John Baldacci

John Elias Baldacci (born January 30, 1955) is an American politician who served as the 73rd Governor of Maine from 2003 to 2011.

A 1973 graduate of Bangor High School, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of Maine at Orono in 1986.

Baldacci was first elected to public office in 1978 at the age of 23, when he served on the Bangor City Council.

He continued in politics, winning election to the Maine Senate in 1982 from a Bangor-area district.

He was reelected two times, serving a total of 12 years.

In 1994, following the retirement of his cousin, United States Senator George J. Mitchell, Baldacci won election to the U.S. House of Representatives from Maine's Second District, replacing Olympia Snowe, who had moved on to Mitchell's open Senate seat.

He defeated fellow state senator Richard A. Bennett in one of the few Democratic pickups of the 1994 cycle, taking 47 percent to Bennett's 41 percent.

Baldacci would never face another contest nearly that close, and was reelected to Congress three times with well over 70 percent of the vote.

He served on the House Agriculture Committee and the House Transportation Committee.

A Democrat, he also served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003.

During his tenure as governor, Baldacci initiated reforms in the areas of health care, energy development, administrative reform and efficiency, public education, and led significant efforts to expand investment in workforce training and development.

During his four terms in the U.S. Congress, he served on the Agriculture Committee and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

He currently serves as vice chair of the board of the non-partisan Northeast-Midwest Institute, a Washington-based, private, nonprofit, and nonpartisan research organization dedicated to economic vitality, environmental quality, and regional equity for Northeast and Midwest states.

Born in Bangor, Maine, Baldacci grew up with seven siblings in an Italian-Lebanese family.

As a child, he worked in the family business, Mama Baldacci's restaurant in Bangor.

A Democrat, Baldacci was first elected in the 2002 Maine gubernatorial election with 47% of the vote, defeating Republican nominee Peter Cianchette, who garnered 41% of the vote, Green Independent nominee Jonathan Carter, who received 9%, and unenrolled former Democrat John Michael, who received 2%.

Baldacci was sworn in as Maine's governor on January 8, 2003.

Pine Tree Development Zones were enacted in 2004 and offered eligible businesses the chance to greatly reduce or virtually eliminate state taxes for up to ten years when they create new, quality jobs in certain business sectors or move existing jobs in those sectors to Maine.

In 2005, Baldacci introduced legislation to expand Maine's civil rights law to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

This legislation in Maine had been defeated via referendum by voters two times before.

The law passed, but opponents of the law initiated a referendum to overturn the law.

Voters upheld the new law.

In 2006, Baldacci won re-election from a field of four major candidates.

As governor, he was a member of the National Governors Association and the Democratic Governors Association.

After being elected, Baldacci attempted to fill a $1.2-billion deficit.

This was done through budget cuts, consolidation, and fee increases.

Baldacci refused to raise broad-based taxes, honoring a campaign pledge.

Baldacci won approval for major initiatives including Dirigo Health, the Maine Community College System, and Pine Tree Development Zones (PTDZ).

However, a report released in 2014 showed that the PTDZ program was ineffective, costing state government more than it brought in.

Over the first ten years of the program, it cost Maine $457 million.

Baldacci's overhaul of the healthcare system was established with his Dirigo Health Care Act.

The program offers subsidized health care to individuals and Maine businesses with fewer than 50 employees.

The program expanded wellness centers across the state.

Individuals in the system enjoy preventive care when most other insurance policies rejected people with preexisting conditions.

Proponents claim that the preventive care eventually lowers health care costs.

With the Maine Community College System he took technical colleges and revamped them into community colleges by adding more courses, more teachers and programs relevant to the communities in which they were established.

He passed legislation that made it possible for credits and degrees from the community colleges to be transferable to the University of Maine system if student wished to pursue a four-year degree.

The community college system grew exponentially adding new satellites.

In their first three years, Maine's community colleges grew 42 percent.

The demand is so great there are waiting lists for admission.