Political party Republican | Preceded by Dana C. Hanley Name Richard Bennett | |
Spouse(s) Karen Bennett, 2 Children (Abigail and Nathaniel) | ||
Richard A."Rick" Bennett (born May 24, 1963) is an American politician from the state of Maine and a current resident of Oxford, Maine. Bennett is the President and CEO of ValueEdge Advisors, a firm he founded in summer 2014 to help institutional investors engage with their portfolio companies. From 2006 to 2014 he served as CEO of The Corporate Library and then Chairman or Vice Chairman of GMI Ratings, its successor company, an independent research firm focusing on corporate governance, director/executive compensation and forensic accounting. For six years, Bennett was included in the NACD Directorship 100’s most influential people in the boardroom and corporate governance community.
As a Norway resident, Bennett served as the President of the Maine Senate. He became Senate President due to a unique power sharing agreement between Republicans and Democrats, predicated by an even split in state senators. The deal gave the presidency to both parties for one year each during the two-year term of the senate.
Bennett served four terms in the Maine Senate, two terms in the Maine House of Representatives and in 1994 he was the Republican nominee for Congress in Maine’s second district, losing to John Baldacci in a close race. On May 2, 2008 he was elected to a four-year term as Maine’s Republican National Committeeman.
In 2006, he considered running for Governor of Maine, but instead decided to remain in the private sector. His name was widely circulated as a possible candidate for the Republican nomination for governor in 2010, though he ultimately decided against running. In November 2012, Bennett sought the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate Seat vacated by Olympia Snowe, but he was defeated by Maine Secretary of State Charlie Summers.
On July 20, 2013, Bennett was elected chairman of the Maine Republican Party, replacing former State Representative Richard Cebra of Naples. In 2015, Bennett was unanimously re-elected to serve an additional term as the Chairman of the Maine Republican Party. Bennett was a Republican elector for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election for Maine's second congressional district.