Gov. Baldacci, distinguished guests, family and friends, you have no idea how grateful I am to be here today. My life’s path has led me here.
And I am so happy to be here. And my mother, going on 92 years young, is also very happy to be here.
She is particularly excited that I will be serving on the Baxter Park Authority, fulfilling the prophecy she made decades ago, that I would be “forever wild.”
I am grateful for the presence of my husband Stan, who has been so patient and supportive, my stepdaughters and good friends-Lisl, Tammy & Coleen; and my brothers, Sen. Peter Mills, with whom I have worked for
the past fourteen years and who has taught me more than he’ll ever know about the practice of law and life; my accomplished brother, author, historian and attorney, Paul Mills; and my sister, “surgeon general”
Dora Mills. I regret that my brother David could not be with us today.
I want to express my gratitude to Steve Rowe, who has been so gracious and generous with his time, and who has directed this office with such leadership, common sense and love; who is obviously so well loved in
return by his staff and whom we will greatly miss in state government, at least for now.
These constitutional offices, the Atty. General, the Treasurer, the Sec. of State, are a hybrid of the three branches of our government. They are elected by the Legislature, subject to the Judiciary, serving the
Executive.
Like the crossed rafters and beams, the trusses, of an old Maine barn, the three branches that support and sustain our government are equally strong, equally important, resilient and interdependent.
And the constitutional officers, I believe, are the brackets, the wedges, the independent glue that secures those beams, that fixes them
to the solid long ridge beam that is our Constitution.
The integrity and hard work of these offices keeps our Constitution
strong, our people confident in their government.
The oath I have just taken is the same oath taken by Nathan Clifford in
1834. Mr. Clifford served as Attorney General for three years and went
on to be a U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
It is the same oath that was taken by William Frye, former Mayor of
Lewiston, co-founder of Bates College, who became the longest serving
Mainer in the Congress of the United States.
It is the same oath taken by Thomas Brackett Reed of Portland, who
became one of the most powerful people in the country as the Speaker of
the House of Representatives in Washington, and a close friend of Mark
Twain.
It is the same oath taken by William R. Pattangall of Waterville and
Pembroke who served two different terms as Attorney General and who
became the Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Court.
Whatever those men accomplished in later years, they took their duties as Attorney General seriously. It is a position that can do great things for the people of Maine.
In reviewing my own place in the history of this office, something stood out, of course… something that makes me different and unique…
Yes, out of the long line of Attorneys General down through history, 55 individuals over 178 years of our state’s corporate existence, I am the first and only Attorney General…from Franklin County.
There have been 14 AGs from Portland and 6 from Bangor, 32 from elsewhere.
I am from the foothills of Western Maine, a place where we look up to the mountains and where we look down and across onto the cities in the lowlands, where the sunsets are bright, snow aplenty, and the soil is
still good for growing. Where the river bottoms are lined with ocean sand from some ancient glacier deposit, where there are four definite
seasons… seasons of swimming, hunting, skiing and planting.
Today, we are in a season of change, regardless of the calendar, here and in our nation’s capital, we are moving the goals, challenging the agenda, taking new roads.
The road I take is one that will open opportunities for every girl growing up in this state who once had dreams but who had to put them aside.
I ran for office because I believed I was the most qualified person for the job. And I hope that history proves it so.
I also ran for every Maine woman and girl who grows up in the shadows of Margaret Chase Smith and who seeks opportunity in this state.
I stand here on behalf of children like my 6-year old niece Julia, who will grow up competing on an equal footing with her wonderful brother Anthony.
Julia, don’t ever let anyone tell you can’t compete, with friends, classmates, and others, regardless of where they are from, regardless of the color of their skin, their race, their religion, their gender,
orientation or beliefs.
Julia, dear, today we begin to color outside the lines. We are changing the lines, and redrawing the lines. Not cutting corners, but improving the road, expanding the landscape, like an Aroostook County sunrise enlarges the horizon.
We are changing something about what is ‘normal,’ about what is expected and of whom it is expected, here and around our country.
I know that whatever I am able to achieve in this position will be not because of who I am but because of what I do.
Today I begin what I have referred to fondly and with some anticipation, as running the largest law firm in the State of Maine.
Today I begin the job of litigating, negotiating, arbitrating, mitigating,–the job of resolving differences, of defending the people, of heading up a team of men and women who will represent the face of
Maine people in the courts and in the public eye.
And we will do so with integrity and with honor,–to hold the beams and trusses of government sturdy against strong winds.
Much of what we will do will not be heard or heralded. There will be few victory speeches; for the lives that are not lost; for the businesses and
consumers made whole; for the workers returned to
a job; for the child no longer abused; for the tribal member whose voice
is heard; or for a citizen not denied due process.
This will be our quiet work of solving problems diligently before they are known,
Not because they are known.
And if we may touch one life and make it better, if I may change, the
course of the state in some small way, if we can make people feel just a bit better about living and working in our state. If I can make that difference, I will count my career, my life, a success, without more.
And I will always count myself so lucky to be standing here today, in this historic Chamber, in the cross beams, if not the cross hairs, of the three branches of government, taking the oath of my predecessors
before this most distinguished audience.
Thank you.