Brautigam
AUGUSTA, Maine (Legal Newsline) - Only a few weeks remain until Maine lawmakers will choose the state's next attorney general.
With Attorney General Steven Rowe set to leave the post because of term limits, three Democratic members of the state House of Representatives are campaigning to replace him.
They are John Brautigam, a Stanford-educated lawyer who has worked as an assistant attorney general; Sean Faircloth, the majority whip in the House; and Janet Mills, a former district attorney who would be the first female attorney general in the state's history.
Newly elected members of the state Legislature will take their seats on Dec. 3 and will pick the next attorney general before the end of the year. Democrats control both the House and Senate.
Brautigam previously worked as the executive director of a Portland non-profit, the Maine Citizen Leadership Fund. Brautigam also participated in the State's defense of Maine Rx, a program designed to lower prescription drug prices for the uninsured.
It was alleged the program violated interstate commerce laws. Brautigam helped successfully defend it in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Faircloth did not seek re-election to a fourth term in the Legislature, opting to focus on running for attorney general. Faircloth says much of his legislation has centered on protecting children, like the enactment of a deadbeat dad child support law he spearheaded.
Mills worked as the district attorney for Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties for almost 15 years and was president of the Maine Prosecutors Association for four years.
Since 1995, she has worked at Wright & Mills in Skowhegan.
Maine is the only state in which the attorney general is picked by the Legislature.
From Legal Newsline: Reach John O'Brien by e-mail at john@legalnewsline.com.