John Elias Baldacci (born January 30, 1955) is an American politician who served as the 73rd Governor of Maine from 2003 to 2011.

He currently serves as vice chair of the board of the non-partisan Northeast-Midwest Institute,[1] a Washington-based, private, nonprofit, and nonpartisan research organization dedicated to economic vitality, environmental quality, and regional equity for Northeast and Midwest states.

A 1973 graduate of Bangor High School, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of Maine at Orono in 1986.

A Democrat, Baldacci was first elected in the 2002 Maine gubernatorial election with 47.2% of the vote, defeating Republican nominee Peter Cianchette, who garnered 41.5% of the vote, Green Independent nominee Jonathan Carter, who received 9%, and unenrolled former Democrat John Michael, who received 2%.

Baldacci won approval for major initiatives including Dirigo Health, the Maine Community College System, and Pine Tree Development Zones (PTDZ).

Pine Tree Development Zones were enacted in 2004 and offered eligible businesses the chance to greatly reduce or virtually eliminate state taxes for up to ten years when they create new, quality jobs in certain business sectors or move existing jobs in those sectors to Maine.

Individuals in the system enjoy preventive care when most other insurance policies rejected people with preexisting conditions.

In 2005, Baldacci introduced legislation to expand Maine's civil rights law to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Baldacci is a supporter of regionalization, a sometimes contentious policy of merging local-government services to save money on administrative costs.

He increased Maine's competitiveness in the global economy; streamlined government services; attracted good jobs; and ensured that all Mainers have access to quality education, workforce training, and health care.

Critics, such as the Maine Civil Liberties Union called for supervised release of non-violent prisoners and sentence commutation for model inmates to ease overcrowding instead.

Baldacci's programs promoted wood pellets, which were manufactured in the state using Maine's vast forest lands, as well as wind, solar, biofuels and wave technologies.

These RPS standards encouraged alternative energy suppliers to invest in Maine using the state's natural resources sustainably.

Throughout Baldacci's eight years he promoted a number of bond efforts that were passed by the people of Maine to increase research and development in the state focusing on sectors of growth and innovation.

These bonds helped to transform research and development in biomedicine, composites and forest products at Maine's leading educational institutions.

In his visit, Graham addressed a joint session of the Maine Legislature in which he proposed increasing cross-border trade, tourism, transportation as well as additional co-operation on energy and education.

(The Governor of Connecticut, Mary Jodi Rell, had been the first to sign a bill codifying same-sex marriage into law on April 23, 2009.)

Karen now works as a registered dietitian (RD) at the Supplemental Program for Women Infants and Children (WIC) in Portland.