Christopher Johnson (D-Somerville) is the incumbent state senator for District 13, encompassing the majority of Lincoln County. He was first elected in February 2012, in a special election to replace David Trahan, who had resigned to work as a lobbyist. Johnson had lost to Trahan in 2010.

 Johnson was reelected in November 2012 and again in 2014, and if reelected Nov. 8, will face term limits in 2018.

He has been working to address the opioid crisis in Lincoln County with the establishment of the Lincoln County Recovery Collaborative, a partnership of law enforcement, medical providers, and community members.

Regarding the state ballot questions, Johnson said if Question One (marijuana legalization) passes, it will need some very careful rulemaking. “We need to do some tweaking to make very certain that you can’t sell marijuana or give it to minors, and to establish certain protections for others who might be subject to the smoke. He said Question Two (adding a three percent tax on income above $200,000 per year for school support) appears fairly straightforward. “It wouldn’t be necessary if the Legislature had funded the 2004 measure fully.”

Question Three, which requires that every gun sale in Maine be subject to a background check, is more complex, Johnson said. He understands why the bill favors lending transfers as well as sales, but that that addition makes the whole question more difficult to address. “We need to find the same degree of protection for lending someone a gun for some indeterminate length of time, but if we can make it less inconvenient, I’m all for it.” Johnson called the minimum wage issue, Question Four, “just arithmetic” and said it will ultimately benefit most tipped workers as well as other minimum wage workers.  On Question Five, ranked choice voting, he said he is not at all concerned, because for most of Maine’s history, there was a requirement for majorities in elections, not pluralities. This requirement required runoff elections. “This is simply a technological runoff,” he said.

Medicaid expansion will be the single most important health care legislation that the Legislature could take up next session, Johnson said. “We need to launch a much larger scale of treatment of opiate addiction, but there are far too few beds available for inpatient treatment.”  In states where Medicaid expansion has already taken place, the average increase for insurance premiums is lower by seven percent than in states where Medicaid has not been expanded; Medicaid, together with Medicare, could assist seniors who are aging in place, keeping them out of nursing homes or hospitals for much longer periods of time, Johnson  said. “And it would create about 3,000 jobs. Overall, Maine would get about half a billion dollars in economic development. It’s the right thing to do for Maine for moral and economic reasons.”

On education, Johnson said: “There is very clear evidence and widespread support for quality Pre-K; a huge return on the money we spend to that end.”  He said K-12 schools must be fully funded as required and that, rather than setting lower tuition rates, he would prefer to see increased funding for needy students to bring more federal dollars into the state.

On the economy, Johnson said the old paper mills should be retooled for specialty papers if those are found to be competitive, but also to use wood for other value-added materials, including construction materials and cellulose nanofibers. “The problem is that the state lacks an economic plan,” he said. “I will be ready to consider all recommendations.”

Johnson said that the fisheries are not unrecoverable. “Lobster fisheries are doing very well, but with a 4 degree increase in temperature, that will no longer be true. We don't want to reach that point. The two biggest things we could do is help lead the nation on ocean acidification, and climate change occurring because of the level of CO2 in the atmosphere.” He also said it is important to have value-added products in both fisheries and farms. “I worked hard to bring food hubs to Maine, but Republicans prevented them. Food hubs would have been cooperative processing centers for farmers so that they could provide value to their produce.”

Regarding energy, Johnson said Maine people spend $6 billion per year on fuel, twice the size of the annual state budget, in heat, transportation, and electrical generation. All of that money is leaving Maine’s economy permanently, Johnson said. “We need to take really seriously the reduction of fossil fuels, and concentrate on fuels we can generate here.” That would include wind power, solar, wood and wood pellets, and other renewable options, including conservation, he said.