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Shenna Bellows · Newsradio WGAN

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  Joining us now, you know her. She's Maine Secretary of State.
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  She's a Democrat candidate for governor.
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  Please join me in welcoming back to the program, Shanna Bellow.
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  Shanna, welcome back to INSIDE Maine.
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  Good morning. It's always a pleasure to be on
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  your show. So, Senator, I want to ask you
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  the question. I see, Senator, old habits die
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  hard. I was a senator, you know that.
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  I represented central Maine. I represented a district and
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  voted for Donald Trump and voted for me.
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  I used to have to stand in front of you and answer your question.
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  See how the tables have turned. You know, I'll always answer
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  your questions. Well, so we've been asking
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  people to text in and there's, there's one question I kind of
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  want to unpack because people have said they've they've seen
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  your commercials and I know you've gotten a lot of mileage
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  out of standing up to Donald Trump telling him to go jump in
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  the Gulf of Maine. There's this kind of attitude
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  and atmosphere out there right now when it comes to Democrats
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  and Republicans. And I think you you've spent a
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  lot of time in Augusta and I'm sure you've seen the change
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  since you've been there. And here we are now at a point
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  where the Democrats over the last several sessions have
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  passed majority only budgets. There are Republicans in elected
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  office or there might be Republicans or independents out
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  there that worry if the next governor is a Democrat.
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  They might shut out all external perspectives.
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  And we realize that you have to be strong against Donald Trump
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  in order to win a primary. But here's the question, when
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  you become governor, how can people have different points of
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  view than yours feel that their views would be represented in a
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  Bellows administration? I love that question.
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  And we've known each other for a long time.
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  And so, you know that my work ethic has always been about
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  diverse perspectives. And in fact, you know, I have
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  been standing up to Trump. I have been protecting Mainers
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  voter data. I have been pushing back against
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  ICE. However, at the very same time
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  I've been modernizing our elections and the beer motor
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  vehicles and while the general fund budgets, those budgets for
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  education and healthcare and other programs have been
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  majority only under Governor Mills and I'm not part of the
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  Mills administration. The Secretary of State is
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  completely independent because the Secretary of State is
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  elected by the Legislature. Of course, the transportation
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  budget is separate from the rest of the budget and the Bureau of
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  Motor Vehicles budget. That has included initiative to
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  bring new online services like online renewals of Real ID, for
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  example, bringing appointments to the BMV be bringing a new
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  mobile unit for the BMV like ABMV branch and a truck that we
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  deployed to Belfast and Dover, Foxcroft and Holton.
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  Those budgets that I have proposed, I've worked closely
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  with Republicans like Senator Brad Farren and Representative
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  Wayne Perry so that we have had unanimous support for all of my
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  budgets. And so my commitment to
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  Republicans when I am governor and I I think I will win the
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  primary and I think I'll win in November, is that I will always
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  have an open door for for every good idea.
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  And I want to work on bipartisan budgets and bipartisan
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  legislation. It's what I've done as
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  secretary. And I think it actually sets me
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  apart from other folks in this race because you don't have to
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  just take my word for it. Look at my record as secretary.
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  Look as look at my record. And you were in the Le Page
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  administration. And in my first term as a state
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  senator, I was representing a Trump district.
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  And I brought bills that didn't get support from the governor,
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  but I brought one bill and that was to streamline medical
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  licensing because Governor Le Page was concerned about the
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  lack of doctors in our state. I am too.
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  I still think it's an issue. And we wanted to update the
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  licensing process and make it more efficient.
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  And I was really delighted that he ended up supporting that bill
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  and we got it passed into law. And it's.
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  So I think that those are a couple of examples of how I've
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  worked really closely with Republicans in the past.
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  And it's, it's why, you know, yesterday after the debate on
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  Thursday night, I, you know, a long time Republican former
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  candidate for federal office texted me and said you did a
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  great job. We need to get coffee sometime
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  soon. Well, I noticed you, you've
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  mentioned at that debate and again here this morning that
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  you're not in the Mills administration, which I think
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  says something about the popularity of our current
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  governor. But two things that people that
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  listen to my show are concerned about under this administration
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  has been the reports of Medicaid fraud and also the reports of
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  the the proliferation of no bid contracts that have been awarded
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  by the Mills administration. What specifically would you do
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  to address those two concerns? We need 0 tolerance for fraud
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  and no bid contracts are a real problem and honestly our
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  procurement system needs complete reform.
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  We're wasting for example millions of dollars on an out of
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  state company for non-emergency transportation.
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  This is for seniors and people with disabilities.
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  This company's not doing its job.
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  I've heard from folks all across the state that get stranded and
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  if they miss more than three doctor's appointments, then they
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  lose their their doctor, they lose their provider.
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  So that's an example of waste in government that needs reform.
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  And I think my experience with Secretary of State shows that
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  you can find savings. I found millions of dollars of
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  savings in the DMV, turned it back into streamlining, cutting
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  red tape, making things more efficient for businesses and for
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  our customers. And I think that's what we need
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  to do now. When it comes to fraud, we
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  should be auditing every single program where taxpayer funds are
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  being spent and we need to make sure that there is no waste,
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  abuse or fraud. We as secretary, I brought post
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  election audits to me. We didn't used to have post
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  election audits and now we do. I partnered with the legislature
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  to do that. I also oversee very strict
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  audits of our license and ID transactions at the BMV.
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  That is extraordinarily important.
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  I take cybersecurity really important, really highly
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  importantly and the national level I've cared A bipartisan
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  election security and cybersecurity working group and
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  in Maine I'm I serve on the Cybersecurity Advisory Council
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  and and we need to make sure that we are using taxpayer
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  dollars effectively. That's really important.
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  You mentioned the election audits and integrity.
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  The one other question that our listeners wanted me to ask you
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  is obviously the Secretary of State overseas elections.
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  You're on the ballot this time. Some people have suggested that
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  you should step away from that, You should take a leave of
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  absence. What do you say to people who
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  have that concern? Obviously, if there's a ranked
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  choice tabulation, are we going to see you standing in the
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  election counting room providing us with the updates?
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  Or why is it that you feel it's appropriate to oversee an
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  election when you're on the ballot?
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  You will not see me on the live stream stream at the ranked
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  choice voting tabulation nor have I been part of the
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  day-to-day operations of elections.
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  There are strong checks and balances in our system.
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  Many secretaries, including Republican Secretary Charlie
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  Summers for the late and amazing Democratic Secretary Bill
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  Diamond, have run for office while being on the ballot.
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  Of course, the last secretary to run for governor in Maine and
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  when was Governor Ken Curtis. And so those checks and balances
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  have been established over time. And Deputy Secretary Julie
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  Flynn, who is our elections director and in charge of the
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  elections, she is the nation's nation's longest serving
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  election director. She's been doing this for over
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  30 years. She served under Democrats and
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  Republican Charlie Summers. She knows exactly what she's
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  doing. And those those lines are very
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  clear. However, I'm not going to step
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  down because it's such an important moment for the states
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  to be standing up for state sovereignty and for protecting
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  election data. And I think that is where I am
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  at the forefront. I've helped organize a coalition
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  of 30 states. And it's not just blue states
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  that are standing up for the sovereignty of the states
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  because the Constitution places the states, not the federal
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  government in charge of elections.
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  It's red states like Idaho and West Virginia and Kentucky.
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  You know, I recently did a public television appearance
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  with the Kentucky Secretary of State about the importance and
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  the checks and balances on our elections.
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  So you'll also look around the country and, and secretaries
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  like he, him, Michael Adams, and in fact, most secretaries around
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  the country are actually elected on the ballots that they're
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  overseeing. So these checks and balances
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  aren't unique to Maine. They're long standing and well
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  established. Jenna, we have about a minute
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  left. What is the closing argument you
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  would like to make? The people who haven't made a
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  decision yet of who they want to support and where can they go to
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  find out more about your campaign?
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  They should check out bellows for maine.com and I am running
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  to protect democracy and deliver on affordability.
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  I'm the only candidate in the race who has three things.
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  I'll fight for the working class because I grew up working class
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  in Down East Maine. I have legislative experience
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  representing a Trump district in the legislature and executive
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  experience saving money and getting things done to modernize
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  the BMV in elections, and if I can modernize the DMVI, can
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  modernize anything. I mean, it's a definitely got
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  your work cut out for you Shana. We appreciate having you on and
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  wish you the best in the final Sprint of the campaign.
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  Thanks for being on and we'll have you on election night or
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  when you're the candidate. Yes, I look forward to that and
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  I look forward to being on again when I'm governor.
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  Thanks so much. Take care.
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  Thanks, Secretary Bellows. That was state of Maine.
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  Secretary of State Shanna Bello, she's Democrat candidate for
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  governor. When we come back, we will be
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  joined here in studio. I see him in the room right now,
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  Doctor Neeraj Shah, one of the other Democrat candidates for
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  governor. Later in the show, we'll have
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  Rick Bennett, the Independent, and we'll close the show with
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  Troy Jackson. I'm Aaron Shadborn.
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  This is inside Maine.