By Jodi Hausen,Staff Writer

FARMINGTON – Admittedly he’s “no spring chicken,” but that hasn’t dissuaded Walter Gooley from running for state Senate, he said Monday.

Gooley, 71, of Farmington officially announced his candidacy for the Republican party nomination of the 18th District seat Thursday at a meeting of the Farmington Rotary Club.

The seat is held by Chandler Woodcock, who is stepping down to run for governor.

“I thought I was all done with politics,” said the former four-term state legislator to a gathering of about 50 Rotarians breakfasting at the Homestead Bakery in Farmington.

Gooley said he’ll run on several key tenets including economic development, health care, social services and tax restructuring.

“I believe firmly in fiscal responsibility,” he said. “My wife and I run a business based on sound economic principles. Government needs to do the same, whether it’s local, state or federal: Don’t borrow from the future to pay for current services.”

Gooley retired as a state forester in 1993 and now runs Gooley’s Conifers Unlimited, a Christmas tree farm in Farmington.

He said in an interview Monday that he has experience from his years in the Legislature and as a state employee.

“I have institutional memory for what has taken place over the last 10 years,” he said. “I was a bureaucrat,” he added, making a quote sign with his fingers.

Gooley will be running as a Clean Election candidate for Senate District 18, which encompasses all of Franklin County except Jay and Livermore Falls; Mercer and Smithfield in Somerset County; and Belgrade, Fayette, Mount Vernon, Readfield, Rome, Vienna and Wayne in Kennebec County.