Stanley J. 'Stan' Gerzofsky (born December 18, 1944) is an American politician from the state of

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

. A Brunswick resident, Gerzofsky represented the 10th Senate District. He was first elected to the

Maine House of Representatives The Maine House of Representatives is the lower house of the Maine Legislature. The House consists of 151 voting members and three nonvoting members. The voting members represent an equal number of districts across the state and are elected via ...

representing Brunswick in 2000 and served in the House until he was term-limited out in 2008, when he ran for the State Senate. He has been a member of the Brunswick Democratic Committee since 1980 and the Cumberland County Democratic Committee since 1990.

Career before politics

Gerzofsky was a furniture manufacturer prior to entering politics.Information from the 121st Legislature (2003-2004) on Representative Gerzofsky
Maine Legislature.

State legislative tenure

Following the closure of the

Maine State Prison The Maine State Prison was erected in Thomaston, Maine in 1824 and relocated to Warren in 2002. This maximum-security prison has a capacity of 916 adult male inmates with an average daily population of 900. History The state legislature estab ...

in 2002, Gerzofsky led an effort in the state House to convert the shuttered facility for another use. In the state Senate, Gerzofsky represented District 24, which includes Brunswick, Harpswell,

Freeport Freeport, a variant of free port, may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Freeport, name of several space stations in the video game ''Freelancer'' (2003) * Freeport, a fictional town in the video game ''SiN'' (1998) * ''Freeport: The Cit ...

, Pownal, and

North Yarmouth North Yarmouth, officially the Town of North Yarmouth, is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. North Yarmouth is included in the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan New England city and town area. The population was 4,072 at the 20 ...

.Democrat Stan Gerzofsky beats back challengers in Senate District 24
''Bangor Daily News'' (November 5, 2014)/ Gerzofsky was elected to a fourth term in the Senate in 2014. Gerzofsky was described as the leading advocate in the

Maine Legislature The Maine State Legislature is the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Maine. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral body composed of the lower house Maine House of Representatives and the upper house Maine Senate. ...

for dam safety. Maine has many structurally deficient dams that present a public hazard; Gerzofsky advocated implementing the recommendations of a state task force to fund dam safety inspections. Gerzofsky served as co-chairman of the Legislature's Criminal Justice Committee. As co-chair, he opposed a project to spend $100 million to raze the Maine Correctional Center in Windham and build a new prison complex in its place. Gerzofsky also served as the co-chairman of the Forensic Mental Health Services Oversight Committee. Gerzofsky, a hunter and gun owner, had "a long history of opposing

NRA NRA may refer to: Organizations Asia and Oceania * National Railway Administration, the national railway regulator of China * National Recruitment Agency, Central Recruiting Agency of the Indian Government * New Revolutionary Alternative, an anar ...

-sponsored bills" while holding public office. He supported legislation to bar the carrying of guns at

Acadia National Park Acadia National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States located along the mid-section of the Maine coast, southwest of Bar Harbor, Maine, Bar Harbor. The park includes about half of Mount Desert ...

and the St. Croix Island International Historic Site. In 2013 he co-sponsored legislation to promote background checks for the private sales of guns by imposing a "civil fine of $500 if a gun seller does not perform a background check and the buyer is later discovered to be a prohibited person." However, Gerzofsky also supported legislation that would block landlords from prohibiting subsidized tenants from keeping guns in their apartments. In 2016, Gerzofsky was ineligible to run for reelection to the Senate due to

term limit A term limit is a legal restriction on the number of terms a person may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in presidential and semi-presidential systems they act as a method of curbing the potential for monopoly, w ...

s.Peter McGuire
Veteran environmentalist, local fisherman compete in Senate District 24
(October 28, 2016).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gerzofksy, Stanley 1944 births Living people Politicians from Brunswick, Maine Democratic Party members of the Maine House of Representatives Democratic Party Maine state senators Politicians from New York City 21st-century members of the Maine Legislature