Age: 46
Residence: Portland
Party: Independent
Present employment: Self-employed; attorney with family law cases throughout rural Maine
Highest level of education completed: Master’s degree in business administration, Juris Doctor degree Previous offices held: Eight years as a Parks and Recreation Commissioner (appointed), and several other boards/commissions.
Statement: As a family law attorney, I work with the parts of federal law that impact us most – health care, taxes, veteran’s issues, welfare programs (TANF/cash aid, SNAP/food stamps, housing assistance, childcare subsidy, Medicaid/Mainecare, LIHEAP/heating assistance), disability programs, student loans, retirements, and social security. We are not getting the return on investment we’ve paid for; these programs aren’t there when and how needed. I also work in domestic violence – where these laws don’t prevent predictable harms. The problems with these laws make my job difficult, and my concerns to elected officials have fallen on unconcerned politicians. They either do not understand how their actions (and inactions) hurt us, or they simply don’t care.
As a mom of two school-age children, I’m deeply concerned that we are on a path for an unsustainable future. Our children and grandchildren deserve to inherit a habitable world with possibility. Likewise, children deserve a functional education — instead our educators are attacked by baseless accusations while those in power leave teachers, who already pay for their own supplies on meager salaries, on their own again to face angry mobs riled up for political gain.
As a penny-pinching voter who has a master’s degree in business, I’m concerned there is not enough action and problem-solving in D.C. to create a resilient economy. I am tired of seeing politicians say they are sad about mill closures, but not take steps to have a plan in place for how our towns can be revitalized with living-wage jobs suited for the facility amenities and town needs that can help sustain and grow our communities (insulin production? indoor vertical farming?). Our Legislatures focus on spending all the money on pet projects, or no money pretending they will return tax dollars to us, rather than looking for ways to stretch our dollars and make sure we get a true return on investment for our communities.
As a person who grounds decisions in common sense, I am appalled at how our elected leaders have distracted us from holding them accountable – choosing to blame immigrants instead of placing the
blame on themselves for decades of legislative neglect on immigration policy, trying to make us hate our neighbors by yelling “pro-choice” or “pro-life” rather than acknowledge these are private decisions that deserve the dignity to not be used as fundraising fodder, using phrases like “energy independence” as code for devastating our environment while refusing to work on replacements — nearly every series of legislative failures has a politicized excuse to blame the other party rather than take accountability.
The joke has been on us for a long time. We have been turned into piggy banks for greedy politicians who use our fear, pain and desperation for a government that works to extract millions of dollars each election cycle from hard-working Mainers. The only way we change this is by choosing different. Keep the money in our community with #MaineRaising (www.bond4.me/maineraising). Tell your family, friends and neighbors we can use ranked-choice voting to get someone in office who is nothing like the gentlemen in this race filling your mailboxes with wasteful flyers.
It is time to have someone in DC who understands how each word on the page impacts us; focused on cost-efficient, humane law. We need a representative who reminds the government that they are there
to make wise and judicious shared purchasing decisions on our behalf, to solve problems that are too much for us to solve on our own and to enable us all to live healthier, happier, more free lives with dignity, respect, and privacy from our government.
Let’s problem-solve together. Join me for a virtual town hall Tuesdays at 7 p.m. and Saturdays at 8 a.m.:
www.youtube.com/tiffanybond.
