Janet T. Mills

Janet Trafton Mills (born December 30, 1947, in Farmington, Maine) is the Attorney General of the US state of Maine. She was first elected by the Maine State Legislature on January 6, 2009, succeeding G. Steven Rowe. Her second term began on January 3, 2013, after the term of Republican William Schneider. She is the first woman to hold the position of State Attorney General in Maine. Prior to her election, she served in the Maine House of Representatives representing the towns of Farmington and Industry.

Mills was an Assistant Attorney General from 1976 to 1980, prosecuting homicides and other major crimes. In 1980, she was elected District Attorney for Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford Counties, a position to which she was re-elected three times. She was the first woman District Attorney in New England.

In 1994, Mills was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress in the Democratic primary.

Mills was elected to the Board of Directors of the Maine Women's Lobby in 1998.

In 2002, Mills was elected to the Maine House of Representatives as a Democrat. During this time, she served on the Committees of Judiciary, Criminal Justice, and Appropriations. She had been elected to her fourth term when the Joint Convention convened in December 2008 to elect the new Attorney General. Out of several candidates, Mills was elected and became the 55th Attorney General of Maine on January 6, 2009. When Republicans gained control of the Maine Legislature in 2010, Mills, a Democrat, was not reelected to another term. In January 2011, she was elected vice chair of the Maine Democratic Party in January 2011. She joined the law firm Preti Flaherty in February 2011 as a lawyer with the firm's Litigation Group in its Augusta, Maine office. When Democrats regained control of the Legislature in the 2012 elections, she was again chosen to be Attorney General, resigned as vice chair of the Maine Democratic Party, and took the oath of office as Attorney General on January 7, 2013. She was re-elected to her position on December 3, 2014, despite the Maine Senate coming under Republican control.

Republican Governor Paul LePage is opposed to Mills being Attorney General, due to many disputes between them over the legality of some of LePage's policies. On January 28, 2015, LePage requested that the Maine Supreme Judicial Court give its opinion as to whether it is legal for the Governor's office to need the permission of the Attorney General's office to retain outside counsel when the AG declines to represent the State in a legal matter. LePage did so after two instances of Mills declining to represent LePage in matters which she determined had little legal merit, though she approved his requests to have outside lawyers. On May 1, 2017, LePage filed a lawsuit against Mills, asserting that Mills has abused her authority when refusing to represent the state in legal matters, or taking a legal view contrary to that of the LePage administration.

Mills was married to Stanley Kuklinski, with whom she has five stepdaughters and three grandsons. Kuklinski died due to the effects of a stroke on September 24, 2014. She resides in Farmington, Maine. She is also the sister of Peter Mills, the former Maine State Senator and gubernatorial candidate.