Latest / Newsradio WGAN / Angus King III- Segment 3

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Angus King III- Segment 3 · Newsradio WGAN

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  For over 2 decades, Inside Maine has delivered sharp political
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  insight and in depth discussion with Maine's top decision makers
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  on 98.5 FM, AM 560 and WGAN dot. Com Welcome back to Inside
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  Maine. I'm your host, Aaron Chadbourne.
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  As a reminder for the rest of the show, we'll have time for
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  calls at the 12:30, the bottom of the 12:00 hour.
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  We'll be taking your calls between now and then.
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  Please send in your text. It's the same number,
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  207-879-9426. We're going to be chatting with
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  several candidates for governor. So any questions that you have
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  that you want for me to ask them?
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  If you listen to the last segment and heard me speak to
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  Senator Garrett Mason, you'll see I got through a bunch of the
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  questions that people were texting and I think it makes for
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  a very much more interesting conversation.
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  Also, it was helpful, you know, I served in the governor's
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  administration while Garrett was in office, so I remember some of
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  those experiences. It makes for a good
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  conversation. But if you have questions that
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  you want me to ask to the candidates, 879-9426.
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  Joining us now is a name that will be familiar to people
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  who've listened to the show for a while.
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  He shares the same name as one of our occasional hosts of the
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  show, another man named Angus King.
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  This is Angus King, the third Angus.
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  Thank you for joining us here on INSIDE Maine.
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  Aaron, it's a pleasure to be here.
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  Thanks for having me. So you've most of your career
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  been in the private sector, working in business, working in
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  clean energy. What's behind this decision to
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  seek public office? Yeah, that's a fair question.
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  I think it's, it's a friend of mine asked me what is it about
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  this moment that makes you want to run?
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  And my answer back to him was what isn't it about this moment?
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  I just, I think this is a moment that calls for, of people to
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  lean in and really find ways to contribute.
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  I'll tell you, I've, you know, as you mentioned, I spent most
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  of my life in the private sector, although I have spent a
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  little bit of time early in my career.
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  I worked for, for Bill Clinton's White House.
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  And obviously I'm no stranger to public policy, but a lot of my
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  life was around building things, building housing, building
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  renewable energy. And I felt like there were a
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  couple of challenges that were unique in this moment where I
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  had something to offer. The first was that our systems
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  had sort of let us down. And, you know, housing prices
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  have doubled in the last eight years.
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  Our energy costs have grown at twice the national average.
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  Our schools have gone from being the best to the bottom.
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  And I thought we really needed somebody who could come in and
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  think differently and, and apply some skills, not just from the
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  policy side, but from the practical side.
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  The other was that our politics felt like it had failed.
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  The moment failed to meet the moment.
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  And there was an opportunity for someone who again, came from
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  outside that universe, had a very different perspective on
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  how you get things done. And I thought, you know, here
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  was a moment where I could have real positive impact on our
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  state. I think there's a lot of really
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  great opportunity, but I don't think it's going to be done in
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  the same old way by the same old folks.
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  So I thought I had something to offer and could make a real
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  difference. So I've been asking listeners to
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  text in with their questions and one of the questions they have
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  and they I've been asking everyone that comes on is if you
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  were to become governor, if there were to be a Governor King
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  when we have the swearing in in January next year, what would be
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  different? What would you actually get
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  done? What would you do and how would
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  Maine change as a result of you being there?
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  Yeah, I think there'd be a couple of things that'd be
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  different. The 1st is there'd be a real
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  focus on economic development. Again, I've spent a lot of my
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  life building companies, creating jobs, knowing how to
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  sign the front of a paycheck as well as the back and knowing how
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  hard it is often when you have people in government who have
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  never lived on that side of the Ledger.
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  And I think it's really important that government policy
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  makers understand that every well-intentioned idea ends up be
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  having an an effect on the people who are out there
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  creating the jobs that ultimately power our economy and
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  and keep people, you know, clothed and fed and warm.
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  And so I think there'd be a, a, a difference in focus in terms
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  of how are we making it easier for small businesses to grow
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  here? How are we making it easier for
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  people to create that next job? How are we making it easier for
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  people to grow and ultimately create higher wage jobs, which
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  is what everyone in our state needs.
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  So I think that's probably 1 meaningful difference and, and
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  how can government be responsive when we need it and then not in
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  the way when we don't. And I think that would just be
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  a, a difference in attitude, a difference in philosophy that I
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  think is really important. And then next is there's a real
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  difference when you grow up building things, your
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  orientation is how do I get everybody together into the room
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  to then get on the same page, find common ground and get
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  something done. And I think that's a different
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  perspective from one that might come out of someone's a long
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  career in the legislature where the orientation is, how do I win
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  5149? And I think it's really
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  important that the next governor thinks about the world in terms
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  of how do I get people together, how do we find common ground,
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  and then how do we go out and actually get things done for
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  people? Because to me, that's what a
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  governor does. My old boss Bill Clinton used to
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  say being a governor is the doingest job in the country.
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  And I think there's a real orientation that just comes from
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  from that that experience that's that's different.
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  And I think that's a really important perspective as well.
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  Yeah, I know. I think there's a lot to that.
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  I'm I'm friends with Pete Buttigieg, who used to be a
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  mayor and he was saying that I went to not that long ago, that
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  being a mayor, that's the same thing, right?
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  The buck stops with you. And I think, you know, that's
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  right. Being governor of Maine is kind
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  of like being a mayor of some really big cities in in America.
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  So I think it's a it's a good comparison.
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  Now, one of the architectures, Alan, Cape Elizabeth wanted me
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  to ask each candidate why they're a member of the
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  political party that they are. So why remember that party?
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  Not independent, not a member of the other party.
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  And let me add to that after you give that explanation.
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  The Democrats have had control of the governor's office, the
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  Senate and the House for the last eight years.
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  And yet in this campaign, a lot of the Democrats are talking
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  about the problems with the direction means going in and
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  what the next governor needs to do.
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  Why should the main voters choose another Democrat to be
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  governor if the Democrats have in control this whole time and
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  haven't been able to fix the problems and maybe made it
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  worse? Yeah, I I'm a Democrat.
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  I've been a Democrat my whole life.
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  And as I mentioned, I worked for Mike Dukakis, his presidential
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  campaign as my first job when I was 18 years old.
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  I worked for Bill Clinton and I believe deeply in the values
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  that came especially out of the the Clinton administration
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  around opportunity, responsibility, community,
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  around how do we make sure that every single person gets a fair
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  shot, every kid gets an education that prepares them for
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  the jobs of today and tomorrow. And, and how do we make sure
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  that our communities reflect that we are all in this
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  together. I think those are democratic
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  values. But your question also is about
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  why aren't you running as an independent, which is a
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  reasonable one given my given my family and given my name.
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  Look, I, I, when I looked at this race, I did think about
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  that. And my conclusion was the party
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  that is able to expand the tent most effectively to bring people
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  back in is going to be the party that's going to be successful.
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  And so I had an opportunity to either leave the party and
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  shrink it by drawing people outside or, you know, sort of
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  remain committed to the party and find ways to expand its
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  appeal. Because I had seen, you know,
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  good people leave the party over the last decade or so.
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  And I wanted to be someone who could help unify it, help
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  expand, help build bridges and, and make it a place where
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  everybody felt welcome. And so that's why I'm running as
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  a Democrat and not an independent.
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  And, you know, I, I, I, I still believe that after 12 months of
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  campaigning, that, that the party that is able to make more
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  people feel welcome and make more people feel like there's a,
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  there's a home for them is the one that's going to win.
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  And I'm a, I'm a different kind of Democrat.
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  I'm not someone who spent their life in politics.
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  I'm someone who spent a lot of their life in in business and so
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  I understand that side of the the Ledger, which I think is
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  really, really important right now when we've had zero economic
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  growth and don't have much economic growth forecast.
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  I think it's critical that we make sure that we can grow our
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  economy, we can find jobs with higher wages so that people can
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  navigate these these extra costs that keep coming at us in waves.
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  No, I think that's very well said.
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  I do think the party's changed a lot since the days of Bill
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  Clinton. It's a very different Democrat
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  Party than the Democrat Party of Bill Clinton.
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  But, but here's one question. As you think about what you
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  would do and approaching it with that businessman's perspective,
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  as you look at spending, as you look at return on investment, as
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  you look at efficacy of programs, there's been a lot of
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  scrutiny recently about Medicaid fraud.
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  There's been a lot of scrutiny about fraud, waste and abuse in
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  government. How would you approach that here
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  in Maine? Yeah, I think it's an important
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  thing to focus on. There is no, no excuse for fraud
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  in any of these programs. And and we've got to make sure
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  that we we run into ground and if there is some that we that we
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  address it. So I think and and again, I
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  think about the world as how do we make these programs better,
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  more effective and and less costly.
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  So I'm going to look at everything, the entire state
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  budget, I think in terms of what is most effective for the people
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  of Maine, What is the best way that we can deploy tax dollars
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  so that we're making a real difference in people's lives.
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  As someone who has, again, run a lot of businesses, I am keenly
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  aware that every tax dollar comes from somebody's wage.
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  It comes from somebody who had an idea, took a risk, invested,
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  hired some people, built a company and then created
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  something of value and then pay taxes on it.
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  And so it's really important to me that we're quite clear that
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  we're making sure that we're used, making the best use of
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  those dollars. And I think there are a lot of
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  there, I expect they're going to be a lot of opportunities for us
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  to try and use them most efficiently, most effectively.
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  Again, what programs are working, What are, what are
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  having the best impact and how can we continue to leverage
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  those? And if there are things that
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  aren't working, let's stop doing them.
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  So before I had you on, I had Senator Mason on and he said,
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  you know, it was interesting. You guys were at a forum the
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  other day where you were talking about grading schools and giving
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  them some sort of grade so that there's kind of a public
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  scorecard report card on how our schools are doing.
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  He said, you know, that's something we tried doing when he
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  was in the Senate. And he said Democrats screamed
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  like it was the worst thing they could have possibly done.
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  Given that there's often resistance from policies like
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  that in your party and with the teachers union, How would you
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  get something like that done? And what benefit would it have
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  for education? Yeah, education is probably the
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  topic I spent the most time on in this in this campaign because
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  I think it's the foundation of what we're going to do here in
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  Maine in the future. Our schools, as I mentioned,
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  used to be among the best in the country 30 years ago.
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  They're now ranked in the low 40s and I think that's not just
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  embarrassing, but we are absolutely selling our kids
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  short and selling our future short.
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  If we don't have the best educated, best trained workforce
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  in America, I think we'll have let ourselves down.
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  And that's my goal is to get to the best trained, best educated
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  workforce in our country. And in order to get there again,
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  as somebody who has built large projects, has managed large
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  team, I've never found that you can be successful managing
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  something without measuring it. But I think the key difference
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  though, is when when that idea about grading schools and being
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  transparent about how they're doing was proposed in the past,
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  a lot of it was about if a school gets a low grade, it then
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  gets punished. And I think of it as in the
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  exact opposite way, which is if a school is struggling, that's
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  when you bring more resources to it.
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  That's when you bring in mentors for the teachers, tutors for the
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  kids. That's when you get the
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  community to give a lot of its time and energy.
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  You get parents involved, you get businesses involved.
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  How do we turn this around? Because it is the most
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  consequential thing in our town and in our future.
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  So that's my goal is it's hard to manage something if you don't
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  measure it. But also I think it's hard for
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  people to know where to deploy resources and time and energy if
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  they don't know where it's working and where it's not.
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  And. I think it's tough though,
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  right? Because I worked, when I worked
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  with Governor LePage on education policy, one of the
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  challenges we had, there were some federal dollars that were
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  only available for underperforming schools and some
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  schools wouldn't take that funding because they didn't want
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  to be known as a school that was failing, that needed it.
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  So it it's tough. It, it is, but it's worked in
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  other states too. You know, Mississippi is, is now
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  quite famous for having turned around a lot of its educational
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  results and, and, and this transparency was a big piece of
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  it. This sort of accountability
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  piece is critical. I just think you've got to do it
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  in the right way and they've got to know that this is what is
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  going to help your school in the long run.
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  And you've got to appeal to the the better angels of people's
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  nature and say, look, let's aspire to greatness.
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  And if you're not at greatness today, let's give you some
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  examples. What do you think that went
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  wrong that got me into this point that had a slip from being
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  top in the country to kind of at the bottom of the heap now?
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  I, I, candidly, I think it was a long slow decline because it was
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  never on the front burner and I think people just kind of lost
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  sight of it. I, I would argue that Governor
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  Lepage's cuts to a lot of education funding probably set
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  some schools back that took some time to recover from.
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  And then obviously we had COVID and those compounded, but I
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  think it's been a 30 year decline.
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  And what, what I think part of what's driven it is that lack of
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  attention has meant that businesses have been less
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  connected to the schools, parents have been less connected
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  to the schools, community leaders have been less connected
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  to the schools. And I think it's critical,
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  critical that we get people back engaged, connected, and we get
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  this orientation toward how do we get to a place where we're
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  the best? And if that's the priority and
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  you're going to put resources behind it and you're going to
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  put energy behind it, I think that's what can make a
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  difference. But I just don't think it's been
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  the same level of priority. And I think we've kind of
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  drifted a little. The last piece I would say is I
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  think we've lowered our expectations too much.
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  I don't think we have the same expectations of kids
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  performance. And I think kids feel that.
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  And I think we should start with high expectations and, and, and
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  then drive toward those because I think high expectations,
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  people want to rise to that occasion.
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  I'm sorry, I said the last thing.
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  The other thing is we also followed a reading program that
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  simply didn't work. There is a reading curriculum
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  that Maine has been using for quite a while that other states
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  also used, but then figured out wasn't working And so stop
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  using. And Maine, for reasons that are
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  unclear to me, continued and continues to use it.
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  And I think that was just a policy mistake and failure.
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  So changing out that program so that we get back to the basics
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  of what works, whether it's a science of reading or phonics or
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  the, the, there are a lot of different names, but they're all
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  essentially the same idea. I think because if you can't
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  read, everything else becomes harder.
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  Your academic results fade away, your economic results in the
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  long run fade away. Everything becomes more
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  challenging. You've got to learn to read so
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  you can read to learn 100%. We're almost out of time.
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  I want to ask you one more question.
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  There have been kind of an uptick in crime in Lewiston,
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  gunshots in Lewiston, shootings in Lewiston.
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  What do you think means next Governor should be doing to help
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  address that? Yeah, it, it, it's, it's
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  difficult what's happening there.
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  And I think I think there's what the governor should do is, you
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  know, meet with the the mayor and the police chief and, and
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  community leaders and try and figure out what they think the
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  drivers are and what they think the opportunities are to engage
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  and try and stem that tide. I am not, you know, closely
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  involved in that right now. But I think one of the jobs of
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  the governor is convener in chief, the person who can
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  actually pull everybody together.
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  And that the real benefit of being in Maine is that you can
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  do that in a room that seats 10 people.
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  You can actually pull together the folks who are really on the
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  front lines of a lot of these issues, whether it's education
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  or housing or healthcare. And I think breakdown some silos
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  that exist and across those silos start really making a
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  difference. And I think I would do the same,
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  the same approach with with crime in Lewiston as you would
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  do in those other really important issues that we're.
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  Facing Angus, we're about out of time.
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  Thank you for joining us today. If people want to learn more
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  about your campaign, where can they go?
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  They should go to angusforgovernor.com.
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  Thank you for asking. Really appreciate your time
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  today. And folks should also remember
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  two things #1 absentee ballots. People are able to start voting
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  on the 11th, so we're right on the cusp of the time to start
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  casting your votes number. The second thing to remember is
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  I would love a first place vote, but if someone doesn't want to
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  give me their first place one, I'd be just as happy with their,
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  well, not quite, just you. Won't get it if you don't ask.
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  There you go. Angus King candle for governor.
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  Thanks for joining us. We'll be back with Ben Midgley
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  when we come back. Thanks, Aaron.
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  Have a good one.