Democrats and Republicans won’t be the only candidates vying to be state representatives on November election ballots.

Voters also will find the names of five unenrolled candidates running as independents for three House seats spanning three counties in central and western Maine.

One of those names, Thomas Saviello, will be familiar to voters in Avon, New Vineyard, Phillips, Strong, Temple and Wilton, his home town, as well as unorganized territories of Freeman, Perkins, Salem (partly) and Washington townships.

Saviello has represented those towns in House District 90 for the past six years in the Legislature. He is seeking a fourth term. He also served on the local school board and Board of Selectmen.

A member of the Joint Standing Committee of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, he works as an environmental manager and professor, according to the legislative register.

Saviello and at least two of the other independent candidates are former Democrats who dropped that party affiliation. Saviello and one other switched while in office.

Former legislator Belinda Gerry, 49, of Auburn served three terms in the House then three terms on the Auburn City Council. She limited herself to three terms, she said, keeping a promise to her constituents.

Gerry said she withdrew from the Democratic Party during her first term because she wanted to vote on the merits of the issue and not her party position. That made her more accountable to her constituents, she said.

She forged alliances with both parties to pass legislation she supported, she said.

“It’s like a team sport,” she said. “I’m not an ‘I’ person. I’m a ‘We’ person.”

Gerry said she wants to put her newfound knowledge from her time on the council to use at the state level.

She will be competing against another independent running for House District 69 in a four-way race.

Richard Ness, also of Auburn, could not be reached for comment.

There are two independent candidates for House District 93, representing Canton, Carthage, Dixfield, Mexico and Peru.

William Hine II, 58, of Peru is a former Democrat who unenrolled earlier this year to seek state office. He served on the Board of Selectmen.

Married and father of two grown children, Hine earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale before moving to Maine. He worked at a summer camp in Maine in 1977. There, he fell in love with the state and a woman he met at camp, then married. He works part-time sending out the billing for his wife, who is a speech pathologist.

As an independent, Hine said he would be able to approach issues with an open mind, educating himself on subjects before choosing his position. As a legislator, he would focus on tax reform (shifting the burden from income to sales tax), job creation and fiscal discipline.

Trevis Knapp of Dixfield, also an independent candidate for House District 93, could not be reached for comment.

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