AUGUSTA — Gov. John Baldacci’s eight years in the Blaine House are drawing to a close. So too, it seems, is the outgoing governor’s 32-year political career. 

However, as Baldacci, 55, discussed on Monday his two terms as governor, the Bangor native did not sound like someone entering his political twilight.

He mixed humor with an occasionally fiery defense of his keystone initiatives – Dirigo Health in his first term, and school district consolidation and no tax increases during his second.

He also brushed aside concessions from political opponents that he never enjoyed the economic prosperity of his predecessor, Gov. Angus King.

He said his small-business background and his compassion for people made him well-suited to handle the economic situation he inherited.

It was like working at the family restaurant in Bangor, he said.

“I was worried about meeting next week’s payroll, getting our heads above sea level,” he said. “I really got so focused on jobs and the economy.”

The day Baldacci was sworn into office in 2003, the state faced a budget gap of $1.2 billion. The government had just taken out a loan of $250 million because it had exhausted tax revenues. And, a major paper company in East Millinocket was in the midst of bankruptcy.

“If we didn’t start at the bottom when we started, we could see it clearly from where we were standing,” Baldacci said.

The poor economic situation hovered over the next eight years, as did Maine’s reputation as being the state with the highest tax burden in the country. Through it all, Baldacci refused to raise taxes, a pledge that sometimes put him at odds with fellow Democrats.

“I think he’s been dealt a bad hand economically speaking,” said Sawin Millett, the former state legislator from Waterford, a member of Gov.-elect Paul LePage’s economic transition team and former Appropriations Committee member.

“I think he had his problems with House and Senate leadership at times,” Millett said. “Not all members of the Democratic party were in sync with his no-tax-increase pledge.”

Baldacci acknowledged that he operated under difficult circumstances. However, he made a forceful defense of the measures he took. 

“It’s a long time into the woods and a long time out,” he said. “Our job was to set the right course.”

Baldacci is confident he’s done that, citing $50 million in reserves. The state faces a significant budget gap, about $840 million, but Baldacci said half of that “is this mirage of education funding that says it should be at 55 percent instead of 43 percent.”

“I know (the LePage administration) is in a much better position than I was eight years ago,” Baldacci said. “But that’s what my responsibility was.”

Dirigo

Baldacci’s first keystone project was establishing Dirigo Health, the state-run health care system.

Baldacci and Democrats hailed the program as the first of its kind in the country and the first step toward preparing Maine for universal, single-payer, health care.

The program was set up with $50 million in federal money with intent to insure 125,000 Mainers.

The program has never insured more than 15,000 Mainers at any one time. It’s often described by Republicans as a failure.

Millett, who was part of the bipartisan committee that set up Dirigo, voted for Dirigo when he was in the Legislature. However, citing high costs and low enrollment, Millett said Dirigo was a “well-intentioned experiment” that had gone wrong.

Baldacci said Dirigo became a priority after meeting with pharmaceutical companies during his time as a congressman in the U.S. House of Representatives between 1995 and 2003.

“It always frustrated me that we could purchase drugs in places like Canada cheaper than we could in our own country,” he said.  “. . . The stories you’d hear about people not taking their drugs, not buying their drugs (because of high cost). Some people I know lost their life because they didn’t get the drugs or the care they needed.”

Baldacci said he knew Dirigo would be controversial, “but we had to do it.”

Supporters of Dirigo say it has positioned Maine to integrate with the new health care law. However, the LePage administration and the new Republican majority appear ready to dismantle it, and to oppose the federal law.

Baldacci acknowledged that high expectations hurt the program. However, he also believes that for the 12,000 or 13,000 who enrolled, Dirigo is “life and death.”

“How do you put a dollar amount on that?” he said.

He also expressed frustration that the people served by the program haven’t been vocal about defending it.

“These are the quietest supporters I’ve ever had in my life, but there’s 12,000 of them,” he said. “That’s twice as big as Bath Iron Works, but nobody talks about it. . . . They’re almost afraid to stick their head out.”

He added, “I think there’s a sense that (opponents have) demonized the product so much that people feel like it’s almost welfare. They don’t want to talk about it.”

Baldacci said he’d fight to save Dirigo after he leaves office.

“A far better individual than myself can eliminate the care being provided to people,” he said.

On the sidelines

Baldacci was notably absent during campaign season. He stayed out of the governor’s race, even though his record and the state’s business reputation were repeatedly assailed by Republicans.

It’s clear he wasn’t entirely comfortable sitting on the sidelines.

“There was a side of me that wanted to get into the fight, to give them the rest of the story,” he said. “The people of Maine are only going to know what you tell them.”

Baldacci didn’t say if he was asked to stay out of the race. However, he did say he did what he was asked by the party.

“It’s time to transition over to new leadership in the Democratic party, with a new (Democratic nominee for governor),” he said. “It’s important that they establish themselves in how they want to run the party, and how they want to run the campaign. That’s how I viewed it. I would do whatever it is they wanted me to do.”

But some of the rhetoric clearly irked Baldacci, particularly a Forbes Magazine study that ranked Maine the least friendly state to do business.  The study, released during the final month of the campaign, was cited frequently by Republican candidates, including LePage.

Baldacci acknowledged the state needed to further streamline its regulatory process. However, he didn’t buy the study findings, which used variables such as average temperature.

“You want to be honest where you are, but look into why they said we were 50th,” he said. “Why? Because our temperature is a little bit colder than it is in New Jersey. I mean, give me a break.”

Baldacci also found the anti-business rhetoric unproductive, if dangerously self-fulfilling.

“If you want to look at it through a narrow political lens and put your state down, you can,” he said. “But hey, listen, we’re all in this. . . . We’re not Republicans or Democrats, we’re all Mainers. So be careful. Tread lightly.”

Legacy

Baldacci said he was proud of the initiatives he was able to advance despite doing so under difficult economic circumstances.

He defended his decision to give up the state’s wholesale liquor business to help fill the budget gap in his first term, and the school district consolidation law in his second.

During consolidation, Baldacci was criticized for being too heavy-handed in demanding that the state’s 290 school districts be reduced to 26, a directive designed to reduce administration.

Today, about 179 districts remain.

“The only way it was going to get done is the hard way,” Baldacci said. “We didn’t put all that money (savings) in the state budget and hide it somewhere. We put all that money into the classroom.”

School district consolidation was accompanied by other consolidation efforts at the Department of Health and Human Services and the state’s corrections system.

The outgoing governor said the consolidation efforts were necessary to reduce government’s size while maintaining the public safety net.

And, despite claims to the contrary, Baldacci said Maine was indeed business friendly. He pointed to his widening of Pine Tree Zones, areas that gave tax incentives for companies to expand or relocate to economically depressed areas.

According to Baldacci’s office, there are 309 companies in Pine Tree Zones, including 219 manufacturing businesses, servicing 8,209 employees and bringing in $341 million in annual payroll.

“I tell you, this is the most aggressive tool in our arsenal,” Baldacci said. “It’s the most aggressive tool in the country for economic development.”

Next?

Baldacci was weighing several options while considering his future. As a proponent of the state’s wind initiative, Baldacci said he wants to stay involved in renewable energy. He may also partner with his brother Bob Baldacci in some business deals.

Such endeavors would signal the end of a political career that began in 1978 when a 23-year-old Baldacci was elected to the Bangor City Council. He eventually served in the state Senate and Congress before winning the Blaine House in 2002.

Charlie Webster, the chairman of the Maine Republican Party, sat next to Baldacci while the two served in the state Senate. Webster said Baldacci’s ascendancy came at the expense of his moderate roots, but that the governor has rediscovered them during his last two years in office. 

Webster said Baldacci would vote with Republicans on small business issues and often spurned the union lobby.

“What happened to John was that he wanted to be successful in the Democratic Party so he had to move to the left,” Webster said. “I think you saw the old John in the last two years, because he wasn’t running again and he didn’t have to keep the Democrats happy. It’s nice to see.”

Baldacci, who used to play racquetball with Webster, laughed when told about his old colleague’s comments.

But not dismissively.

“I tended to be a moderate small-business Democrat,” he responded. “So I didn’t fit the mold. But I’ve always had a compassion for people, their individual and civil rights, the hardships they’re going through, the safety net being there for the people who are challenged in life.”

He added, “I think that balancing those two things, the business world, and at the same time realizing that you can’t turn your backs on people, is what’s most important.”

smistler@sunjournal.com

They didn’t make it a full term.

The last of the Sun Journal’s gubernatorial fish died at the end of October, according to its keeper.

Back in 2006, two months before that November’s election, the Sun Journal placed five goldfish in a tank filled with Androscoggin River water, named each after a candidate running for governor, set up a Web cam and asked each — the candidate, not the fish — what they planned to do about the water quality.

Little Phillip, named for independent Phillip NaPier, succumbed to the water twice. (Phillip I lived 36 hours, Phillip II 19 days.) The other Littles, Chandler, Pat, Barbara and John, beat expectations, while raising awareness, and went to live with then-political reporter, now-Gov. John Baldacci’s Deputy Chief of Staff David Farmer.

Their ranks thinned over the years, until finally, Little Chandler died the week before the election, Little Barbara the week before that.

“The habitat has been retired to the basement, perhaps pending the 2014 election cycle, although there has been talk of non-political fish as well,”  Farmer said. “As fish go, they appeared happy and active. We enjoyed having them as part of the family and they are missed.”

— Kathryn Skelton

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