Rosa Scarcelli

• Henry Crown Fellow, The Aspen Institute, 2009
• Board, Young Presidents' Organization (YPO), New England 2008-2009
• Board, WIN, Women's Network, YPOi, 2007–2009
• Board, Waynflete School
• Member, International Women's Forum
• Outstanding Leadership Award, Ingraham 2004
• Top 50 Affordable Housing Providers, Affordable Housing Magazine, 2006
• Top 10 Affordable Housing Production, Affordable Housing Magazine 2006

Rosa Scarcelli grew up in Wilton, Maine. Her father taught for 35 years nearby at the University of Maine at Farmington, and her mother worked for the Maine State Housing Authority and later started her own housing company. Her father and his friends started the first Democratic Party Pancake Breakfast in Farmington, Maine, one that is still held every St. Patrick's day. She was educated at Waynflete School, where she graduated in 1988. Rosa was George J. Mitchell's first senate page in 1987. She later worked as an intern in his office. Scarcelli went on to attend the University of Maine at Orono, and graduated from Bowdoin College in 1992, where she was named a James Bowdoin scholar.

In 1999, Scarcelli founded her own real estate management company, DE Property Management LLC. Six years later, she took over Stanford Management, a provider of affordable housing. Though the company was operating at a loss when Scarcelli took control, her management guided it to turn a profit in the first year. In 2009 the company added 30 new properties to its portfolio, making Stanford Management one of the largest woman-owned businesses in Maine. Rosa was featured in 2008 as one of the top 50 Affordable Housing Owners in the nation by Affordable Housing Magazine.

In 2009, Scarcelli served on the New England Finance Committee for Barack Obama. She is a member of Young Presidents' Organization (YPO). She is also a member of the Women's International Network of YPO, the International Women's Forum and the Maine Women's Forum, and has served on a number of civic and community boards. She has served also as a Board Member of Ingraham, a non-profit social service and mental health care provider, where she received the 2004 Outstanding Leadership Award.

Rosa was recently named to the Aspen Institute's 2009 Henry Crown Fellowship Program, one of 20 "emerging leaders" across the country from business, politics and the arts. Past recipients have included Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Delaware Gov. Jack Markell.

On July 20, 2009, Scarcelli announced that she would seek the Democratic nomination for Governor of Maine in the June 8, 2010, primary election. Vying for the nomination with four other candidates, Scarcelli positioned herself as a fiscally conservative Democrat and a political newcomer, being the only candidate who had never held public office before. She attracted support among many younger Democrats.[3] She finished third in the primary behind State Senator Libby Mitchell and former Attorney General G. Steven Rowe.[4]

Following the November general election, Scarcelli's husband, Thom Rhoads, admitted to being involved in an anonymously authored website on Maine independent gubernatorial candidate, Eliot Cutler. Rhoads' admission came after allegations of his involvement triggered an investigation by the Maine Ethics Commission. The commission found that Dennis Bailey, a consultant on Scarcelli's failed gubernatorial bid, collaborated with Rhoads to spread negative information about Cutler with a paid attack site titled "The Cutler Files", violating Maine campaign laws. Bailey had previously denied any association with the website.[5] The ethics commission fined him $200 for his involvement.[6] During the general election campaign that followed, Rhoads attempted to sell his research on Cutler to Democrat Libby Mitchell's gubernatorial campaign for $30,000. The Mitchell campaign declined the offer.[7]

During the ethics commission's investigation, Republican attorney Daniel Billings represented the defendants, Dennis Bailey and Thom Rhoads.[8] Billings served as legal counsel to Maine Republican governor Paul LePage until being appointed as a Maine District Court Judge in 2012.[9]

In December 2010, Scarcelli suggested in an interview that she was considering running against U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe in the 2012 Senate election, or possibly launching another gubernatorial bid in 2014,[10] neither of which materialized.

On October 9, 2018, Scarcelli was considered to be one of many potential challengers to incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins in the United States Senate election in Maine, 2020.[11]

• Personal website
• What's next for Rosa Scarcelli? Maine Observer, July 4, 2010
• Political operative, husband of former gubernatorial candidate named as editors of Cutler Files Sun Journal