By Amanda Estes

Staff Writer

When Bryan Kaenrath, at the age of 23, decided to run for the
opportunity to represent South Portland in the Maine House of
Representatives, his family and friends questioned his decision.

    “Some friends… said that’s kind of crazy,” he said.
“My parents weren’t all that thrilled with it at the beginning because
they didn’t think I had much of a chance.”

    Kaenrath said he spent last July knocking on just
about every door in the district. His emphasis on “face to face
contact” paid off and on November 7, 2006 he won the race with 1,692
votes to Republican David Feeney’s 971 votes.  

    Now 24 years old, Kaenrath has just finished the
first session of his first term and he remains the youngest member of
the state legislature. As such, he has good naturedly endured the “Do
you have your I.D.?” jokes from fellow legislators.

    “I think it’s a big experience for anyone, but being
23 and just out of college, it’s obviously different for me,” he said.
“It takes some getting used to, there is a lot to learn, but I think
it’s manageable.”  

    Kaenrath said he thought he knew a lot about the
legislative process, but upon arriving in Augusta, he realized he
didn’t understand all of the procedures. He also realized that even
seasoned representatives do not fully understand everything. He said he
was surprised to learn the regularity with which negotiations are
happening outside the house chamber and the legislative body is waiting
for something to happen.  

        “I think the biggest hurdle,
being so young, is that you’re not knowledgeable and important
enough-people don’t think you can handle it,” he said. “If you just
demonstrate that you know what you’re talking about-at least
somewhat-it gives you some credibility.”

    Kaenrath said the best way to prepare for office is
to become knowledgeable about the issues and develop a vision for the
future.

    “If you have that, I think you’re all set,” he said.

    A native of New Jersey, Kaenrath graduated from the
University of Maine at Orono in 2006 with a degree in political
science.  A volunteer for various political campaigns since the
age of 16 or 17 and student council member in high school, Kaenrath was
also a student government member in college and president of the
College Democrats organization.

    During his last semester of college, Kaenrath said
he began entertaining the idea of running for state representative.
After he graduated and moved to South Portland, he talked to Rep. Larry
Bliss, who said no candidates had come forward to express an interest
in representing district 124, the western half of the city, in the
house.

    With the support of Bliss, Jane Eberle and the local
Democratic committee, Kaenrath began to plan his campaign.

    Kaenrath’s win marked a changing of the guard in
some ways as Republican Kevin Glynn held the seat for the last four
terms.  Glynn, who was termed out of office, ran an unsuccessful
campaign for Lynn Bromley’s seat in the state senate last year.  

     “Numbers wise it looks favorable to a
Democrat, but they’ve obviously elected Republicans in the past so it
could have gone either way.”

    In March, Kaenrath introduced a bill to draw
attention to the need for noise abatement measures along Interstate
295, particularly near exits three and four, and to increase the
funding for the creation of a sound barrier. Kaenrath said three
quarters of the area experiences levels of noise over the federal
limits. According to the Maine Legislature Web site, the bill called
for the Department of Transportation’s statewide noise policy allowing
for an abatement cost limit of $20,000 per affected property to be
adjusted for inflation.

    The bill failed, but Kaenrath said he plans to
submit another bill calling for more funding in the next session.

    During his first term Kaenrath, who serves on the
Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committees, discovered how difficult
it is to balance a career with public service. When Kaenrath entered
the office, he was working as a lab assistant in the histology lab at
Nordex Laboratory in Scarborough. He had to leave his job, however
because committee assignments required him to be in Augusta three or
four days a week and on the days when he didn’t have committee
meetings, the legislature was in session.

    “I was optimistic in the beginning that I could
continue working at the lab and be in Augusta,” he said. “It’s
incredibly difficult to have a full-time job and be in the legislature
at the same time. The people that are most successful are those that
are retired, have their own business, their own law practice, things
like that where they can set their own schedule and get away.”

    Kaenrath said, however, serving in the legislature
can be difficult and a time commitment, regardless of a person’s age,
career, or financial standing.

    He said his decision to run for office right out of
college is not the norm and while there are a lot of “passionate young
people out there,” many of them do not have the resources to run for a
public office.

    “People who are just getting out of school, they
have a lot of other things to worry about like getting a career
started, paying off student loans, all kinds of things,” he said.
“Younger people tend to have other interests and other concerns.
They’re not homeowners. I think people who pay more taxes usually are
more politically involved.”    

        Looking forward to the next
session, Kaenrath said he hopes to focus more on environmental issues.

        “I’d like to focus more on
some environmental concerns,” he said. “That’s an area I think I’d like
to get more involved in-land conservation and some of our air and water
quality issues.”

    In this last session, he said the legislature did
some important work in terms of environmental issues. The legislature
passed RGGI, or the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a carbon
dioxide emissions cap-and-trade program for power plants located within
nine Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states. He said the Land for Maine’s
Future program also received more funding for land conservation.

    Kaenrath said he thinks another attempt at tax
reform, particularly property tax reform, will also be on the horizon.

    “I think we need to try that again because it’s what
people talk about and it’s what they want,” he said. “It failed last
time but I think we need to come up with a new proposal or the governor
does and we need to come back at that and pass some sort of tax reform
measure.”

    Looking ahead in his own life, Kaenrath said with a
laugh that he is using the five months in between sessions to determine
what “I’m going to be doing with myself.” He is taking the LSAT or Law
School Admission Test this September and said someday he would like to
work in the district attorney’s office.  

    As for his future in the legislature, Kaenrath said he will run for another term.

    “I’d like to do this for awhile,” he said. “Where it takes me, we’ll see, but I’d like to stay involved.”