.  Or it is a fairly small overlap between the two district, but you and Representative Smith both live there.  Just thought I'd check, though.