LEWISTON — City Council member Robert McCarthy, a Republican, has announced his candidacy for state representative in the 93rd House district, where he will face incumbent Democrat Margaret Craven.

Robert McCarthy Photo submitted

McCarthy, 65, was elected in November to represent Ward 1 and serves on the city’s finance committee.

The two positions, he said in a prepared statement, “make me uniquely positioned to know what help Lewiston needs from the state.”

McCarthy is a fifth generation Lewiston resident. He is married with two children and seven grandchildren, all of whom reside in Lewiston.

He was employed for many years as production manager at the Sun Journal, leaving when the company moved its printing operation to South Portland. He is production manager at KICTeam in Auburn, a manufacturer of cleaning supplies for a wide variety of banking and electronic processing and printing equipment.

McCarthy said his focus will be positioning Lewiston and the state to grow and prosper in the coming years through investment in infrastructure, reducing debt and cutting wasteful spending.

“With all of the pandemic funds, the current administration and the Legislature had a perfect opportunity to invest in the future of the state; instead, the money was spent on one-time giveaways and pet projects,” he said.

Another focus for McCarthy will be more support from the state for service center cities such as Lewiston.

“These cities provide services and host a multitude of nonprofit organizations that also benefit the surrounding communities while adding to the burden of taxpayers in these service center cities,” he said.

McCarthy is also a member of the board of directors for the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal airport. He formerly served as the president of the Lewiston High School swim boosters as well as the boys soccer boosters.