A Bath Democrat has announced her candidacy for the state Senate seat held by outgoing Senate Majority Leader Eloise Vitelli.

Jean Guzzetti, 43, is a former Sagadahoc County register of probate who has worked for the state Public Utilities Commission and Efficiency Maine Trust, a quasi-state agency that plans and implements energy-efficiency programs. She also served as a non-partisan policy analyst for the Legislature’s Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee.

Vitelli, of Arrowsic, represents Senate District 24, which is comprised of Sagadahoc County and the town of Dresden in Lincoln County. She is term-limited, having served the maximum four consecutive terms since 2014. Her current term expires next year. Members of the Legislature serve two-year terms.

“I am honored and excited to be running to represent the people of District 24,” Guzzetti said. “As register of probate, I had the opportunity to meet so many amazing people across the county and hear the many challenges they’re facing. From the skyrocketing cost of energy to the lack of affordable housing to a health care system that still leaves too many people behind, Mainers are looking to our leaders to find solutions. I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work building a stronger Maine for all.”

“Jean Guzzetti has spent years in public service, supporting her community in roles both large and small,” Vitelli said. “Her experience with the PUC and Efficiency Maine has taught her the need to invest in Maine’s energy independence while simultaneously looking out for ratepayers. This kind of holistic thinking is what Maine needs.”

Guzzetti, a single mother of two girls who are students in the Bath-area Regional School Unit 1 district, resigned as register of probate earlier this year to attend the University of Maine School of Law, which awarded her an environment and energy law fellowship.

“I look forward to bringing my strong professional experience working at the state and county levels and my personal experience of being a single mom of two school-aged girls, going back to school part time and doing the best I can to make ends meet,” Guzzetti said. “Like so many of us, I want to help make our homes, our towns and our state a safer and more secure place for all of us — especially our children. For me, that work starts in Augusta.”

Guzzetti said she has devoted her career to public policy and enrolled in law school “to keep doing what I’m doing better.”

“I’m passionate about the law and how it affects people,” she said.

Guzzetti over the weekend attended a rally in Brunswick for gun control legislation in the wake of the Lewiston mass shooting. The student-organized crowd advocated for an assault weapons ban, a red flag law and universal background checks, proposals that Guzzetti said she supports. One of those killed in the shooting was a Bath man.

“I was struck by how important (gun control) is to the younger generation,” she said. “It’s important for the Legislature to do something.”

Guzzetti said she is running as a clean elections candidate and plans to hold a formal campaign launch event in January. No other candidates have publicly announced plans to run for Vitelli’s seat yet.

“Jean is committed to making government work for our children, families and communities,” Senate President Troy Jackson said. “As the parent of young children, she knows the challenges working families experience from finding affordable child care to keeping up with housing to health care costs. As a former policy analyst, she has a strong policy background and understands how the Legislature operates. I have no doubt Jean would serve the people of Sagadahoc County and Dresden well in the Maine Senate.”

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