When independent candidate for governor Eliot Cutler came by Knox Mill in Camden recently he said, “If the rest of Maine could be like Belfast to Rockland and Portland we’d be in great shape.” In the middle of explaining why (in a nutshell, the thriving coastal economy doesn’t reflect what’s happening inland) his train of thought was interrupted by the clatter of a hammer drill coming from another part of the building.

A thriving economy, as it turns out, can be noisy.

Cutler the gubernatorial candidate is familiar to Mainers by now. In 2010, the retired environmental attorney and businessman took a close second to Paul LePage in a three-way race for the Blaine House. Despite beating Democratic nominee Libby Mitchell handily, Cutler was branded by some as a spoiler, responsible for LePage winning with less than 40-percent of the popular vote.

Speculation continues about the Independent’s second bid and a possible repeat of 2010, but Cutler isn’t interested in hearing about it. In short, he believes he’s the best person for the job, and that this is the qualification that matters most.

He has not held elected office, and aside from founding the post-election spin-off organization One Maine, he has remained outside of the political arena since he ran for governor four years ago. Against this, voters will have to weigh his outside experience, which is extensive and varied.

During an hour-long conversation with editors and reporters from the Penobscot Bay Pilot, Boothbay Register and Wiscasset Newspaper, Cutler fielded questions about his plans as governor, lessons he’s learned from the business world, and what he’s been doing for the last four years. 

The conversation picked up where the hammer drill left off.

Should all of the state be like coastal Maine, then?

“No, there are dramatically different incomes, employment, prosperity, activity in different parts of Maine,” Cutler said. “It’s very easy for people to become convinced or convince themselves that, if we’re doing pretty well in Rockland or Camden or Belfast or Portland, that we’re doing pretty well everywhere, and we’re not.”

Legalizing marijuana is in the air right now, what’s your position on it?

Cutler said he was not in a hurry to decide. He noted that Maine has a chance to watch other states (Colorado, Washington) that have legalized it, and make a “considered decision” down the road. 

“The fact that people are organizing petition drives and so forth does not say to me that I’ve got to make a decision,” he said.

Legislatures that have been squeezed see taxing legalized marijuana as a magic new revenue stream in; how can Maine resist?

“That’s clearly one of the motivations that’s behind a lot of people’s support for legalization and I get that,” he said.

Asked if he had smoked it, he said he had, “A couple of times. Literally.” He recalled the feeling of getting high once in his 20s. “It was not a pleasant experience because I couldn’t understand why everyone else was lucid and coherent and I wasn’t.”

Legalizing marijuana goes against federal law. Having worked in the federal sphere, do you see that as a viable approach? 

Local sovereignty ordinances passed in some towns in Maine have likewise tried to preempt federal law.  

On marijuana, Cutler noted that the Obama administration has decided not to exercise its prosecutorial authority in Colorado or Washington. He objected to conflating the legalization of marijuana with farmers wanting to, for example, sell unlabeled milk.

Do you have someone in mind to replace Commissioner Pat Keliher at the Department of Marine Resources, and do you have other changes in mind for DMR?

“No. I like Pat Keliher. I think he’s done a very fine job. I think that is measured by the fact that I don’t think I’ve met a fisherman in the state who would disagree with what I just said.” Cutler said that’s not a promise that he’ll keep Keliher, but said has no present intention to replace him.

On fishing, Cutler talked about the lobster export business he co-founded after the last election. It was hard to get fishermen to sign on, he said, possibly because they were wary of deviating from traditional markets. Cutler said it concerned him. 

“It’s on their livelihood, by and large, that the survival of Maine’s coastal villages depends.”

If we lose those, he said, Maine’s largest industry, tourism, will suffer greatly.

The lobster export business had an element of vertical integration. Do you look at Maine’s lumber resource the same way?

Not necessarily, he said.

“The lobster industry and lobster fishermen have a longer history of organizing themselves into co-ops. Unlike the lumber industry, there’s a history of dramatic price differences as you go up the chain of distribution that do not always reflect added value.”

By contrast, he said, in the wood fiber business, the value added in paper making or furniture is more evident.

Cutler went on to say that he believes Maine has only scratched the surface on a huge, worldwide market for lobster. 

“If you go to China, or India, or Japan, and you say here’s Maine lobster, they don’t know what Maine is,” he said. “We have failed to develop a brand for this state even though it’s an asset that we own that’s of enormous value. It’s mythic.”

Haven’t we spent a lot of money on it?

Cutler quizzed the group on the slogan of the Maine Tourism Association. No one knew the answer (“It’s the Maine thing”). 

“There are six of you sitting here. You’re all Mainers. None of you knows what the brand is for the state of Maine, what our tourist slogan is, but you all know what Virginia’s is, what New York’s is and what pork’s is.”

But if you buy a child’s puzzle or a placemat of the United States, Maine has a lobster on it. So you’re talking about outside the United States.

He was. Cutler said Maine hasn’t successfully moved beyond the domestic marketplace that was the focus when he was growing up. 

“Now we’re competing and looking for opportunity in a marketplace of 6-8 billion people, and we’re still behaving and thinking as though we were working in a 150 million person market.”

When the recession hit, the message from the Maine Tourism Association was “staycation,” which is around one percent of the traffic a local inn might see in a year. As part of this branding thing, where do you see taking the Maine Tourism Association? 

It’s not the Maine Tourism Association’s fault, Cutler said, noting that the state spends around $10 million per year on marketing the tourism industry, which is low in comparison with some other states where tourism is a large part of the economy. As part of his property tax relief plan (described more below) he would double spending on tourism and marketing, and develop a brand for the state that doesn’t change every few years. 

“Brand development requires investment and it takes years, a decade or more, to do it,” he said. “And we’ve shifted, in Maine, both the people who work on it and the slogan literally every two years. You get what you pay for.”

How does a tourist town in the Midcoast fare under your proposal to raise the sales tax to 7 percent from May to October?

The proposal is one of two avenues Cutler would take to take pressure off property taxes by increasing sales tax:

• Raise sales tax to 5.5-6 percent year-round

• Keep sales tax at 5 percent, but raise it to 7 percent from May through October.

The second option would look to direct the burden toward visitors to Maine, which Cutler acknowledged is not popular with innkeepers and other seasonal business owners. But he expressed doubt that it would damage tourism, noting that meals and lodging are currently subject to 8 percent tax.

“If everybody is so nervous and they don’t want to try this (going to 7 percent for part of the year), then we (do) can the simple thing and go from five-and-a-half to six percent,” he said. “The problem with that, the shortcoming, is that we’re not going to be exporting any of our tax burden, and I think we ought to.”

Cutler’s property tax relief plan would also broaden the sales tax base to include certain recreational activities like bowling and skiing.

What about Internet sales?

“I’m for taxing Internet sales,” he said, noting that this is part of his second property tax relief plan.

You’ve talked about a more vigorous state role in planning the health care system. What would the state be doing that it’s not doing now?

“A lot,” he said. Cutler talked about three issues he sees as problematic for health care in Maine:

• Consolidation — Cutler projected that consolidation of hospital systems will leave Maine with just two (Maine Health and Eastern Maine) within several years (today there are five). “That’s a duopolistic, pretty noncompetitive environment.” 

• Insurance costs — Maine’s are the fifth highest in the country, he said, and it’s more expensive to buy insurance in northern and eastern Maine, which in turn drives hospitals toward performing more procedures and in turn drives up insurance costs.

• Hospitals are in trouble again — Cutler said LePage’s repayment of hospitals was only a temporary achievement. “It was sort of a sugar high that they got repaid what they were owed by the state.” Cutler said the governor has made things worse by his general refusal of federal assistance, for expansion of Medicaid coverage, and to set up insurance exchanges. Generally, Cutler said, he believes in “turning incentives right side up” (paying for outcomes instead of procedures), but that the state has work to do with the hospital systems.

What have you accomplished since the last election that should move us to consider voting for you?

“Well, the question is, ‘What have I done since the last election,’ I guess? People have to decide whether or not it’s worth voting for me.”

Here he gave an extensive list. He had started two businesses: Maine Seafood Ventures (exporting lobster to China — he started this business with four others, and has since sold his interest back to two remaining partners) and Maine Asia and a subsidiary, Arch Solar (pilot projects will use UMaine’s “bridge-in-a-backpack” technology along with solar energy systems in the service of year-round agriculture in places like Maine. He is the president of a foundation that gives to Maine charitable organizations, he started One Maine and is partner in a venture in Texas looking into storing wind generated energy with compressed air.

So you’ve been busy.

“The Democrats promote this question because it’s like, ‘Where have you been if you haven’t been in the legislature?’”

If you lose, would you take a position in the LePage or Michaud administration?

“Not a chance.”

Will you drop out if it looks like the vote is ...

“No.”

We always hear campaign promises about getting small businesses to thrive, but that never materializes. Do you have a realistic plan for small businesses?

“The biggest two problems that small businesses in Maine face is the availability of trained and healthy workers,” he said, adding that the state needs to be proactive on the health and education of workers.

Ethan Andrews can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com