Policy players | Nicole Witherbee, Federal Policy Analyst at the Maine Center for Economic Policy in Augusta, and Tarren Bragdon, CEO of the Maine Heritage Policy Center in Portland
Photo/David A. Rodgers
Nicole Witherbee: "We cannot better our country, state or communities unless everyone contributes. That can only happen in an economy that is strong and gives all its citizens an opportunity to work and create."
Photo/David A. Rodgers
Tarren Bragdon: "I have two young kids and I want them to grow up in a state that is more vibrant than the state I grew up in, and certainly more vibrant than the state I live in right now."
When Nicole Witherbee pictures a typical policy wonk, she envisions a middle-aged man with graying hair, wearing a tweed jacket with elbow pads. But that’s not Witherbee, a youthful, redheaded 37-year-old mother of three who also happens to be a federal policy analyst at the liberal Maine Center for Economic Policy in Augusta. “I don’t look the part,” she says.
And neither does Tarren Bragdon, the 32-year-old CEO of Maine Heritage Policy Center, a conservative think tank in Portland. But both individuals have shirked traditional stereotypes to become influential voices in Maine’s public policy debate.
Witherbee, who moved to Portland from Massachusetts with her husband and three children in August 2006, joined MECEP in May 2007 as its federal policy analyst, a new position the organization created to better track how decisions made in Washington, D.C., affect Mainers. Already, she’s made a name for herself: Witherbee has given expert testimony before the state’s Joint Standing Committee on Appropriations and Financial Affairs and regularly speaks at conferences such as the Women Leaders in Public Life Conference at Bowdoin College and to agencies like the Maine Department of Labor. Staffers of Maine’s congressional delegation frequently call on her for research or advice on issues.
Indeed, the attention Witherbee has received this year is proof that a full-time analyst tracking federal policy was sorely needed in Maine, a state that receives one-third of its public funding from the federal government. “What’s happening in federal policy right now will have an enormous impact in Maine,” Witherbee says.
In Massachusetts, Witherbee held state policy jobs at the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless and the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, and completed a Ph.D. from Brandeis University. After her experience in Boston, Witherbee says Maine’s capitol is a breath of fresh air. “It’s nice to be in a place where you really feel it’s less about partisan issues and more about place,” she says in her Augusta office. “There’s a sense of embracing place and wanting to protect the people, and I’ve found that across party lines.”
Witherbee says policy is her “passion” and then struggles to explain this. She mentions how she enjoys research and crunching numbers and writing. And then she’s silent for a moment. “This is what it is,” she says, quickly leaning forward in her chair and flattening her palms on her desk. “I love feeling opinionated.”
In January, Tarren Bragdon became CEO of MHPC, the right-leaning think tank in the state. Before taking the MHPC helm, he was the organization’s health care policy specialist. Though only 32, Bragdon already has more than a decade of experience in Maine’s public policy arena. In 1996, at the age of 21, he became the youngest person ever to be elected to Maine’s House of Representatives, where he represented a district in Bangor until 2000.
Since taking the helm at MHPC, Bragdon has helped design a strategic plan for the organization and has led initiatives that have increased the group’s visibility. Most recently, the group launched MaineOpenGov.org, which offers a searchable database that includes the payroll of all state and municipal employees and all state government contracts. The site, Bragdon believes, influences public policy by questioning conventional wisdom, whether about health insurance premiums or the compensation of public employees. “One of the frustrations I had when I served in the Legislature in the late 90s was so much of the public policy debate was driven by anecdote,” he says. “What we’re trying to do is inject facts and information in the conversation. So our goal is to challenge folks of all political stripes with what is true, and thinking about the challenges that we face today.”
Youth offers Bragdon and Witherbee a perspective that may add new energy to age-old debates on issues such as health care and taxes. Youth also offers them a longer-term perspective than many of the people currently serving in Augusta. “Ultimately, I will have to live for many more years in this state than a lot of other people who may be making decisions today that they won’t have to live with for 40 years, 50 years, and God willing, I will,” Bragdon explains.
Though Witherbee and Bragdon represent opposite sides of the ideological aisle, they are also strikingly similar. Both got involved in public policy at a young age. Both are passionate about Maine. Both are parents striving to make Maine a better place for their children. Both agree that reaching across political party lines is necessary to create change. And both believe public policy is the way to do it.
“Good public policy,” Bragdon says, “can help people become prosperous and help our state have a more vibrant future.”
Whit Richardson
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