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

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

. 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 p ...

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 establis ...

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 Harpswell is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States, within Casco Bay in the Gulf of Maine. The population was 5,031 at the 2020 census. Harpswell is composed of land contiguous with the rest of Cumberland County, called Harpswell Ne ...

Freeport Freeport, a variant of free port, may refer to: Places United States *Freeport, California *Freeport, Florida *Freeport, Illinois *Freeport, Indiana *Freeport, Iowa *Freeport, Kansas *Freeport, Maine, a New England town **Freeport (CDP), Maine, the ...

, Pownal, and

North Yarmouth North Yarmouth, officially the Town of North Yarmouth, is a town in Cumberland County, Maine. The population was 4,072 at the 2020 United States Census. It is part of the Portland– South Portland–Biddeford Metropolitan Statistical Area. ...

.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 Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maine. It is a bicameral body composed of the lower house Maine House of Representatives and the upper house Maine Senate. The Legislature convenes at the State House in Aug ...

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,Glenn Adams
Maine seeks to prohibit guns in its Acadia National Park
Associated Press (February 25, 2010). had "a long history of opposing

NRA The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a gun rights advocacy group based in the United States. Founded in 1871 to advance rifle marksmanship, the modern NRA has become a prominent gun rights lobbying organization while conti ...

-sponsored bills" while holding public office.Steve Mistlers,
Maine Senate quietly approves bill backing gun rights of subsidized tenants
''Portland Press-Herald'' (March 24, 2016). He supported legislation to bar the carrying of guns at

Acadia National Park Acadia National Park is an American national park located along the mid-section of the Maine coast, southwest of Bar Harbor. The park preserves about half of Mount Desert Island, part of the Isle au Haut, the tip of the Schoodic Peninsula, and ...

and the

St. Croix Island International Historic Site Saint Croix Island (french: Île Sainte-Croix), long known to locals as Dochet Island, is a small uninhabited island in Maine near the mouth of the St. Croix River (Maine-New Brunswick), Saint Croix River that forms part of the Canada–United St ...

. 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 that limits the number of terms an officeholder 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 potenti ...

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 American politicians