Column: Sen. Susan Collins is delivering for all Mainers

There’s so much to fix in our government and politics, which is why I ran for the Maine House of Representatives on a platform of bipartisan effectiveness and supporting Maine jobs.

I’m focused on making government work and representing my constituents' interests in Augusta - and I deeply respect and appreciate Mainers who take the same approach to public service.

That’s why I’m writing to applaud U.S. Senator Susan Collins’ recent successes on a number of fronts - particularly her success in protecting Maine jobs.

Senator Collins has successfully fought to make sure the best workers in America – Mainers – build the engines that power the F-35 jets our warfighters rely on.

That’s right - the engines that are a crucial part of our defense infrastructure are built right here in the Pine Tree State.

Maine has a strong defense manufacturing tradition, and that didn’t happen by accident. It’s because we’ve sent effective leaders like Senator Collins to Washington, and their results-driven approach has helped our state play a key role in protecting this country.

And make no mistake, Maine’s F-35 engine manufacturing effort is in danger. Other forces like powerful defense contractors and powerful elected officials in other states are working to create an entirely separate, duplicative, unnecessary F-35 engine program.

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Creating an entirely new F-35 engine program outside of Maine would not be a good use of taxpayer dollars, and it would hurt Maine’s economy. Creating and integrating a massive new engine-building effort would also slow down our warfighting capabilities – that’s a significant amount of turmoil to inject into the F-35 program at a critical time. Of course, the F-35 program should always be improved to stay at the cutting edge of battle requirements, but the way to approach improvement in this case is to improve our existing systems rather than starting from scratch.

Putin is on the march, and our country needs to be able to rely on its defense supply chain at all times. Creating a new, separate F-35 engine from scratch would compromise that ability.

That’s why Senator Collins’ efforts to protect our program are so important.

She has had important, bipartisan successes on other fronts as well, and should be recognized for them. In recent months, Senator Collins also was the driving force behind protecting our lobster industry from an existential threat posed by misguided regulations and the driving force behind codifying protections for same-sex marriages. Both policy victories are critical quality-of-life issues for Mainers.

Again, this didn’t happen by accident.

That’s a strong series of impressive victories for Mainers brought to us by our senior Senator, Susan Collins. I’ll be looking to emulate her bipartisan efforts during my service in Augusta.

Representative Nathan Carlow serves on the Maine Legislature’s Appropriations Committee. He represents Maine House District 137, which includes parts of Hollis and Buxton. Carlow also serves as chair of the SAD 6 School Board.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Column: Sen. Susan Collins is delivering for all Mainers