How long did it take you to make that decision to run as an independent?

Yeah, I've always felt a real independent streak, and I guess most Mainers actually do if you get out of politics.

But, you know, over the last six years, I've been by all objective standards.

Bangor Daily News did a study, found me the most nonpartisan voting person.

So I've always been there with my politics, but...

I just came to the conclusion over the last two or three years that the two-party system is just not working.

And it's – they bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in dark money and that money is here.

What can attendees expect tomorrow?

Why an independent?

You know, I've been involved, as you noted, for many years in Maine's politics.

I'm a Maine native.

My family's been here for 10 generations, and I'm deeply concerned about Maine's future.

And what I've learned is that party politics have really gotten in the way of getting things done, of finding the solutions that Mainers need to the wrenching challenges that we have, and also to take advantage of the opportunities that we have.

And it was a big step, it seemed at the time, to step out of that framework that we all have learned that is politics.

But it's also been tremendously liberating.

He's chosen to retire, which is a huge loss.

What is it? What's happening?

Well, we're here to talk about the Biggest Ever Blokes Lunch, which first started way back in 2009 in Shepparton.

So we've got the opportunity to have Hobart's first ever Biggest Ever Blokes Lunch.

So we're really looking forward to it.

It should be a good opportunity to bring some mates along, have a conversation about prostate cancer, talk about the awareness of prostate cancer and just raise some funds in general.

You've got lived experience, the three of you, correct? That's right.

Yeah, the three of us of all.

had a lived experience.

Help us understand where you started and what the world was like and why that world is different from the world we have now.

Sure.

Well, I started in politics with a barren gene that shows up in my family maybe every hundred years or so, and got interested in politics as a young man.

And I just, it was between the Carter and Reagan administrations.

And, you know, like many young people at the time, I looked at a message of optimism, mourning again in America, and I And I was gravitated toward that and became a Republican activist and ended up running for office at the tender age of 27 back in 1990.

And, you know, it was a different world in politics then.

It was...

What was the background to question two?

How serious is this situation in your view?

I think it's terribly serious.

In fact, I learned about it when I was meeting with Associated General Contractors.

They had just stepped out of a two-hour meeting with the Department of Transportation, and they had just been made aware of it.

First of all, there's one thing that the government needs to do.

We need to fix our roads and bridges, make them safe, make them passable.

to pave our roads.

What do you believe separates you from the Democratic and Republican candidates?

So what will be our spread rate today?

Uh, we're actually putting 10 tons to the acre right now.

They've seen impacts from soybeans being more prolific, uh, to the plant height being higher to, you know, less fertilizer being needed.

So yeah, I mean, i- is it too good to be true? Well, I don't think so.

Um, sometimes there really are great things, you know?