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I’m committed to civil discussion. Even if we disagree, I will listen to - and respect you.
In Augusta, I want to work on:
- Keeping property taxes low through continuing to honor the State’s obligation to pay 55% of the cost of K-12 education, and full funding of municipal revenue sharing.
- Bringing people from diverse backgrounds together to plan for our communities’ future, one of my favorite things to do!
- Building prosperity through sharing new ideas, and resources to support things like municipal planning and pre-development costs.
- Exploring opportunities to save taxpayer dollars through coordination/collaboration; Gray and New Gloucester already share a school district- what else can we do together to save tax dollars?
- Supporting working families and seniors through expanding access to affordable housing, health care, child care, and paid family leave.
- Improving self-sufficiency, and supporting small, home-based business, by protecting the right to produce food locally.
- Supporting women's equality and protecting the right to abortion.
- Protecting against climate change by upgrading storm water infrastructure, and transitioning to renewable energy where possible.
- Protecting the right to vote through nonpartisan strategies such as installing secure ballot boxes, early voting, voting by mail, as well as in-person voting.
- Helping Gray and New Gloucester continue to be great places to live, work, and play.
I Am Dedicated to Keeping Gray & New Gloucester at Their Best
My husband Rick and I have lived in Gray for 34 years. It has been a wonderful place to raise our two children. We love our house in the woods and the people of Gray.
Small towns depend on many volunteers, and I've found all sorts of ways to be active in Gray. In 2019, I was elected to the Gray Town Council and served as Vice-Chair; my term ended in June, 2022. I also served on the School Board for a term, on the Zoning Board of Appeals, Gray's first ever Comprehensive Planning Committee, and the Gray Community and Economic Development Committee. For ten years I served on the Board of the Gray Community Endowment, from which I launched the Gray Bike-Ped Committee. My Bike-Ped work led to the creation of the Village Area Loop Trail, which added more walkable paths in the village center- that are now being used by the Nordic walking group. I love it!
I believe in a government that is pragmatic, thrifty, listens to people over politics, and finds solutions to real problems that families and communities face. I will bring these values to the Maine State House as the representative of District 104 (Gray and New Gloucester).
"We've lived in Gray for over thirty years and have watched the community steadily grow and evolve. We're big fans of Anne Gass, who has proven to be a solid representative on both the School Board, and recently the Gray Town Council. Anne has proven to be an effective advocate and leader for a variety of community initiatives that we have supported. We're impressed with her ability to work with a wide variety of people and political viewpoints. We endorse her candidacy for Maine House District 104 and hope you will consider doing the same."
Randy and Janis Visser, Gray
Anne's a Leader
"We've lived in Gray for over thirty years and have watched the community steadily grow and evolve. We understand the need to manage this growth and believe a lot of important issues will be decided at both the local, and state levels of government.
We're big fans of Anne Gass, who has proven to be a solid representative on both the School Board, and recently the Gray Town Council. She is an effective advocate and leader for a variety of community initiatives that we have supported. We're impressed with her ability to work with people who have different backgrounds and political viewpoints. We endorse her candidacy for Maine House District 104 and hope you'll do the same."
Randy and Janis Visser
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"When I moved to Gray, Anne was one of the first people I met. She quickly became the person I called on for recommendations, advice on where to find answers, and was very supportive and enthusiastic when I got involved in Town activities. I trust her judgment and ability to thoroughly research a topic before voting on it." Mary Sweeney Underwood, Gray
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I have had the distinct pleasure of interacting with Anne Gass through my Gray town council. The residents of our road had a council issue that myself and many of my neighbors didn’t agree with and needed help to resolve. As a council member, although she didn’t need to do so, Anne reached out to me to evaluate the extent of the problem and asked how she might assist to remedy it. The problem was a poor council decision. One that she didn’t necessarily agree with, but was bound by through the vote. She intervened and worked tirelessly to negotiate a solution that enabled all the stakeholders involved come to a fair and positive resolution. In my opinion, this is the pinnacle of “public service”. I only wish every person who sits in public office would take her perspective on “fairness and equity” in all their community matters. I would support Anne in any office she holds. Michael Zboray, Long Hill Rd., Gray
Commitment to Women's Equality
It took over 72 years to pass the 19th Amendment, through which most - though not all- women won the right to vote. I've written two books on this struggle,
The first was about my great-grandmother, who was a suffrage leader in Maine during the last six years of the campaign. It's a non-fiction book called Voting Down the Rose: Florence Brooks Whitehouse and Maine's Fight for Voting Rights. In 2021 I released We Demand: The Suffrage Road Trip, which is a novel - historical fiction- based on the true story of an epic cross-country road trip for suffrage that took place in 1915, in which women drove from San Francisco to DC with petitions from 500,000 people demanding an amendment to the US Constitution enfranchising women. I retraced their route in 2015, trying to learn more about the original trip and to understand what difference having had the vote meant to women in the preceding century.
Researching and writing these books was life-changing for me. I never learned about this history in school , and my family had forgotten all about the amazing leadership of Florence and her husband, mt great-grandfather Robert Treat Whitehouse. The years of researching, thinking, and writing about this vital women's and US history made me determined to do my part to protect and further women's equality, including abortion rights. It has made me really frustrated to see all Maine Republicans, including my opponent, band together to defeat the Maine Equal Rights Amendment, which would have (at last) given women equality with men under the Maine Constitution.
Like the suffragists, I will continue to work until women are equal with men.