Wiscasset’s Wendy Ross was a reporter in the White House and Congress, is president of the Wiscasset Public Library’s board and has helped on fundraising for Morris Farm and Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association. Now for the first time, the Democrat is making a run at politics, challenging incumbent Jeffery Hanley for Maine House District 87 representative.

The district serves Wiscasset, Alna, Pittston and Randolph. Ross said her family has been in Wiscasset since the 1700s and she feels a lot of people would like to live in Maine, if they could afford to. None of her four grown sons do, “because the jobs aren’t here,” she said. “We need to bring high-paying jobs to this state.”

Expanding broadband access statewide, possibly through a federal partnership similar to the rural electrification program of the 1930s, will attract entrepreneurs and businesses, Ross said. And on the state’s fisheries, Ross said she would support whatever needs to happen for them to thrive “because it’s so important to Maine.”

Ross said she’s all for vocational training in high school and would like to see more programs to help train laid off workers for higher-skilled jobs.

Ross is still thinking on and researching the legalized recreational marijuana issue on the state ballot because she can see the pros and cons, she said. She’s planning to vote against requiring background checks for firearms sales without a license. “I’m all for keeping guns out of the hands of criminals, but I think another effort that’s more tightly drawn might be better.” She’s hearing opposition to the measure as she goes door-to-door in her campaign, Ross added.

She’s for the proposed three–percent surtax on household incomes over $200,000. “Certainly, whatever we can get for the schools, and I’m for people making more money giving a little bit more.” She’s for the proposed ranked choice voting. “It would ensure that whoever is chosen would have the support of the majority of voters,” Ross said. And she’s for raising the minimum wage to $12 by 2020. “Many people in Maine are earning a low income and it’s not enough to raise a family on,” she said.

On education, Ross feels the state should be covering more of the cost. “I absolutely do.” The schools are hurting and property taxes are rising because the state isn’t meeting the 55-percent share, Ross said. Education is one of government’s most important roles, and paid maternity leave and paid sick leave, along with quality, affordable day care are also essential to helping families and raising the standard of living, she added.

Asked about the opioid epidemic, Ross said: “It’s out of control, and it’s one of the things that if I’m elected I will work really hard to try to help with ... It’s something the state Legislature, the governor, and we all have to think hard how best to deal with this. And there have been good steps taken,” like the new recovery collaborative in Lincoln County, to get people the help they need when they ask for it, before they go back to their addictive behavior, she said. Addiction has to be treated as a medical problem, Ross said. She said she supports “severe penalties” for dealers, and prevention programs “to make sure that the younger people don’t get started down this path.”

Covering Congress and before that serving as a Congressional fellow got her comfortable with how a legislative body works and how to work across the aisle, which is what’s needed now, Ross said. “I would make both sides of the aisle compromise, because there isn’t one right way. All of these issues have two sides to them, and I think our politics has become so fraught with distrust, and we’ve got to get over this, for our country and our state ...  I love this state. And I’d love to help if I could ... and I feel I have the background for it.”