đź“°BIDDEFORD | OPINION | If You Want Different Results, Stop Voting for the Same Record
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
By Jason Litalien
Independent candidate, Maine State Senate District 32 • Biddeford, Dayton, Hollis, Lyman, and Arundel
October 28, 2026, I am a Biddeford native, Biddeford High School graduate, U.S. Air Force Veteran, I earned my law degree at the University of Maine School of Law, and I work with my wife, Kristen, at Litalien Law, helping local families with the real issues that affect them every day.
Our property taxes and cost of living keep rising and State decisions on school funding, spending growth, and revenue sharing directly increase the bills we all pay.
Henry voted for the taxes that make those pressures worse, including the new 5.5 percent sales tax on streaming services, the $1.50 increase in the cigarette tax, the cannabis tax increase, and the supplemental budget that included a 2 percent surtax. He called himself proud of it and claims that he helps working Mainers. Meanwhile Maine’s next budget faces a roughly $1.3 billion shortfall. I do not follow the logic that raising taxes on working Mainers helps them in any way.
When Henry arrived in the House in 2018, the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT ranked Maine 19th in education. In the 2025 Data Book Maine finished 41st. About three-quarters of fourth graders are not proficient in reading and about three-quarters of eighth graders are not proficient in math. We spend above the national average per pupil and get bottom-tier results.
The same pattern holds at DHHS, where Henry is now Senate chair of Health and Human Services oversight. The department’s own public website child-fatality dashboard lists 64 child deaths in 2024 and 2025. Yet there has been no independent legislative audit demanded by Henry.
Federal auditors found the child-protective office failed to follow its own policies in 94 of 100 sampled investigations. In January 2026 the HHS Office of Inspector General estimated Maine made at least $45.6 million in improper Medicaid payments in 2023 for services to children with autism, with a recommended $28.7 million federal refund, and concluded the state did not provide effective oversight. This was just in one program in one year and yet Henry has still not ordered a full independent audit and there are over 50 programs that DHHS oversees. The savings could be used to lower our taxes.
Henry was at Mechanics Park protesting just hours after the ICE-involved shooting in Biddeford, while he controls oversight for DHHS that allowed 64 child deaths without an investigation. How does he decide which lives warrant his attention and which do not? If I were the chair of that committee, the DHHS commissioner would have been in front of us after the first child death to explain why and how we can prevent future deaths. We are still waiting for him to hold anyone responsible or even ask questions why those deaths continue under his oversight, that he says he is proud of.
The only consistent attack from his side has been to call me a Republican. When I announced I was running as an Independent, a Republican candidate was already in this race. If I were a Republican as they claim, I would have split the non-Democratic vote and had little chance of winning. That would have guaranteed Henry a victory. Their claim is nonsensical and a last-chance attempt to try and sway voters. Henry cannot defend his record of higher taxes, declining school rankings, and weak DHHS oversight, so the party resorts to labels and gaslighting. Only one candidate in this race has cited the public sources for every claim and brought receipts. Simple logic shows their claims are baseless.
I publicly challenged Henry to a debate, yet he did not even respond. Maybe he just realizes that his record is indefensible and a debate would only harm his campaign.
Common sense, lower taxes, stronger schools without more spending, and real accountability at DHHS require a different path. Things won’t get better if you keep sending the people who broke it back to fix it. Henry has already had six years to address these issues, and he has simply ignored them.
I hope to earn your vote on November 3rd.
-Jason Litalien
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jason Litalien is an Independent candidate for Maine Senate District 32. Jason is a Veteran of the UnitedStates Military, and both lives and owns a business in Biddeford, Maine.
According to Litalien's campaign, he is "focused on lowering costs improving education, and supporting responsible growth in Biddeford, Dayton, Hollis, Lyman, and Arundel."
To learn more about Jason Litalien, please visit https://jason4maine.com/.
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