BRUNSWICK — Brunswick resident and Green Independent Fred Horch announced Thursday he will throw his hat back into the political ring with a bid for the Maine House of Representatives District 49 seat being vacated by Mattie Daughtry. 

Horch ran unsuccessfully for the Maine House of Representatives in 2010 and 2012, and then for state senate in 2014, but now he’s back and is “going to give it my all and try one last time to win,” he said Thursday. 

This year he will run against Brunswick Town Councilor Kathy Wilson, who announced her Democratic run late last week. 

Horch is the owner of Spark Applied Efficiency, a company that helps local businesses and organizations be more efficient and conserve resources to lower energy prices, and formerly ran F. W. Horch Sustainable Goods & Supplies on Maine Street. 

He has served on the board of MicCoast Hunger Prevention Program, the Rotary Club of Brunswick and the NorthWest Brunswick Neighborhood Association. 

His reason for running is really quite simple: “I think I’ll be an effective legislator,” he said in a phone interview Thursday. “I see a lot of problems that I think the state legislature could be a lot more effective at solving.”

Horch hopes to address “pervasive pollution, persistent poverty, disabling addiction, chronic underemployment, technological disruption, political dysfunction, and soaring costs for health care and education,” according to a press release. 

His biggest focus areas though are climate and energy. 

“The environment is an important issue, and I think we can agree on some common ground. If we can’t breathe or we are poisoning our water, that’s a bad thing,” he said. “A clean environment is good for everyone and you can still make a ton of money even with a healthy planet.”

Horch has long been an advocate for sustainable solutions and reducing dependency on fossil fuels. His home is entirely fossil fuel-free, he said, and it would be easier to switch the state’s energy system to clean energy if politicians would stop getting so distracted by partisan issues. 

This is part of why he is running as a Green Independent, he said, as a bridge between Democrats and Republicans. 

“I’m not trying to be obstinate or a protest candidate, I really do want to win,” he said. “I hope there are enough voters with an open mind… it would probably be easier to run as a democrat… it ends up being a popularity contest and it’s hard to get people’s attention,” he said. 

Horch plans to knock on every door and talk to as many voters as possible before the election, reach the people who are ordinarily left out of the conversations, because as he said, “State law affects everyone in Maine.”

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