Martha Poliquin
LISBON — The District 56 House Race in Lisbon pits a newcomer against an incumbent with a familiar name in Lisbon politics.
Democrat Martha Poliquin is a former Lisbon school board member, currently working as the school nutrition director with Falmouth schools. Poliquin faces incumbent Republican Rick Mason, who has held the seat for a year.
Related: Candidate profile: Martha Poliquin
Poliquin served on Lisbon’s school board from 1995 to 2001. She raised three kids in Lisbon, serving as a leader in cub and girl scout organizations and volunteering in schools. She decided to run as a way to serve the community on a larger scale.
“It’s an immediate way of getting involved,” said Poliquin. “I hope to serve the community in a much broader way.”
Mason is a small business owner and life-long Lisbon resident. Mason’s son, Garrett, represents District 22 in the state senate.
Poliquin said she has been out talking to residents since her democratic primary in June. Along with high property taxes, access health care is an issue she believes is important to Lisbon residents.
“I wasn’t asking people how important do you think this is?,” said Poliquin. “This is just what kept coming up.”
In terms of healthcare, Poliquin says it should me more accessible to all Mainers. She points to Medicare as a universal health care system that works for Americans over the age of 65, and believes the model could be used to address state coverage issues.
Voters in Lisbon will remember Mason running in a special election last November, just two months after his wife Gina suddenly passed away, defeating Scott Gaiason for her vacant seat.
Related: Candidate profile: Rick Mason
Repeated efforts to obtain comment from Mason for this story were unsuccessful. However, in a candidate profile, Mason stated he was not in favor of universal healthcare for Maine residents, but would favor market based approaches to health care. Mason cited “right to shop” and “right to try.” Both are approaches that aim to give the consumer more options, with the ability to seek less expensive care or try drugs that have not yet been fully been approved by the FDA.
Rick Mason
As someone with experience working in a school department, Poliquin said she would be an advocate for funding and more communication at the state level to school districts. Poliquin said a consistent presence in the education commissioner position would help. Maine has cycled through several education commissioners in recent years, and some school administrators have said they struggle to keep with the shifting priorities and messages.
“The lack of consistency has made it difficult to get guidance from that position,” said Poliquin. “I was for proficiency-based education, but district’s haven’t been given enough guidance on how to implement proficiency based.”
Mason supports leaving the proficiency question up to individual districts as it is now. He added schools shouldn’t be punished if they choose to continue with a proficiency based system.
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