Sumner Peter Mills III[1] (born June 3, 1943) is an American lawyer and politician from Maine.

When he was a 17-year-old senior at Gorham High School, Mills was awarded a Navy scholarship to Harvard under the Holloway program.

The Dyess sailed from Newport around the world in order to serve on the Vietnam gunline, do plane guard duty on Yankee Station and patrol the Taiwan Straits.

On one assignment, he was highly successful in collecting certain physical information about Soviet MRVs that was immediately released by the Nixon administration to support the ABM bill then pending in Congress.

During 15 years in the Maine Legislature (most recently in the State Senate), he has served as a Republican lead on Tax, Labor, Judiciary, Appropriations, Education and Health & Human Services Committees.

In 1999 he led the Labor Committee to overhaul Maine's Unemployment Compensation system, to eliminate benefits, build reserves and reduce taxes.

In the Republican primary, he faced former U.S. Representative Dave Emery and State Senator Chandler Woodcock.

He was the fourth Republican to declare his candidacy, joined by Matt Jacobson, Les Otten, and Bruce Poliquin.

[4] Waterville mayor and businessperson Paul LePage was subsequently chosen to be the Republican candidate for governor in 2010.

In 2011, Governor Paul LePage appointed Mills as the Executive Director of the Maine Turnpike Authority.

His father served in the Maine legislature, in the Navy, and in the United States Department of Justice as U.S. Attorney.