State Rep. Tim Marks, D-Pittston, said he learned a lot in his first term in the Maine House of Representatives.

The retired Maine state police trooper enjoyed the work, including his service on the criminal justice committee; that was a natural fit, he said.

Marks, an avid hunter and fisherman, also served on the fish and game committee. It’s unusual for a freshman to have two committee seats, he said.

“But ... I said ‘no problem.’ The pay’s the same as the guy who serves on one committee, but I thought it would be great experience for me, and it was.”

Now he hopes to apply that experience to a second term in the House, to follow through on legislative work he made inroads on in his first term; and continue serving district residents.

“I’m good at answering questions and helping people navigate state government, having worked in state government for 30 years,” he said.

A Maine Senate doorkeeper at the age of 18, he went on to be a document clerk in the House before leaving the legislative staff in 1985 to become a state trooper.

Maine’s redistricting means that Marks is running for a different numbered seat Nov. 5, but would represent most of the same towns.

Under House District 53, he served Wiscasset, Alna, Dresden and Pittston. The District 87 seat he’s seeking excludes Dresden and adds Pittston’s other neighbor up Route 27, Randolph.

Marks highlighted his first-term accomplishments and looked ahead.

“Probably my best-known piece of legislation I had was an OUI bill that had to do with repeat offenders and a look-back period,” Marks said.

He knew from his trooper career that OUI convictions went off people’s records after 10 years. He offered a bill to make the look-back period 15 years; in committee, the focus moved to felony OUI offenders, those who either killed someone or had three OUI convictions in 10 years.

“So we’re talking about the worst of the worst.”

The bill passed.

“The law is now, if you’re an OUI felon (and) you’re caught again, we will go back not just 10 years, we will go back all the way to the day you got your license,” Marks said.

He’s planning another OUI bill, regarding cases in which a defendant’s blood-alcohol level is just over the legal limit. Prosecutors should not be able to lower the charge to driving to endanger, Marks said.

“That’s not right in my book .... To me, (that) covers it up .... Let’s call it what it is.”

He wants to either block prosecutors from reducing the charge, or have the reduced charge be called driving to endanger, alcohol-involved.

“So we all know it was an OUI,” he said.

He will try again to end the permit requirement for concealed weapons. He supported a failed bill for constitutional carry; in his next term, he would sponsor the legislation, he said. The permits cost gun owners money and do not keep guns out of lawbreakers’ hands, Marks argued.

“Bank robbers don’t get permits.”

Marks said he and other lawmakers helped address turkey overpopulation by expanding the hunting day from morning-only to all day. Tagging fees were also lowered, he said.

He helped clarify the law on driving deer, or hunters’ organizing of deer movement. The legislation he helped pass made it legal for two people to drive deer to a shooter, for a total of three people involved. That will help wardens determine whether a drive was legal, he said.

On education funding, Marks said he fully supports the state paying 55 percent. “I’m totally behind that.”

To help businesses, Marks said he will introduce a bill to stop banks from charging penalties for early payoff of commercial loans.

“That’s just being greedy,” he said of the practice.

Marks wants to protect both worm diggers’ and clam diggers’ access to flats.

“I don’t know if I need to present legislation or just be there to make sure nothing happens and block any (restrictions) that might come down the road.”

On marijuana, Marks said he would not stand in the way of legalization for use over the age of 21. “If the people want (that), then I am good with it,” he said.

“Ask me how many dead people I’ve pulled out of cars for alcohol-related crashes. Dozens and dozens. Have I ever found someone killed in a marijuana-only crash? Not that I know of.”

If Mainers want to legalize marijuana, he would favor taxing and regulating it. End-date stamps, similar to expiration dates, would prevent people from reusing bags to avoid the tax, he said.

On a Wiscasset bypass, Marks said he has no plans to try to revive the proposal because he has heard from none of the House district’s residents or business owners about it.

“What drives me is what do the people in the district want. And nobody’s beating my door down one way or the other on this issue, which is fine with me, because there are plenty of other issues,” he said.