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.”