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Peter Bourgelais
From Ballotpedia
This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.
Peter Bourgelais (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Maine House of Representatives to represent District 112. He lost in the general election on November 3, 2020.
Bourgelais completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Bourgelais was born in Stoneham Massachusetts. His professional experience includes working as a 3D environment artist and programmer at Peace Island, LLC—a company based in Portland, Maine, focused on non-violent open-world adventure games. Bourgelais also served as an intern with the Civil Initiative on Internet Policy in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic. He became a circumvention and network interference technologist at Access Now—an NYC-based international human rights nonprofit organization. His duties included assisting global human rights organizations on matters of digital security and the documentation and circumvention of internet censorship. Beginning in 2014, Bourgelais acted as the chief security officer at neweurasia.net, an independent media site focused on Central Asia. He left the nonprofit sector in 2017 to retrain as a game developer. Bourgelais' professional credentials include a permaculture design certificate issued by The Resilience Hub on September 11, 2016. He has been affiliated with the following organizations:
- Chairman (2019), Phillips Planning Board (member since 2015)
- Co-Organizer, Maine Video Game Developers Meetup (since 2019)
- Member, Sandy River Business Association
- Volunteer Bookkeeper, Phillips Farmers' Market
- Member, Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association[1]
Elections
2020
See also: Maine House of Representatives elections, 2020
General election
General election for Maine House of Representatives District 112
Incumbent Thomas Skolfield defeated Peter Bourgelais in the general election for Maine House of Representatives District 112 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Thomas Skolfield (R) | 64.7 | 3,287 |
Peter Bourgelais (D)  | 35.3 | 1,792 | ||
| Total votes: 5,079 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic Primary for Maine House of Representatives District 112
The following candidates advanced in the ranked-choice voting election: Peter Bourgelais in round 1 .
|
Total votes: 728 |
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| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican Primary for Maine House of Representatives District 112
The following candidates advanced in the ranked-choice voting election: Thomas Skolfield in round 1 .
|
Total votes: 813 |
|||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Peter Bourgelais completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Bourgelais' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I have been the chairman of the Phillips Planning Board since 2019, and a member of the board since 2015. I have maintained and developed my family homestead in Phillips since 2015, growing organic peaches, apricots, apples, plums, and assorted greens while raising chickens and uhm..."inviting them to dinner". I have a BA in Political Science (magna cum laude) from the University of Maine-Orono, and a BS in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. I was the first American to intern at the Civil Initiative on Internet Policy in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic. I later became a Circumvention and Network Interference Technologist at Access Now, an NYC-based international human rights nonprofit, where I assisted human rights organizations all over the world on matters of digital security and documenting and circumventing instances of internet censorship. In 2014, I became the Chief Security Officer at neweurasia.net, an independent media site focused on Central Asia that was unjustly censored by Roskomnadzor, the Russian internet blacklist agency, and in Kazakhstan for its reporting on the proliferation of terrorist resources in the region. In 2017, I left the nonprofit sector to retrain as a game developer, and since September 2019 I have worked as a 3D Environment Artist and Programmer at Peace Island, LLC, a Portland ME-based company that is making a non-violent, open-world adventure game based on a fictionalized Peaks Island.
- Ensuring the Green New Deal with a statewide, publicly-owned utility
- Support local organic farmers and protect the right to food
- Build out rural broadband in Maine, whether through public-private partnerships or a publicly-owned ISP
Transitioning to a publicly-owned utility system rather than the mess we currently have with CMP/Emera Maine. Only a publicly owned utility can access the low-cost capital we need to reach the goal of 80% below 1990 emissions levels that the state set in its Green New Deal law.
Supporting local organic farmers as much as possible with regulations that work for them rather than large industrial agriculture, especially by limiting the use of synthetic herbicides and pesticides such as glyphosate and neonicotinoids.
Supporting the broadband rollout that rural Maine desperately needs without demanding a pound of flesh from our municipalities. This means increasing the projected state share of the funding for ConnectMaine implementation grants beyond the approximately 33% share envisioned in the state's broadband action plan.
If we can't get Medicare for All, I absolutely support any and every effort to expand MaineCare, especially in the area of dental care, when dental pain is the leading cause of emergency room visits by MaineCare recipients aged 15-44 in this state.
My grandfather most likely would have starved to death during the Great Depression if not for the New Deal. He got his first job with the Works Progress Administration, fought in the Pacific Theater in WWII, bought a house with an FHA loan, and got the equivalent of an associate's degree through the GI Bill. There is a tradition of economic populists in this country and in Maine specifically that have stood up for the needs of ordinary poor and middle class Americans against the millionaires and billionaires that will exploit them given the chance, and know that government has to step in when the private sector just won't meet the needs of ordinary people. It's people like these who made possible the kind of programs that my grandfather and my family have benefited from so much over the years. FDR, Bernie Sanders, Rick Burns (a Maine state representative who I volunteered for in 2004 and 2006), AOC and The Squad are all people I look up to in this regard in both my rhetoric and my policy decisions.
The documentary Knock Down the House. While all of the candidates profiled are female candidates for US Congress and Senate, we stand for the same things.
The ability to listen to your constituents, whatever their background, and give their concerns far more weight in the legislature than those of your party leadership. My main criticism of the incumbent in this case is that he's good at the polite schmoozing we expect of a candidate when he runs for re-election, but then he goes to Augusta and votes in absolute lock-step with the Republican leadership. He is not representing the people of House District 112. He is representing the Maine Policy Institute, a far-right think tank.
After managing Rick Burns' reelection campaign, taking the position of Chief Security Officer when I worked at neweurasia, running the first and largest group dedicated to game development in the state of Maine, and running the Phillips Planning Board, I have demonstrated strong leadership skills. I'm not afraid to speak up for my district
Representing the people of the district no matter what the party leadership says and constituent service.
One that shows I fought the impending threat that climate change poses to the state and the world.
My dad was a regular viewer of the MacNeil Lehrer News Hour in the 90s, and I have a vague memory of Bill Clinton running for president in 1992 and criticizing then President George HW Bush's "no new taxes" pledge. I remember Clinton saying "you might as well have said 'read my lips: no new taxes for the rich'". I would have been about five years old at the time. I don't believe this influenced my view (which I do hold today) that Republicans tend to only have concern for the tax burdens of rich people rather than poor and middle-class Americans, but it is one of the earliest political/historical memories I can clearly recall.
In my first job, I wrapped chocolate bars and did some basic bookkeeping for my mother's sugar-free chocolate business, Maine Cottage Foods, LLC. I held it from my junior year in high school until I started attending the University of Maine-Orono, and I worked at the business occasionally in college as well.
You'z A Ganxta by DJ Quik
My taste in music varies from month to month, but I've been listening to a lot of R&B/Funk-influenced 90's rap lately.
My taste in music varies from month to month, but I've been listening to a lot of R&B/Funk-influenced 90's rap lately.
Graduating from UMaine into the Great Recession in 2009 was a struggle for me and most people of my generation. Like many Millenials, I know what it's like to not be able to make a student debt payment without outside financial assistance, and to laugh at the very idea of ever owning a home whether you eat avocado toast or store brand Cream of Wheat for breakfast. I wonder if Tom Skolfield even had to take on debt when he got his degree. But I look at what AOC said in response to the attempted jabs that various Republicans made in reference to her background as a bartender, and I want to paraphrase her by saying that if I'm elected, the result will not just be a rebuke of the extreme right-wing policies that folks like Tom Skolfield and the Maine Policy Institute have pushed for so long. It will send a message to struggling Mainers all across this state that if I can make just above and sometimes below minimum wage before taxes and still represent my hometown in Augusta, they can too.
As a practical matter, individual senators tend to have more influence than individual representatives simply because there are far fewer of them. This is also the case in committees, where we have several joint standing committees on matters like appropriations or agriculture that have significantly more representatives than senators. Between the things that I learned from Rick Burns in his time in the legislature and the fact that I will be most likely caucusing with the majority party, I believe I'll do a better than average job at making my constituents' concerns heard in Augusta.
It can be beneficial, but I think it's also important to point out that state legislators can become a little too comfortable in their positions of power and that we do regularly need to vote in some fresh faces. This is why, on balance, I do believe that Maine's term limits for state legislators do more good than harm. If people really do like a certain representative or senator enough to elect them four times in a row, they can bring them back in after two years of trying someone else.
Recovering from the coronavirus pandemic will of course be the top challenge facing this state. How we handle the response will have significant ramifications for the kinds of progressive priorities I believe this state very badly needs. The Republican leadership has already attempted to exploit this pandemic to push all sorts of fiscal austerity, whether necessary or not, and even to freeze the scheduled increase in the minimum wage. The 1% never let a disaster go to waste. We cannot afford to let them succeed.
Like Hamilton or Madison wrote in The Federalist #51, "Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself."
I voted for Governor Mills in 2018, and I approve of her handling of the coronavirus response, but it is the responsibility of the legislature not to serve as a simple rubber stamp on her agenda, but to pursue the priorities of the constituents that elected these representatives in the first place. Serving as a check on both the executive and judicial branches is part of how the government controls itself.
I voted for Governor Mills in 2018, and I approve of her handling of the coronavirus response, but it is the responsibility of the legislature not to serve as a simple rubber stamp on her agenda, but to pursue the priorities of the constituents that elected these representatives in the first place. Serving as a check on both the executive and judicial branches is part of how the government controls itself.
Yes, the kind of face to face "retail politics" that is built on good relationships with other legislators is a key part of a representative's effectiveness. My statement above about incumbents who become too entrenched and comfortable still stands, however, and it is applicable here.
1. Appropriations
2. Energy, Utilities, and Technology
3. Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry
I don't know that I would be able to join the leadership in what would be my first term, but yes, I think that I probably could accomplish more for my district if I joined the leadership.
Yes, Rick Burns was a Democratic state legislator from Berwick from 2004-08. I don't know how many doors I drove him around to as he did his door-to-door canvassing, where he said that he was running and wanted to represent the working people of his district. His tireless efforts for progressive causes, especially organized labor, economic development, health care, and environmental issues, form a model that I want to emulate.
I'm not thinking about future political office at the moment. I'm focused on making my best case possible to the voters of House District 112.
"This town is dying". I will never forget when Ray Gaudette, a selectman in Phillips, said this to me as we toured tax-acquired properties around town. Most of rural Maine has been dying for decades, and it will continue to die, or worse, if we keep electing the same politicians who push the same regressive policies that do nothing but enrich wealthy elites on the coast while the hard-working people of towns like Anson, Kingfield, and Phillips are left to fend for themselves.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2020 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on May 1, 2020
Current members of the Maine House of Representatives
Representatives
District 1
Lucien Daigle (R)
District 2
Roger Albert (R)
District 3
Mark Babin (R)
District 4
District 5
Joseph Underwood (R)
District 6
Donald Ardell (R)
District 7
Gregory Swallow (R)
District 8
Tracy Quint (R)
District 9
Arthur Mingo (R)
District 10
William Tuell (R)
District 11
Tiffany Strout (R)
District 12
District 13
Russell White (R)
District 14
Gary Friedmann (D)
District 15
Holly Eaton (D)
District 16
Nina Milliken (D)
District 17
Steven Bishop (R)
District 18
Mathew McIntyre (R)
District 19
Richard Campbell (R)
District 20
Dani O'Halloran (D)
District 21
Ambureen Rana (D)
District 22
Laura Supica (D)
District 23
Amy Roeder (D)
District 24
Sean Faircloth (D)
District 25
Laurie Osher (D)
District 26
James Dill (D)
District 27
Gary Drinkwater (R)
District 28
Irene Gifford (R)
District 29
Kathy Javner (R)
District 30
James White (R)
District 31
Chad Perkins (R)
District 32
Steven Foster (R)
District 33
Kenneth Fredette (R)
District 34
Abigail Griffin (R)
District 35
James Thorne (R)
District 36
Kimberly Haggan (R)
District 37
Reagan Paul (R)
District 38
Benjamin Hymes (R)
District 39
Janice Dodge (D)
District 40
D. Michael Ray (D)
District 41
Victoria Doudera (D)
District 42
Valli Geiger (D)
District 43
Ann Matlack (D)
District 44
William Pluecker (I)
District 45
Abden Simmons (R)
District 46
Lydia Crafts (D)
District 47
Wayne Farrin (D)
District 48
Holly Stover (D)
District 49
Allison Hepler (D)
District 50
David Sinclair (D)
District 51
Rafael Macias (D)
District 52
Sally Cluchey (D)
District 53
Michael Lemelin (R)
District 54
Karen Montell (D)
District 55
Daniel Shagoury (D)
District 56
District 57
Tavis Hasenfus (D)
District 58
Sharon Frost (U)
District 59
David Rollins (D)
District 60
William Bridgeo (D)
District 61
Alicia Collins (R)
District 62
Katrina Smith (R)
District 63
Paul Flynn (R)
District 64
Flavia DeBrito (D)
District 65
Cassie Julia (D)
District 66
Robert Nutting (R)
District 67
Shelley Rudnicki (R)
District 68
Amanda Collamore (R)
District 69
Dean Cray (R)
District 70
Jennifer Poirier (R)
District 71
John Ducharme (R)
District 72
Elizabeth Caruso (R)
District 73
District 74
Randall Hall (R)
District 75
Stephan Bunker (D)
District 76
Sheila Lyman (R)
District 77
District 78
District 79
Michael Lance (R)
District 80
Caldwell Jackson (R)
District 81
Peter Wood (R)
District 82
Nathan Wadsworth (R)
District 83
Marygrace Cimino (R)
District 84
Mark Walker (R)
District 85
District 86
Rolf Olsen (R)
District 87
David Boyer (R)
District 88
Quentin Chapman (R)
District 89
Adam Lee (D)
District 90
Laurel Libby (R)
District 91
Joshua Morris (R)
District 92
Stephen Wood (R)
District 93
Julia McCabe (D)
District 94
Kristen Cloutier (D)
District 95
Mana Abdi (D)
District 96
Michel Lajoie (D)
District 97
Richard Mason (R)
District 98
Kilton Webb (D)
District 99
Cheryl Golek (D)
District 100
Dan Ankeles (D)
District 101
Poppy Arford (D)
District 102
Melanie Sachs (D)
District 103
Arthur Bell (D)
District 104
Amy Arata (R)
District 105
Anne Graham (D)
District 106
Barbara Bagshaw (R)
District 107
Mark Cooper (R)
District 108
Parnell Terry (D)
District 109
Eleanor Sato (D)
District 110
District 111
Amy Kuhn (D)
District 112
District 113
Grayson Lookner (D)
District 114
Dylan Pugh (D)
District 115
Michael Brennan (D)
District 116
Samuel Zager (D)
District 117
Matthew Moonen (D)
District 118
Yusuf Yusuf (D)
District 119
Charles Skold (D)
District 120
Deqa Dhalac (D)
District 121
District 122
Matthew Beck (D)
District 123
Michelle Boyer (D)
District 124
Sophia Warren (D)
District 125
District 126
Andrew Gattine (D)
District 127
Morgan Rielly (D)
District 128
District 129
Marshall Archer (D)
District 130
Lynn Copeland (D)
District 131
Lori Gramlich (D)
District 132
Ryan Fecteau (D)
District 133
Marc Malon (D)
District 134
Traci Gere (D)
District 135
Daniel Sayre (D)
District 136
John Eder (R)
District 137
Nathan Carlow (R)
District 138
Mark Blier (R)
District 139
David Woodsome (R)
District 140
Wayne Parry (R)
District 141
Lucas Lanigan (R)
District 142
District 143
District 144
Jeffrey Adams (R)
District 145
Robert Foley (R)
District 146
Walter Runte (D)
District 147
Holly Sargent (D)
District 148
Thomas Lavigne (R)
District 149
Tiffany Roberts (D)
District 150
Michele Meyer (D)
District 151
Kristi Mathieson (D)
Democratic Party (76)
Republican Party (73)
Independent (1)
Unenrolled (1)
