Maine Senate confirms former state lawmaker, brewery owner as new public advocate

Heather Sanborn, former state legislator and co-founder of Rising Tide Brewing, was nominated Gov. Janet Mills to serve as Maine Public Advocate. (Official photo)

The Maine Senate confirmed Heather Sanborn as the state’s next public advocate Tuesday. 

An attorney, former state legislator and co-founder of Rising Tide Brewing in Portland, Sanborn will serve a four-year term advocating on behalf of Maine’s ratepayers. Sanborn received somewhat narrow support from the Legislature’s Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee earlier this month. The Senate voted 19-15 Tuesday to uphold the committee’s support of the nomination.

Because of the push to reduce carbon emissions and electrify everything from transportation to home heating, Sen. Rick Bennett (R-Oxford) said the public advocate “is indeed one of the most important positions in state government.”

“We need a public advocate who is smart, judicious, legally-schooled and politically savvy, independently minded; someone who understands the needs of a whole range of Mainers,” Bennett said on the Senate floor. “Such a person, in my belief, is Heather Sanborn.”

While Bennett went on to praise her background as a small business owner, calling it “refreshing” to nominate someone who hasn’t solely worked in law, one of his Republican colleagues argued Sanborn wasn’t qualified for the role. 

Assistant Senate Minority Leader Matt Harrington of York County said the nominee’s one term on the Legislature’s energy committee was not enough to make her qualified. Harrington voted against Sanborn’s confirmation as a member of the energy committee and again on the Senate floor Tuesday.

While the majority of those opposed to Sanborn’s nomination were Republicans, a few Democrats, including Sen. Mike Tipping of Penobscot County and Sen. Nicole Grohoski of Hancock County, also voted against her confirmation. No Democrats spoke in opposition on the Senate floor about their reasoning.

During the public hearing before the energy committee, Sanborn said her focus would be stabilizing and lowering costs for ratepayers, with a primary focus on low-income customers. 

Gov. Janet Mills nominated Sanborn to take over the role advocating for utility ratepayers after current Public Advocate William Harwood announced he would be retiring at the end of the month. 

Though she served in the Maine House of Representatives and Senate as a Democrat, Sanborn said the role of the public advocate requires independent judgement. She said she believes she can uphold that because lowering costs are not partisan issues, adding that she would wager that everyone serving in the Legislature, regardless of political party, would agree that energy should be affordable. 

The Office of the Public Advocate represents Maine’s utility customers by advocating for rates, services and practices that benefit ratepayers. This work takes place in regulatory and court proceedings, most of which are before the Maine Public Utilities Commission.

The office also testifies before the Legislature on matters affecting utility customers, intervenes on federal regulatory cases and works with ISO New England, the regional electric transmission grid operator.

For example, Maine’s Public Advocate Office recently joined 21 other states in filing an amicus brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to save a program designed to make telephone service and internet access affordable for low-income, rural and tribal residents. 

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