Dan Lauzon

Democrat

Candidate’s Links:

Office Sought: Representative – District 20
Age: 65
Occupation: Retired locomotive engineer, elected legislative representative, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers

Education: Some College, Studied at Penn Central Opereatin Rules and Railroad Operations, Certified Locomotive Engineer and Certified Conductor, Accident Investigator working with National Transportation Safety Board, Instructor for Locomotive Engineers

Family: Married, raised nine kids who are all successful
Hometown: Lebanon

Political experience

Before moving to the Great State of Maine I was a ballot elected Massachusetts State Committee member and Chairman of the Rockport Town Committee. I was a Washington lobbyist for Rail Labor as well as Chairman of the Massachusetts State Legislative Board overseeing Legislative Representatives in the six New England States, including Maine.

Currently I serve as a State Committee Member in York County and am the Vice Chair in the Lebanon Town Committee.

Why are you running for office?

After having served over 30 years as a Labor Legislative Representative and filed and passed several bills in the Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Massachusetts Legislature, mostly related to rail safety and passenger rail expansion as well several freight rail bills.
In 1990 we [my rail labor colleagues] filed and passed the first Critical Incident Safety legislation in the U.S. We developed a Post Traumatic Stress peer intervention program and quickly discovered that our military veteran members who experienced PTSD were helped in ways that the VA was unable. I support revenue sharing especially on the Federal level.

• Income Tax: Gov. LePage would like to lower Maine’s income tax rate and eventually eliminate it, by increasing the state’s sales tax and expanding it across a broader range of goods and services. Do you support this proposal?
  • No

    To run any state there must be taxes. The best way for any state is to have high employment with good paying careers

• Background Checks: Do you support background checks for privately sold firearms in Maine?
  • No

    In most parts of Maine firearms are considered tools. Farmers need to have firearms for a variety of reasons and there will always be trade between friends and family in the agricultural community.

    Sportsmen and women of Maine are well versed on gun safety there has always been great responsibility placed on young hunters and target shooters.

    The expense on the state and on the responsible gun owners will be high.

• Minimum Wage: In light of the ballot question facing voters this fall, do you support raising the state’s minimum wage from $7.50 to $12 an hour by 2020?
  • Yes

    History has shown that when citizens can have a livable wage then the money is spent back into the state’s general economy. Fast food prices are based on market and competition never on wages. Higher wages mean less welfare assistance and higher state income taxes. Today Maine taxpayers are subsidizing employers who pay so little that even with two jobs many underpaid workers still rely on assistance. No one should go hungry after working 40 hours.

• Marijuana: Do you support legalization of marijuana for recreational use?
  • Yes

    Marijuana should be regulated and taxed exactly like alcohol. We are in a form of prohibition and when it is legalized the same affect will be what occurred when alcohol was legalized in the 1930’s. Jobs.

• Addiction/Overdoses: Do you believe the state is doing enough in response to the rise in heroin/opiate addiction and overdoses? If not, what else should be done?
  • No. the opiate crisis in many cases is the direct result of over prescribing of pain medications that are highly addictive. Many innocent lives have been lost or ruined due to this states Governors refusal to understand science. When he decided to drop Federal funding to help Maine’s most desperate citizens spoke volumes on just how uninformed he is on this. This is a disease and must be treated like one. He and others need to listen to those in medicine who actually know what they are doing.

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