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John Baldacci
73rdGovernor of Maine
In office January 8, 2003 – January 5, 2011
Preceded by	Angus King
Succeeded by	Paul LePage
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMaine's2nd district
In office January 3, 1995 – January 3, 2003
Preceded by	Olympia Snowe
Succeeded by	Mike Michaud
Member of theMaine Senate from the 9th district
In office December 1, 1982 – December 7, 1994
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	Sean Faircloth
Personal details
Born	John Elias Baldacci (1955-01-30)January 30, 1955 (age 70) Bangor, Maine, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Karen Baldacci
Children	1
Relatives	George J. Mitchell (first cousin once removed) David Baldacci (second cousin)
Education	University of Maine (BA)
Signature

John Elias Baldacci (born January 30, 1955) is an American politician who served as the 73rdgovernor of Maine from 2003 to 2011. ADemocrat, he also served in theUnited States House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003 and in theMaine Senate from 1982 to 1994.

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,^[1] a Washington-based, private, nonprofit, and nonpartisan research organization dedicated to economic vitality, environmental quality, and regional equity for Northeast and Midwest states.

Born inBangor, Maine on January 30, 1955,^[2] Baldacci grew up with seven siblings in a Catholic family of Italian and Lebanese ancestry.^[3] As a child, he worked in the family business, Momma Baldacci's restaurant in Bangor. A 1973 graduate ofBangor High School, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from theUniversity of Maine atOrono in 1986.^[4]

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 theMaine Senate in 1982 from a Bangor-area district. He was reelected two times, serving a total of 12 years.^[4]

In 1994, following the retirement of his cousin, United States SenatorGeorge J. Mitchell, Baldacci won election to theU.S. House of Representatives from Maine's Second District, replacingOlympia Snowe, who had moved on to Mitchell's open Senate seat. He defeated fellow state senatorRick 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.

ADemocrat, Baldacci was first elected in the2002 Maine gubernatorial election with 47.2% of the vote, defeatingRepublican nomineePeter Cianchette, who garnered 41.5% of the vote,Green Independent nomineeJonathan Carter, who received 9%, and unenrolled former DemocratJohn Michael, who received 2%. Baldacci was sworn in as Maine's governor on January 8, 2003. In 2006, Baldacci won re-election from a field of four major candidates. As governor, he was a member of theNational Governors Association and theDemocratic 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).

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. 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.^[5]

Baldacci's overhaul of the healthcare system was established with hisDirigo 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 enjoypreventive 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^[6] 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.^[7] The demand is so great there are waiting lists for admission.

In 2005, Baldacci introduced legislation to expand Maine'scivil rights law to prohibit discrimination based onsexual orientation andgender identity. This legislation in Maine had been defeated via referendum by voters two times before. The law passed, but opponents of the law initiated areferendum to overturn the law. Voters upheld the new law.

Baldacci is a supporter ofregionalization, a sometimes contentious policy of merging local-government services to save money on administrative costs.^[8]

Baldacci ran for reelection in 2006, facing opposition from Republican state SenatorChandler Woodcock, IndependentsBarbara Merrill and Phillip Napier, and Green Independent Party candidatePat LaMarche.

Democratic-leaning voters had a wide array of choices. Merrill, who was elected to her state house seat as a Democrat, Woodcock, and LaMarche received money from Maine'sClean Elections law. Merrill and LaMarche were generally seen as taking votes from Baldacci, while Woodcock's socially conservative position prompted some longtime Republicans to throw their votes to Baldacci, Merrill, or LaMarche.

Baldacci won the election with 38.11% of the vote. Woodcock placed second with 30%. Merrill received a surprising 21%, narrowly defeating Baldacci among unenrolled voters. LaMarche finished with 10%, enough to maintain ballot access for the Green Party.

Baldacci was inaugurated on January 3, 2007, in Augusta. Baldacci, in his second term, built on the foundation he created in his first four years in office. He increased Maine's competitiveness in the global economy; streamlined government services; attracted good jobs; and ensured that all Mainers have access to quality education, workforce training, and health care. In 2008 the recession hit forcing more consolidation efforts and Baldacci never increased state income taxes. He left office with a surplus and a rainy day fund.

During his inaugural speech, Baldacci reaffirmed his goal for school administration consolidation. Shortly after he began his second term, his biennial budget proposal included consolidating Maine's 152 school districts into 26Regional School Units. Maine has four forms of government: state, county, local towns and school administration districts. Consolidation of the school administration districts led to cutting back jobs that were duplicated and the savings were then put back into the classrooms.

In 2007, Baldacci announced a plan to send 125 Maine prisoners to the privateCorrections Corporation of America calledNorth Fork Correctional Facility inSayre, Oklahoma, to ease crowding at theMaine State Prison inWarren. Critics, such as theMaine Civil Liberties Union called for supervised release of non-violent prisoners and sentence commutation for model inmates to ease overcrowding instead. The proposal was killed by theMaine Legislature. However, in 2009, Baldacci's administration again suggested that the state could relocate prisoners to Oklahoma. The owner and operator of the Oklahoma prison, Corrections Corporation of America, indirectly contributed to Baldacci's re-election campaign and hired Baldacci's cousin and advisor, Jim Mitchell, as a lobbyist.^[9][10]

Baldacci continued a major effort to promote alternative energies and energy independence for the state. Maine homes and businesses were heated 86 percent with oil. As of 2011, that declined to 76 percent. Baldacci's programs promoted wood pellets, which were manufactured in the state using Maine's vast forest lands, as well as wind, solar, biofuels and wave technologies.^[11] He also started the Energy Efficiency Trust. He successfully created new standards and goals for the states Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS). These RPS standards encouraged alternative energy suppliers to invest in Maine using the state's natural resources sustainably. Offshore wind technologies for floating wind turbines developed at the University of Maine brought Energy Sec. Steven Chu to visit the University and the Department of Energy has given the university various grants to continue the research.^[12]

Baldacci also brought the region's leaders together for a special conference to coordinate and cooperate on regional energy efforts such as the infrastructure needed to carry the electricity to markets. In addition Baldacci led the effort for Maine to become part of the first cap and trade state consortium for East coast states called theRegional Greenhouse Gas Initiative,^{[citation needed]} which has brought in $83 million to the state for weatherization programs.

Throughout Baldacci's eight years he promoted a number of bond efforts that were passed by the people of Maine to increase research and development in the state focusing on sectors of growth and innovation. These bonds helped to transform research and development in biomedicine, composites and forest products at Maine's leading educational institutions.

In February 2008, Baldacci hosted an official visit to Maine byPremier of New Brunswick,Shawn Graham, which was the first official visit to Maine by an incumbent head of aCanadian province. In his visit, Graham addressed a joint session of theMaine Legislature in which he proposed increasing cross-border trade, tourism, transportation as well as additional co-operation on energy and education.^[13]

In the2008 Democratic Presidential primary Baldacci, as asuperdelegate, pledged his support forHillary Clinton^[14] despiteBarack Obama winning the state's Democratic Presidential Primary. By June 2008, it was clear that Obama would be the nominee and he announced his support for Obama.

On May 6, 2009, Baldacci signed legislation legalizingsame-sex marriage in Maine.^[15] This made him the first governor ever in the U.S. to sign a same-sex marriage bill into law where it was not previously court-ordered. (TheGovernor of Connecticut,Mary Jodi Rell, had been the first to sign a bill codifying same-sex marriage into law on April 23, 2009.) Maine's legalization of same-sex marriage was narrowly overturned by astatewide referendum vote on November 3, 2009, but brought back on apro-same-sex marriage referendum on November 6, 2012, and became law.

Baldacci left office in 2011, and he was succeeded byRepublicanPaul LePage.

Baldacci lived with his wife Karen and son Jack in theBlaine House inAugusta while governor.

Baldacci's brother, Joe, is a member of the Bangor City Council.^[16] He is a first cousin once removed of former Maine senator andmajority leaderGeorge J. Mitchell and a second cousin of authorDavid Baldacci.^[3] In addition, he is also related to State RepresentativeChris Greeley, who like Baldacci and Mitchell, is half-Lebanese. His wife Karen was the head of Maine Reads, a nonprofit umbrella organization forRead With ME, privately funded byVerizon. Karen now works as a registered dietitian (RD) at the Supplemental Program for Women Infants and Children (WIC) in Portland.

Baldacci held a technician classamateur radio license withcall sign KB1NXP, which expired in 2018.^[17]

• List of Arab and Middle-Eastern Americans in the United States Congress

• United States Congress."John Baldacci (id: B000081)".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
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