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Representative Seth Berry on Congressional Re-Districting

By Jim Bouchard, Chair - Government Liaison Committee

Your Government Liaison Committee is pledged to bring you information to help you make informed decisions on local, state and federal issues affecting your business. We review laws, regulations and legislative action on a municipal, state and national level, prioritize watch items and when appropriate provide testimony and issue statements either in support or opposition to issues affecting the prosperity of business in the Midcoast region and our members.

Our legislature is obligated to review and when necessary, re-draw district lines to assure fair representation in Congress. According to Real Clear Politics:

"The Democratic plan leaves Maine's two districts virtually intact, shifting a single town, Vassalboro, from the 1st to 2nd District.

"The Republican plan shifts the 1st District to the western edge of the state, which would move about 360,000 people from one district to another and move an incumbent Democratic congresswoman, Chellie Pingree, out of the 1st District she now represents."

This hotly debated issue goes to the floor in a special session on Tuesday, September 27th. 

Representative Seth Berry, Democrat of state District 67 (Bowdoin, Bowdoinham & Richmond) is opposed to the Republican sponsored re-districting plan. He feels that this plan would divide representation in the Midcoast region between two congressional representatives radically affecting our representation in Washington. He shared his views with us; you can listen to our conversation here...

SMCC President Steve Wallace points out that our Chamber successfully services a diverse membership and represents a wide range of political and ideological interests over a wide geographic area. We work with a number of business organizations and chambers and our service area is represented by 3 state senators and 8 representatives. 

As is often the case when an issue is so evenly divided politically, SMCC is adopting a "not for or against" stance on the issue of re-districting. Our President, Steve Wallace states clearly that we have an excellent record of working with all members of the state and national delegation and will continue to work with whoever represents our region to further promote business in our region.

Your Government Liaison Committee in these instances provides you with information that will help you decide your position based on what is best for your business. Throughout the next session we will provide more audio and video programs like this one to help keep you informed.

We are very fortunate that our delegation is responsive and extremely helpful in providing information and connecting the Chamber and our members with resources and the appropriate members of our legislature as well as agencies, local and state officials to assure our voice is heard on matters affecting business and prosperity in the Midcoast region. 

If you would like to discuss this issue with Representative Berry or see the proposed re-districting maps, you can email him at Seth@SethBerry.org. 

I encourage you to contact your representatives whenever there is an issue affecting your business. The GLC is here to help you facilitate that contact and to monitor legislation that affects business and prosperity in the Midcoast region. If you have issues of concern please contact me at Jim@JimBouchard.org or attend one of our regular GLC meetings. We meet the 4th Wednesday of each month at 7:30 AM at the Border Trust Business Center in Topsham.

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