Letter to the Editor: Smart government needed

I am running for the Democratic nomination for the District 89 (Farmington and Industry) state House seat because I believe we are at a crossroad in history and our economy where we have the opportunity to make an active difference for Maine’s future.

Our government needs to make smarter decisions, keeping what works and changing what doesn’t work. Soon, our national government will begin taking steps to provide incentives for affordable healthcare, alternative energy, education, and infrastructure. Maine’s legislature must be ready, willing, and able to work with these national efforts to start investing wisely and more creatively for Maine’s future.

By choosing to live, work, volunteer, and raise my children here, I’ve made Maine’s future also my future. I’ve spent my professional career in patent law helping innovative people create businesses and do their part in growing the economy. I’ve worked for them as their problem-solver, applying my
training in engineering and law. I’ve worked within federal government in the Washington, D.C. area and at the state level in Augusta at a state-chartered, nonprofit organization working to increase economic growth in Maine through the application of science and technology in education,
research, and business.

I’ve also worked in local government where I helped draft Farmington’s local laws to reduce haphazard development within the Comprehensive Planning efforts in the late 1990s. I have always been a forward-thinking troubleshooter, and I am now ready to help provide some sorely needed problem-solving in Maine state government to grow our tax base without losing the things we hold dear about our lives here in Maine.

If nominated at the Democratic Caucus, I will run as a Clean Elections Act candidate, and I will campaign for smart government so that we will not merely weather this current economy, but instead make wise choices to come out of this creating a better future.

I ask for your support at the Democratic Nominating Caucus to be held Sunday, Jan. 4, at 3 p.m. at the UMF North Dining Hall, in the Student Center on South Street.

Dennis Haszko of Farmington is a candidate for democratic nomination
www.haszko.com