U.S. Sen. Angus King to discuss D.C.’s workings in Civic Forum

U.S. Sen. Angus King will deliver remarks titled How Washington Works (Or Doesn’t) in a Civic Forum Series event at  Bates at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 14, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.

Sponsored by the Harward Center for Community Partnerships at Bates, the talk is open to the public at no cost. For more information, please call 207-786-6202.

The Civic Forum Series invites audiences to contemplate civic, political, and policy issues significant to Maine and beyond. The Harward Center for Community Partnerships supports Bates students, faculty, and staff in realizing the college’s civic mission through partnerships that connect the college and the community in mutually beneficial and transformative ways.

King was sworn in as Maine’s first independent United States senator in 2013. He is a steadfast believer in the need for greater bipartisan dialogue and relationship building among legislators.

Beginning his career as a staff attorney for Pine Tree Legal Assistance, King worked with Maine Sen. William D. Hathaway in Washington, D.C., returned to Maine to practice law, and in the 1980s became involved in energy development and conservation.

In 1994, he was elected Maine’s 72nd governor, at the time the nation’s only independent governor. During his two terms in the Blaine House, he focused on economic development and job creation, and also achieved significant reforms in education, mental health services, land conservation, environmental protection, and the delivery of state services.

He was re-elected in 1998 by one of the largest margins in Maine’s history. A particularly well-known King achievement was the creation of a nationally recognized program to provide laptop computers to every seventh- and eighth-grade student in the state.

King has served as a principal in Independence Wind LLC, has been of counsel to the Portland law firm of Bernstein, Shur, and has taught at Bowdoin and Bates colleges.

He was born in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1944. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1966 and from University of Virginia Law School in 1969.

Upon leaving the Blaine House in 2003, King and his family spent five and a half months driving around the U.S. in a 40-foot RV. Driving coast to coast and reaching the four corners of the Lower 48, the family covered some 15,000 miles. King wrote about their experiences in Governor’s Travels: How I Left Politics, Learned to Back Up a Bus, and Found America (Down East Books, 2011).