Senator Linda Valentino’ 74 reflects on family, education, and leading a responsible life in business and politics
BY PATRICIA ERIKSON
Stepping Up to the Plate:
Senator Linda Valentino’ 74 reflects on family, education, and leading a responsible life in business and politics
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Politics. It’ s not uncommon for people to roll their eyes or, at best, shrug their shoulders at the mere mention of the word. But after spending an hour talking with Senator Linda Valentino’ 74 at her kitchen table, I find, to my surprise, that she has nudged me into seeing politics differently. Senator Valentino retires from the Maine State Senate this fall, choosing to devote herself to family and return— full circle— to the real estate business that launched her successful career at a young age. But the force and grace of her political philosophy likely will ripple through Maine politics for years to come.
“ I have always felt a tremendous responsibility for the people who have elected me.”
When I asked Senator Valentino how she entered into politics, she began the story with her father,“ Rusty” Nally( later Valentino),“ My father valued education, in part, because he had been raised in an extremely poor household by his Irish Catholic grandmother,‘ Ma Nally.’ She instilled in him that hard work and education was the way out of poverty. He worked on the railroad yard just below where they lived, at the same time that he attended
Portland High School. He became a lawyer, a businessman, and a champion of the people. When I was growing up, he always came back to the house with a napkin in his hand. On that napkin he had written a list of people who needed legal help. He didn’ t charge them. He just loved to help people.”
Senator Valentino’ s educational career involved some twists and turns; she described them,“ I was in the College Prep program at Thornton, but I hated it. I had no idea what I wanted to do when I grew up. My senior year, I told my guidance counselor,‘ I’ m switching to Business.’ That’ s what I was passionate about. In the 1970s, there wasn’ t the same emphasis on girls’ education that there is now, but Dad said I had to go to college.‘ Go to USM,’ he said. So I did. I attended for two years and earned my Business Administration associate’ s degree as well as taking real estate classes at night. That changed everything. Working in real estate empowered me to afford a car, a house, and start my own business— L. M. Valentino, Associates, Inc.— here in Saco. At the time, I didn’ t think I needed to complete a four-year degree.”