Representative, Maine State House of Representatives, District 131, 2014-2018

Former Member, Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development Committee, Maine State House of Representatives

Former Member, Taxation Committee, Maine State House of Representatives

Graduated, Leadership Maine, Maine Development Foundation (Omicron Class), 2008

Co-Founder, Civil Engineering Technology Program, Eastern Maine Community College, 2006-present

Industrial Advisor, University of Maine College of Engineering & School of Technology, 2006-present

President/Chief Executive Officer, Nickerson & O’Day, present

Adjunct Professor of Engineering, University of Maine College of Engineering & School of Technology, 1995-2005

Graduated, Associated General Contractors of America Executive Management Program, 2001

Graduated, Bangor Region Leadership Institute, 1998

Graduated, Associated General Contractors of America Project Management Program, 1997

Volunteer/Sponsor, Motor City American Legion Baseball, 2013-present

Member, Board of Governors - WLBZ2 To Those Who Care Awards, 2012-present

Co-Founder/Donor, University of Maine College of Engineering Education Excellence Fund, 2010-present

Trustee/Volunteer, John Bapst Memorial High School, 2009-present

Director/Volunteer/Coach/Donor, Holbrook Little League, 2006-present

Chair, President's Advisory Board, Eastern Maine Community College, 2005-present

Volunteer/Donor, Restore Our Paul Bunyan Statue, 2009

Awards:

Chi Epsilon National Civil Engineering Honor Society, 1984
Tau Alpha Pi National Engineering Technology Honor Society, 1993
Phi Kappa Phi National Academic Honor Society, 1993
Dean's List all semesters of program
Presidential Academic Achievement Book Award, 1984, 1993
Outstanding Senior, College of Engineering, University of Maine, 1993
Valedictorian (highest GPA), College of Engineering, University of Maine, 1993
G. Clifton Eames Award for Outstanding Community Service, Bangor Region Leadership Institute, 2002
UMaine Engineering "Hall of Fame", Francis Crowe Society, 2009
Recognized for contributions to the Restoration of the famous Paul Bunyan statue, Bangor, 2009 Business & Industry Award, Katahdin Area Council, Boy Scouts of America, 2011
Awarded the "Key to the City" of Brewer for Brewer Business Development, 2013

Reason for Seeking Public Office:

I grew up poor (although we didn't know it) in the shadow of the smokestacks of Great Northern Nekoosa Paper Company in Medway, Maine. My mother was born in a log cabin lumbering camp on what is now a flooded island in the Penobscot River. My father dropped out of high school to get in on World War 2 before it ended. Despite his lack of education, he built his own business and the building it stood in, Ward's Auto Body Shop and ran it for 20 years. He passed away, in my arms, of cancer in 1990 but remains the single-biggest influence in my life. He cherished entrepreneurial freedom, understood the need for values and a strong Second Amendment and he believed in the Common Man. As children of the Depression and a World War, my parents had seen first-hand, the country go through tumultuous times. They instilled their values in our family and together, we pulled ourselves into the middle class. My Dad always told me "Son, if you don't like something, don't just complain, work to change it." He served as Town Selectman and Head Scoutmaster for the town's Cub Scout Troop. He insisted that I be the first in our family to go to college, and I did, becoming the only boy from Medway that year to go to a 4-year University. Eventually, I graduated at the top of my Engineering class at UMaine, married my college sweetheart, moved away to put her through medical school and we came back home to Maine to start a family and build our businesses, Nickerson & O'Day and Penobscot Eye Care, both in Brewer.

But as a business owner, I have become frustrated with what we have done to ourselves as a state by voting in 40 years of single-party control. Democrats have created a State where our population has become the oldest in the nation, deaths outnumber births, and we are losing population statewide. Our tax burden is among the highest, our roads are graded among the worst, our energy costs are so high that businesses can't stay open and be competitive. The National Federation of Independent Business rates us unfavorably and Forbes Magazine ranks us DEAD LAST for business! Democrats have regulated and restricted business, taxed us to death, imposed roadblocks for investment, flip-flopped on business policies, created unsustainable State pension commitments, out-of-control MaineCare, EBT and welfare systems where there are actually more people receiving benefits than pay taxes!! As a result, business cannot start here or expand here and outside business won't come here. So, our best and brightest young people leave here, looking for greener pastures and taking with them the best hopes for a prosperous Future of Maine. Businesses that are here are moving and expanding elsewhere. Without a brighter economic environment that supports, rather than strangles our business, we cannot possibly hope to promote job creation that will keep our kids here. My daughter has already left and my son is about to. I want to keep our kids in Maine. And it all starts with our economy and business climate.

I want to educate Mainers and connect the dots for them. I want us to engage in a statewide, consistent strategy that builds confidence in entrepreneurs that will cause and motivate them to risk investing here in Maine. I want to reform tax policy, re-prioritize State spending, improve our infrastructure, reduce welfare spending, build our internet and broadband capacity, invest in research and development, invest in education at all levels, reduce taxes on business and provide low-cost, reliable and unsubsidized forms of energy for business. We MUST play on our advantages and promote our fisheries, unencumber our forest products industry, make our ports more accessible for larger ships, increase our natural gas capacity and supply, reduce environmental regulation on development, increase the import of low-cost electricity and promote to the world what we have here: a beautiful, bountiful State, rich in natural resource, with a hard-working, trained, versatile and efficient labor force.

I am CERTAIN that if we simply explain to the Maine People the damage done, how it was done and by whom...if we connect the dots as to why things are the way they are and the need to make it better.... I know that this message will resonate with the Common Man...Mainers who are tired of watching their kids and grandchildren be forced to leave Maine to get a job they want and need.

We have done this to ourselves. We are tipping into the whirlpool of a demographic and socio-economic winter of declining economies, wages, living standards and populations. The warning signs are all there. This situation is screaming for a solution. It is almost too late to save our Ship of State. But I'm not ready to throw in the towel to the Democrats and their destructive policies. I'm not ready to give in to them and just let Maine become what they did to Detroit.

No, Not yet. I'm going to stand as my father taught me to do, and fight for my State, it's future and our kids. If elected, I pledge that I will give my energies to business development and job creation in Maine. I will do my best to promote our education and training systems. Look at my record, it's all I've ever done. I will do everything I possibly can to illuminate what has been done to our State these last 40 years and why we need to change parties for the next 40 years and beyond.

And I will do this without taking a salary - every dime of which I will donate to youth support groups in each of the seven towns I will represent. You see, this isn't about me. It is about our future. I am simply an instrument to be used by the People of Maine to help YOU. There is not now, nor will there ever be any other reason for running than that.

So that's why I'm running. Join me. Let's Build Maine's Future. Together.