A conservative state senator representing towns around Lewiston will have to beat his sheriff to win a third term in Augusta.

Sen. Garrett Mason, a Republican from Lisbon and a vocal proponent of charter schools but an opponent of Medicaid expansion, is defending his seat against two-term Androscoggin County Sheriff Guy Desjardins, a Democrat from Sabattus who says he’ll prioritize increasing aid to fund cities and towns.

The race could be tight in Senate District 22, made up of seven Androscoggin County towns as well as Wayne and Litchfield.

Desjardins, 61, said people he’s talked to in the district are upset by a property tax increase brought on by past reductions in state aid to cities and towns. Maine is supposed to share 5 percent of sales and income tax revenue with municipalities, but it hasn’t in several years.

In 2013, Republican Gov. Paul LePage proposed eliminating revenue sharing. Cities and towns would have lost $40 million this year if lawmakers didn’t approve a bill to preserve it in March. Desjardins said he’d work to increase that funding.

“It’s a little bit like building a house. You want a strong foundation,” he said. “I think the state is trying to weaken the communities.”

Mason, a 29-year-old real estate agent, may be best known for sponsoring the law that established public charter schools in Maine, one of the largest accomplishments of LePage’s administration.

The incumbent said he wants to fund revenue sharing and continue his work on education, which makes it necessary to trim costs at the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. In 2012, the agency accounted for 45 percent of all state spending. Mason said Maine should “go after the welfare abuse and fraud that’s going on in our system.”

“I want to make sure people have choices in their education,” he said.

Democrats have been cool to charter schools, particularly because they’re funded by per-pupil state aid that follows each charter student who leaves a traditional public school setting, taking money from regular schools. Desjardins said he’d support them if they could be funded in a different way.

“I’m not saying there shouldn’t be public funds going into charter schools, but there should be a balance, and it shouldn’t come at the expense of public schools,” he said.

The candidates also disagree on expanding MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid program, to 70,000 Mainers under the Affordable Care Act. Republican Gov. Paul LePage has vetoed plans to do that.

Desjardins said it could save money in the long run by focusing on preventive care, while Mason said he is “so opposed to it” because it would “break the bank” for Maine, leaving the state on the hook in future years for costs that the federal government would bear initially.

After winning his first term handily, Mason won his district after a recount by just 28 votes over Democrat Colleen Quint in 2012 in a district that leaned slightly Democratic.

But while Desjardins may be better known than Quint, the district got more conservative following redistricting. It lost the Democratic towns of Livermore and Livermore Falls and gained the Republican strongholds of Durham and Litchfield. Now there are 270 more Republicans than Democrats.

Desjardins called Mason “too conservative for me,” saying he’s a moderate Democrat who has managed a tight public budget. Desjardins also has somewhat conservative stances on gun rights, including opposition to mandating background checks on all private gun sales, for example.

“There’s got to be some common sense and logic involved” in government, he said. “I think I can bring that to the table.”

Mason said Desjardins’ stances will lead to “more of the same” in Augusta, likening the sheriff’s policies to those that dominated the state while Democrats controlled the Legislature for decades before LePage won in 2010.

“We know what 40 years of tax-and-spend can do,” Mason said, “and I’m not interested in doing that.”

Michael Shepherd — 370-7652

mshepherd@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @mikeshepherdme

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