By Doug Fletcher,Staff Writer

auburn – John Jenkins, a motivational speaker who led Lewiston as its mayor during the mid-1990s, wants to be governor.

Among his goals: to have the state fund 100 percent of the cost of education.

Jenkins signed papers to compete as a Clean Elections gubernatorial candidate running as an Independent on Friday in Augusta. It’s his second bid for the state’s highest office.

He aborted a 2002 campaign after coming up short on both nomination papers and campaign contributions.

“I started too late with too few people helping” then, Jenkins said Sunday night of the earlier effort.

This time around should be different, he added. “First, I need to get on the ballot.”

Jenkins, who now lives in Auburn, said he’s getting calls from supporters statewide with offers of circulating nomination papers and making contributions. To get on the ballot, he needs between 4,000 and 6,000 voters’ signatures. He also must raise tens of thousands of dollars in $5 campaign contributions to quality for Clean Elections financing.

Jenkins says he intends to see the run through this time.

“I have a deep concern for the state of our state,” he said. “I see a different state, one that is safe and secure instead of one where I see families struggle, where I see terror in their eyes.”

Jenkins said he was moved to run for governor after attending a recent United Citizens of Auburn meeting. There, he said, “a man stopped me. He had tears in his eyes. He said he was about to lose his house, that he was being taxed out of his home.

“He asked me, ‘Can you help us?'”

“How did we get in this position?” asked Jenkins rhetorically.

Regardless, he says he has a plan to better position the state for tomorrow. Much of it is based on regional cooperation, modeled on the Lewiston-Auburn approach that he ushered in during the 1990s.

“I see Maine joining with other New England states to make a big impact globally,” he said.

His position is direct and straightforward:

• Control spending.

• Reduce taxes.

• Grow economic opportunities.

Jenkins says only businesses paying livable wages should be in a position to gain tax favors, and he wants to remedy, reduce or remove taxes that create adverse economic conditions.

He also said municipal property taxes should be lowered by seeing the state pay for a higher share of educational costs.

He also favors a healthy work force to create a healthy economy and an expansion of competitive, group-affiliation health insurance policies.

Jenkins says as governor, he would create a budget line item to fund 100 percent of the cost of education, and pledged to bring “complete transparency in the budget process” to Augusta.

His campaign motto: Vote your hopes.

Now 54, Jenkins was a state senator from 1996 to 1998 and Lewiston’s mayor from 1993 to 1997.

A real estate agent, he also works as a personal and professional consultant to businesses and organizations teaching leadership, team-building, sales and sales staff development.

He taught critical skills at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy for 26 years. He has served on several boards and panels, including the executive board of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, the Glass Ceiling Commission of the U.S. Department of Labor, the Muskie School of Public Policy and the Institute for Civic Leadership.

A native of New Jersey, Jenkins came to Maine 35 years ago and earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Bates College. He later did advanced studies in city design at Harvard University and health sciences at Columbia University.

He is a member of the World Martial Arts Hall of Fame, the Maine State Sports Hall of Fame and the Lewiston-Auburn Sports Hall of Fame.

The Maine State Bar Association named him recipient of the John W. Ballou Distinguished Service Award in 2002, putting him in the same company as former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, senator and Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen, governor, senator and Secretary of State Edmund S. Muskie, Gov. James B. Longley, Sen. Margaret Chase Smith and other political, judicial and civic leaders from Maine.

The Ballou Award honors a Maine resident or native son or daughter who demonstrates qualities in keeping with the aims and purposes of the Maine State Bar Association. It is named after John W. Ballou, hailed as one of the founders of the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar shortly after his death in 1993 at the age of 67.