BOBBY CHARLES TO MEET WITH FRONTLINE ADDICTION AND RECOVERY WORKERS ACROSS MAINE

AUGUSTA - Bobby Charles, Republican candidate for Governor, will spend this week visiting treatment and recovery centers across Maine, meeting directly with the people fighting the state's addiction crisis on the front lines.

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Addiction has been a central focus of Charles' campaign because it touches nearly every family in Maine, directly or indirectly. Next week, Charles wants to hear firsthand from the counselors, outreach workers, and recovery staff who deal with this crisis every day: what's working, what's failing, and what they need from the state government to do their jobs.

"This is what a governor should be doing," Charles said. "Getting out of Augusta and listening to the people actually doing the work, not just talking about it from a podium."

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Charles pointed to Hannah Pingree's record as a reason the state government has lost the trust of people living through this crisis. Pingree led Maine's opioid response for five years through the Governor's Office of Policy Innovation and the Future, years that became the five worst in state history for overdose deaths. In 2018, before Pingree took over, Maine recorded 354 overdose deaths. Under her leadership, that number climbed as high as 723, and in 2021 Maine's increase in overdose deaths ranked third worst in the entire country. Neighboring New Hampshire, with a nearly identical population, held roughly steady over that same stretch, never coming close to Maine's numbers.

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"Hannah Pingree had five years and an entire state agency built for her so she could do this job, and it became the worst period in Maine's history for overdose deaths," Charles said. "Meanwhile, our biggest cities are still dealing with open drug activity and homelessness that the state government has failed to get a handle on. As governor, I'll go after the cartels and gangs bringing drugs into our state, stop the flow of drugs at the source, and stop enabling addiction instead of managing it. That starts with listening to the people living this crisis every day, which is what I'm doing this week."

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