Jessica Chase Smith
eyes District 5 seat
By Scott Mitchell Johnson
PRESQUE ISLE – At the June 8 primary election, Presque Isle residents voted to place Jessica Lynn Chase on the Nov. 2 ballot as the Republican challenger for the Maine House of Representatives District 5 seat.
However, when voters head to the polls in the fall, they will have the choice to vote for Jessica Chase Smith. The name change is due to her recent marriage to Zachary Earl Smith, Aroostook County GOP chairman.
“We got married June 13,” said Chase Smith, 23. “It is really a stroke of luck that the names worked out that way, as I am very honored to be able to carry the Chase Smith name. Margaret Chase Smith is a distant relative of mine and has greatly influenced my desire to enter into politics. She was an amazing role model for all women and really paved the way for women in politics. I really hope some of her spirit can carry into my campaign; she truly represented what it means to be a Mainer.
“It’s been very busy trying to run a campaign and enjoy life as newlyweds,” she said. “Zachary’s acting as my campaign manager and he’s such a huge help. He’s better at crunching numbers than I am, so I let him crunch the numbers and I go out and talk to the people.”
Chase Smith grew up in Mars Hill where she attended local schools and graduated salutatorian from Central Aroostook High School in 2005. She is currently majoring in history at the University of Maine at Presque Isle.
In addition to attending school, she also works at a local convenience store.
Chase Smith said she decided to run for the District 5 seat as a way to become more involved in her community.
“My family has a long line of serving people … they’ve been in the military and my little brother is in the fire department,” she said. “It was just really important to me to be able to serve … especially serve the community that helped out a lot when my father was sick.
“Right now it’s the absolute most important time for everybody to get involved,” said Chase Smith. “We have so much going on and there are so many important issues. I really feel like now is the time to get involved, try to make a difference and bring a new voice to the situation.”
The Republican candidate, who will challenge incumbent Rep. Mike Willette for the District 5 seat, has been busy meeting local residents and businesspeople and raising funds for her campaign.
“We’re doing mostly fund-raising right now because I’m a traditionally-financed candidate,” she said. “I really had a problem with taking taxpayers’ dollars to fund my campaign while at the same time we’re closing schools because we don’t have money, so I have to fund raise all of my money unlike most of the other candidates which get a check from the state saying, ‘Here’s your campaign funds.’”
While there are many important issues facing the state, Chase Smith said her Number One objective, if elected, would be to “change the business climate in Maine.”
“A lot of how we do that is instead of having Augusta tell businesses what they need to do in order to improve themselves, Augusta really needs to get out of the way,” she said. “We need to start letting businesses and Mainers do what they do best and overcome problems. Maine has overcome some amazing problems in the past, and I really think if we get government out of the way that we can solve a lot of these problems on our own.
“Whatever comes up I want to do what’s best for the people of Maine and the people of Presque Isle,” said Chase Smith. “They’re the ones that elected me so those are the people that I need to answer to.”
Chase Smith said people should vote for her because she “believes in representing the people.”
“It’s not for me personally and it’s not an exercise for my ego,” she said. “When I get in there this November, I really believe that your job is to represent the people. That’s what your title is and that’s what you need to do. It’s time to get rid of the people who are there just for the power.”
For more information about Chase Smith’s campaign, log onto www.jessicachasesmith.com.
