Kudos go out to The Times Record team for their diligent work in recent editions on getting the public aware of who the candidates are for local community races and State House seats as well. Those articles include the candidates’ perspectives in their own words — which is excellent — but the print can’t capture their voices or mannerisms.

That’s why our Bath-Brunswick Regional Chamber is currently releasing one-on-one candidate interviews on our Facebook and YouTube channels for the third election cycle in a row. Again, this is not to replace the great work The Times Record and other media has done profiling these candidates, but rather it’s in addition to what’s been done.

Why I think these are so special is because we can go a little deeper into the answers than a typical print interview has space for. For example, rather than just mentioning a topic that is important to a candidate, we have space to find out why that’s important to them or even possible solutions they are working on. Another great thing about the videos is that they are relatively short, with most lasting between 12 and 18 minutes. I listen to all of them to ensure the recording quality, and I’ve mostly listened to them while driving to or from work, while I do the dishes, while I rake leaves or during other puttering I do around the house.

As far as who I have interviewed, the offer went out to everyone who is on the ballot and running for either the Maine House of Representatives or the Maine Senate in our chamber region. As much as we would like to do more local down ballot races, such as select board positions, our organization doesn’t have the time or bandwidth for that with a 16-community chamber region. As it is, we sent out 20 interview requests, which represent eight House races and two Senate races. The House races are for Districts 49, 50, 51, 52, 98, 99, 100 and 101, and for the Maine Senate it’s District 24 and 25. I will say, the candidates are not required to participate in any way but many do.

Finally, you need to know about the fairness involved with a project like this. We contact each candidate the same way, via email. We ask all the same five questions. We give each candidate final approval of the video before we distribute it, and we release the videos for a single seat at the same time. Meaning, we will release the candidate videos for each district on our Facebook page and YouTube channels within minutes of one another as to not give preference to either candidate. Lastly, we will release videos of a single candidate for a race if they are uncontested or their opponent(s) on the ballot have said they don’t wish to do a video.

The best way for you to find the videos is to keep an eye on the Bath-Brunswick Regional Chamber Facebook page (or the BBRC YouTube channel). Depending on final approvals from the candidates, you should see videos start posting as early as Tuesday — one week prior to the election. Feel free to share the videos with your friends and neighbors. In the Facebook post description, we will list the communities covered by each district, so you know which videos are for the candidates for where you live.

I can’t reiterate enough about how these videos just go a little deeper, so I’ve decided to highlight one of the candidates here to give you that sense. In terms of fairness, we have one race, House District 101 (Brunswick) that has only one candidate on the ballot, Democratic incumbent Rep. Poppy Arford. Where she is unopposed on her ballot, sharing her video responses seemed like the best candidate for this exercise.

Rep. Poppy Arford. Courtesy of Poppy Arford

Question #1 is “What district are you running for and where does that cover?” We intentionally put that up front, so people know seconds into the video if this is the right candidate for them. Poppy has one of three districts that cover a portion of Brunswick, so when she starts listing the streets that are the boundary of her district, that’s just good information to have.

In Question #2, we ask about their background and why they are running. Here Poppy got a chance to share the story of her husband who had colon cancer years ago and how she first got into politics because she was advocating for his health care. This led her to get more engaged with other community issues and eventually running for an open seat.

Question #3 asks for the candidates’ perspective on the biggest three issues facing Mainers, and Poppy mentioned four items: health care reform as it pertains to knowing costs up front, affordable housing needs, gun safety in the wake of the shooting in Lewiston last year and, as a bonus, she added water safety. However, rather than just listing them (as I have here) she went for two minutes on each of those and discussed ideas around solutions and collaborating on results.

Question #4 is the candidate’s opportunity to share two things they hope every voter knows about them, and Poppy reminded people that a key role for her is helping constituents navigate the state government when they don’t know who to speak to and, secondly, her great work being collaborative and a team player.

Finally, question #5 asks each candidate how voters can find out more about them, and Poppy gave her email addresses and her website.

All in all, it’s a great way to get a better sense of who these candidates are before you fill out your ballot. I encourage all of you to watch the videos even if you think you may know the candidates. I can virtually guarantee you will find out at least one thing you didn’t know about each candidate, because I learn at least one thing every time we film these, too.

Cory King is executive director of the Bath-Brunswick Regional Chamber of Commerce.