AUBURN – Don Pratt will be 62 in September. He always figured this year would mark his retirement.

Instead, this was the year the union electrician lost his job. Out of work since April, he now has run out of unemployment pay.

His daughter is starting college this fall. He must go back to work, he said Tuesday afternoon during a chat about Maine’s economy on the back deck of a Riverside Drive couple’s home.

“How long will it take to turn this around?” he asked. “When can I get a job?”

Pratt addressed his questions to U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud and Jack Lew, former director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Clinton administration, who were on hand to help provide answers.

“I can’t say how long it will take,” Michaud said. “But I can say you can start making a difference for a new beginning in America come Nov. 2 by making sure that the elected officials you vote for understand the problems and have a plan to face those problems.”

Lew said there are several ways a presidential administration could spark job creation through targeted tax cuts and by boosting federal spending for education, health care and other working class needs.

When Clinton occupied the White House, Lew said, about 300,000 jobs were added to payrolls each month nationally for more than two years. Job growth currently stands at about one-tenth of that, he said.

Federal surpluses during the Clinton years quickly turned to deficits after George W. Bush took office, he said.

“It doesn’t have to be this way,” he said.

About 20 people, many who work in the manufacturing industry, attended the outdoor event on a cool, sunny day.

At times, questions and answers were drowned out by horns, cheers and chants across the street, where a dozen Bush campaign supporters stood clutching signs and banners. They hooted every time a passing car honked its horn. Periodically they broke into rallying cries.

Before the event, Jackie Conway, a retired certified nurse’s assistant, was busy filling her kitchen table with cold cuts, crudits and steamed shrimp. A lifelong Democrat, she said she decided to host the gathering at her home for 38 years because, “We just have to do whatever we can to get Bush out of office.”