Gordon Street

Gordon Street graduated from Hillwood High School. Street earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 1979 and a Ph.D. from the California School of Professional Psychology, San Diego in 1998. Street's career experience includes working as a clinical psychologist.[1]

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am a clinical psychologist, a former news reporter, Lincoln Town Council member, a husband and a father, and I believe strongly in supporting and protecting the Constitution of the United States including its 1st Amendment protections of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion. I am a proponent of economic development as key to expanding the rural property tax base as part of a priority of keeping property taxes down - because we have so many rural Mainers who already cannot afford how expensive property taxes have gotten. I believe in quality public education - especially here in rural Maine - so our children can compete effectively for higher education and/or high paying jobs, and I am committed to developing affordable housing and more job opportunities in rural Maine to make it both feasible and attractive for young rural Mainers to work and live near where they grew up if they want to. I also believe in healing our political divide, and I emphasize the importance of listening and searching for commonalities so we can work toward compromises that benefit ALL Mainers instead of a government that gets stuck in political gridlock. I am currently the only Democrat on the Lincoln Town Council, elected in 2023 with more votes than any other candidate, and I have a proven record of working effectively across party lines, of identifying shared values and goals, and of finding ways to benefit those not just in Lincoln but all across the region.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Property taxes have risen so high many rural Mainers - especially elderly and others on fixed incomes - are struggling to stay in their homes. We must find ways to keep property taxes down without cutting back on essential services like public safety (police, fire and EMS) and public works (such as road repairs and snow removal). That means not only property tax reform and identifying and eliminating fraud and waste but also expanding the rural property tax base through economic development - new businesses that will not only provide jobs but also offset the property tax burden so it is lifted to some extent off of the shoulders of rural Maine taxpayers.Every child in Maine deserves safe schools, talented and dedicated teachers, and a real chance to succeed—no matter their ZIP code. The state is supposed to cover 55% of the cost of a basic education, but the funding formula is flawed in many ways that leave rural school systems getting less than 55% (which means rural property taxpayers have to cover the difference) while at the same time imposing staffing requirements that sometimes mean rural school systems must hire more than the minimum number of teachers - even though the state will not fund them. Meanwhile, important curricula like civics education have all but disappeared. We need to prepare ALL of our students to function in society economically, socially, and politically.As a clinical psychologist working in a federally qualified health care center, I am all too aware of how much of a challenge rural Mainers have accessing health care services. Since Maine does not have its own MD training program, it is more difficult to find medical personnel willing to move to rural Maine to live and practice. So we already have a shortage that is predicted only to get bigger. Meanwhile, 9% of citizens in our district have no health care coverage at all and those that do have coverage are more likely to be on MaineCare (29% in our district) than the state as a whole (20%). Together it means many of our rural hospitals are at risk of cutting services or even closing. We need legislators dedicated to finding solutions

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

A couple of years ago - long before I considered running for the state legislature - I began a campaign within the state Democratic party emphasizing that we need to pay more attention to the needs of rural Mainers, handing out buttons that state "I am a RURAL Democrat, and I VOTE." The idea was to point out that when it comes to economic issues, rural Democrats have more in common with rural Republicans than with urban Democrats and to urge Maine’s Democratic Leadership to pay more attention to the needs of rural Mainers as a whole.  House District 28 is quite rural and it needs a legislator who will fight to get things done to improve our economic situation and will work across party lines to do so.