Tuesday, May 22, 2012
GOVERNOR'S RACE
By Susan M. Cover scover@mainetoday.com
State House Bureau
AUGUSTA -- Bill Beardsley has worked at power companies, for Democrats and Republicans, and most recently, for a private university.
Beardsley
Name: William Beardsley
Date of Birth: July 4, 1942
Family: wife, Elizabeth; three grown children
Occupation: former president, Husson University; Alaska Department of Commerce and Economic Development; professor, Alaska Pacific University; assistant to the president, Bangor Hydro Electric Co.
Education: bachelor's degree in economics, Earlham College, Richmond, Ind.; Ph.D in environmental studies, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.
Public office experience: no elected positions
He's a man of faith, and a fiscal and social conservative.
He's tired of government regulation and often talks about vernal pools -- temporary wetlands protected by state law -- as an example of the overreach of the state.
He's run a university that's helped to prepare thousands of Mainers for a career, and now he wants to create an environment so those graduates can find a job.
At age 67, he wants to be governor, a position he sees as a natural extension of his experience as former president of Husson University.
"Having transformed a Maine institution from poverty to prosperity with 3,000 Maine kids when I left, that's a quality I'd like to bring to the state of Maine," he said.
Beardsley stepped down from Husson in December after 23 years with the university. A major campus landmark bears his name -- Beardsley Meeting House -- and he points to his success at the university as proof he's ready to lead the state.
One of seven Republicans seeking the party's nomination on June 8, Beardsley got in to the race late and isn't as well-funded as some of his opponents. But he said he got more signatures on his petitions than anyone other than opponent Les Otten. And he believes he'll have the money he needs to be competitive on television and among the slice of primary voters it will take to win.
Born July 4, 1942, in New Hampshire, Beardsley now lives in the Ellsworth home where his mother was born.
Beardsley's father was in the machine tool industry and later built dams in Canada and worked in the forest industry.
His mother was a homemaker and an astronomer who would take her son out into the dark night to see the planets and the stars.
"One of my experiences I remember vividly is being a kid waking up in the middle of the night and going down with (my mother) and being scared of this big old telescope," he said.
As a boy, Beardsley admired the singing talents of tenors and joined high school and college choral groups. Church was a big part of his life then and continues to be today.
"I grew up in a very religious home," he said. "We always attended the Congregational church our whole lives."
His wife, Elizabeth -- whom he describes as the "local boat builder's daughter" -- has a doctorate in education. They've been married 40 years.
After jobs in education, state government and the Green Mountain Power Co. in Vermont, Beardsley moved to Maine in the mid-1970s to take a job as vice president of Bangor Hydro Electric Co. At age 40, he grew restless -- and ran marathons as an outlet -- then decided to move his family to Alaska.
His first job there was at Alaska Pacific University, where he founded the Center for Entrepreneurship Development. Not long after, he went to work for state government.
"I worked first for an environmental Republican administration and then a business-oriented Democratic administration," he said.
During those years, 1982-1985, he worked as a director of the Division of Energy and Power Development, in finance and economics and for the Office of Forest Products.
When his children reached high school age, they decided to move to Maine and settled in Ellsworth.
In 1986, he took a job at Husson in Bangor as an interim executive vice president with the understanding he wanted to be considered for the president's job. At that time, the school was struggling financially.
At age 45, Beardsley took over.
"It hadn't balanced its budget in 10 years," he said. "It had technical defaults on its federal debt. Enrollment was down."
While at Husson, he worked to keep the tuition at a level he felt Maine students could afford. He said the university was able to build a budget based on what it was bringing in -- which did not include any state money -- to keep costs under control.
He said a similar philosophy should be applied to the state budget, which by some estimates will have a $1 billion deficit greeting the next governor.
"You start with what your taxpayer can afford, rather than all of your wants and needs," he said. "It's not saying the wants and needs aren't wonderful, but I want to build the state."
Beardsley talks a lot about energy -- and what he sees as lost opportunities with nuclear power -- and state regulations that have driven up costs.
In the early 1980s, when Beardsley was at Bangor Hydro, Maine's electricity costs were about 10 percent above the national average, he said. Now they are 50 percent above.
"We've mothballed a perfectly good nuclear power plant," he said. "You can raise questions about it, but it's there. We sold our low cost hydro to places like Florida Power & Light."
On his first day in office, Beardsley said he's prepared to deal with the projected $1 billion budget gap. But, unlike some of his opponents, he's not talking only about cutting spending.
"If you just try to do it through cuts and slashes, it's going to be cruel, it's going to be mean," he said. "You've got to find a way to pump the economy fairly fast. What you need to do is to send some really strong signals to industry that we're taking industry seriously again."
That includes reaching out to specific businesses -- he mentioned paper mills -- to see what it would take for companies to expand operations in Maine.
When it comes to working with the state employees' union, Beardsley said he would make it clear he supports their pay and benefits. But in return, he wants government workers to think of themselves as servants to the public.
"You've got to find a way to work with people so you don't destroy their ability to make a living in the forest because you're protecting some insane vernal pool or something," he said.
Beardsley said he would "go to war" against interest groups that tie up projects in the court system to create uncertainty for future development.
He also worries about bureaucrats who write rules and regulations that go far beyond the intent of bills passed by the Legislature.
He wants to take three miles out of the state's 3,000 miles of coastline and put it to work.
"I want to put a (liquified natural gas) plant on one, preserve one for a potential nuclear power plant and I'd like to build a world class container port," he said.
As part of his campaign, Beardsley is using the image of a vegetable stand that allows patrons to leave their money in a roadside jar. He thinks that level of trust is important to a society that will thrive in the future.
When he's not spending time with his grandchildren, Beardsley likes to sail, kayak and spend time in his wood lot.
He's active in the First Congregational Church of Ellsworth and has the backing of state conservative leaders such as Bob Emrich, a Baptist pastor; and Rep. Henry Joy, a longtime board member of the Christian Civic League of Maine.
"For me (religion is) very personal, I have a lot of personal values that define who I am," Beardsley said.
Susan Cover -- 620-7015
scover@centralmaine.com
Name: William Beardsley
Date of Birth: July 4, 1942
Family: wife, Elizabeth; three grown children
Occupation: former president, Husson University; Alaska Department of Commerce and Economic Development; professor, Alaska Pacific University; assistant to the president, Bangor Hydro Electric Co.
Education: bachelor's degree in economics, Earlham College, Richmond, Ind.; Ph.D in environmental studies, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.
Public office experience: no elected positions
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