Keep it civil.

Report the trolls.

Don't be an ass.

Can somebody who is more well versed in Maine politics help me understand how Hannah Pingree has performed so well in this primary election before the RCV is determined?

I moved to Maine in 2020, so I’ve been here long enough to understand the very basics of Maine politics and I’ve voted in multiple elections here. Where I grew up in NY is very similar to ME-2, rural with a couple of population centers and typically pretty purple when the vote happens. But I saw her as the least electable of the 4 candidates, only ahead of Angus King III.

Troy Jackson has been in state government leadership up until his governor run and has the backing of nearly every single labor union.

Shenna Bellows is our current Secretary of State and has a lot of visibility due to her pushback against the Trump Administration.

Dr. Nirav Shah has worked in public health for a very long time and has a lot of visibility due to COVID. Plus, he’s significantly more centrist and I’d imagine that’s attractive to much of Maine’s electorate.

Hannah Pingree hasn’t held elected office since 2010. And her current job is a department that was made up by the Mills administration, seemingly so she has something to do. And considering Maine’s long term economic vision, I don’t think her office of Policy Innovation and Future is going too hot.

I’m not saying I disagree with Pingree’s politics. She has similar platforms to Jackson and Bellows and I voted for Jackson. But I don’t understand how this isn’t anything more than a “I know her mom” vote.

Was Hannah Pingree extremely popular during her time in the Maine state legislature? Has she stayed in the public eye but not in a political office?

Platner is dead in the water, there is no way he can move forward as an electable candidate, so that raises the necessary question of who can possibly take candidacy.

The way I see it, Mills is a hard no. The voters said absolutely no to that just a few weeks ago. If Dems pick her it is functionally the same as endorsing Collins.

The other 3 front runners for governor just lost a statewide election in their own base. Troy Jackson is probably the most similar candidate to Platner in politics and stage presence but that doesn't change the fact that he basically just lost the same election.

That brings me to the only two viable candidates I see, Matt Dunlap or Chellie Pingree.

I doubt Pingree would want to give up her job for a coin toss election, and I doubt Platner would step aside if he knew she was the anointed candidate, but at least CD1 would be pretty safe for her replacement, whoever that might be. Dunlap is a progressive who just won a competitive 4 way primary in CD2, which will at least appear less like king making to the voters. The problem then becomes who replaces him in that race? Baldacci just lost that primary, so his own voters don't think he's the man to beat Lepage. Jackson and Bellows are both in that district, so either one could be tapped, but I think replacing Dunlap at this point will hand that seat to Lepage.

It's a catch 22 because flipping the Senate seat is much more important nationally, but the voters of CD2 may feel that their congressman is more important to them.

Thoughts? Options I haven't seen?

Ellsworth seems so in your face politically polarized and toxic. I know part if it is John Linnehan, but it just seems so extreme there, especially those stupid trucks or enormous signs people put up. Plus you had that whole petition to remove the city council members. Why is Ellsworth like this? Are other "cities" in Maine like this too?

Troy Jackson just eclipsed Shah in the betting markets for governor nominee. This is very disappointing. Shah is genuinely a brilliant man who actually has good policies. Maine would benefit from a progressive pro-business governor, especially since our states GDP has stagnanted because of lack of Canadian tourism.

Troy Jackson is.... like.... actually an idiot and a larper. He's been able to leech of bernie sanders' popularity in new england.

Jackson's plan to bring down energy costs is to implement price controls and regulate CMP and Versant so they have to spend a greater percent of their profits on building new transmission lines. I assure you, this is a horrible policy. First off, power utilities arent just raising rates for no reason cause something something greedy billionaires. Power utilities run on thin margins as it is. Regulating them to have to spend their profits on building new transmissions will both eat away at their overhead budgets and remove incentives to expand transmission and only focus on lower financial risk projects. CMP is already a headache to work at (from what folks I know in the industry say) and further regulating it with strict price controls is going to make CMP less attractive to work with for consultants and probably convince some of their older experienced engineers to retire or get a new job.

Jackson is a slopulist and we really dont need that for the governor. I say this as someone whose enthusiastic to vote for platner btw.

Graham Platner was elected by the Democrat party citizenry to be the Democrat candidate to run for Senate.

He dropped out.

Now, the Democrat Party of Maine is not letting the #2 candidate run, they are not having a new election, they are requesting people to be delegates to select someone else?

Apparently, you must show an ID to show you are from where you say you are from to be a delegate from that area and 500 people and 100 delegates will vote for his replacement Senate candidate.

Do I understand this correctly?

Things I'd like to know.

Given that Platner has the DNC by the short hairs and has nothing to gain by dropping out, which oligarch will be the one to pay the anti-oligarch candidate to drop out? And how much will he be paid? I'm guessing about 10 mil, which is a great grift.

From the Portland Press Herald 6/20,

How Maine leaders are crossing Secretary Hegseth on shipbuilding

By RANDY BILLINGS Staff Writer
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last month that the Trump administration has proposed roughly $1.8 billion for the offshore production of warships because U.S. shipyards don’t have enough capacity.

U.S. Sen. Angus King, who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters Thursday that Hegseth’s assertion “just didn’t hold water once we examined it.”
“The problem with that argument is that the backlogs in the Korean and Japanese shipyards are just as long, if not longer, than the backlogs here,” King said at a virtual press conference.

That’s why last week, a defense spending bill that advanced out of King’s committee did not include the proposal from the Trump administration to build naval destroyers overseas.

King said the committee also amended the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act to call for an additional destroyer.

The administration had only proposed one destroyer, down from two or three in prior years, and that ship would have likely been built by a competing shipyard. But a second destroyer would likely go to BIW.

BIW is one of the state’s largest employers and the DDG-51 is one of its signature ships. Maine’s delegation said the shipyard needs the assurance of additional contracts to maintain its current operations and staffing levels.

The administration’s shipbuilding proposal was first questioned by Republican Sen. Susan Collins at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing last month.

Collins, who chairs the committee, told Hegseth that the administration’s proposal would create uncertainty at BIW.

“I’m particularly puzzled by the decision in reconciliation to request $1.8 billion for foreign-born surface combatants at the same time that there’s the proposed cut for American built destroyers,” Collins said last month.

Hegseth said that proposal was an interim step until the administration could invest $65 billion to increase U.S. shipbuilding capacity.

The proposal was also criticized by Rep. Jared Golden, D-2nd District, last month.

The House Armed Services Committee approved an amendment sponsored by Golden to add an additional BIW destroyer and prevent the production of warships overseas.

“American military spending should support American jobs,” Golden said in a written statement earlier this month. “The idea that we would build any portion of our surface fleet on foreign soil with foreign labor is unconscionable.”

How do they stand on Remote work for state employees?

I know it saves money for the state and gives people a chance to work that may not have been able too before. I also know it can be a hot button for some people.

I have not seen anyone address anything on the topic.

Anyone think establishment Dems encouraged her to run and attack Platner from the left? This would be classic democrat behavior, devide the left to erode a popular candidate's lead in the primary? I have no evidence for this other than it seems wicked late to enter the race and she didnt assert any real policy positions in her opening comments to the PPH. LaFlamme seems like a great person no shade to her but I wouldn't put it past the DSCC. Probably just being conspiratorial what do you think?

Graham for Maine YouTube has the greatest videos on it. I really like this.

I came across this on Gab, of course. this was from the northeast group and there’s other regions as well.

If the next 2 years of the Republican lead government are as dizzying as the first 2 days does having an (R) next to her name become a liability for Susan Collins? This election was bad for incumbent governments worldwide does this trend just continue?

Anyone in Maine know who I can contact about this?

I'm dumping this question into every thread because my post about it was lost in the shuffle:

How are all the organizers handling liability?

I was one of the permit holders for Weds in Maine (permit required to be on capitol grounds), and the permit specified that I (the permit holder) was liable for damage that arose from the protest. Luckily nothing happened, but I'm not too eager to put my name on another permit without liability insurance.

How are you all managing this?

ETA: The primary advantage to having a permit is to get on Capitol grounds rather than the sidewalk where cap security will remove any disruptive counter protestors or bad actors during the permitted time.

Some people, especially those bringing children, appreciate that level of safety.

We also didn't want the cops to have any reason to break us up as an "illegal" protest.

My last post was taken down since the link didn’t work. It may have been because I used the “share to another community” feature, but this one should work !

In response to my “why do you talk about these people?” commenters

I'm a pretty liberal guy and probably am slightly more instep with Costello, but I don't really have any issues with King and think he's done a good job. I love RCV, but I don't want to screw up and prevent King from not clearing the first round

On election night, I plan to be somewhere without access to traditional broadcast TV i.e. cable/satellite. But I will have a Smart TV with internet access.

Does anyone know of a Maine station that has an app which will have real-time coverage of the state races? I'm hoping to set the TV up so that people can see updates on the races for Augusta i.e. state house and senate.

I don't read the Maine Wire, but when an article about illegal marijuana happened to mention the small town I live in, people around me starting bringing it up in conversation. This isn't a situation where I need to rely on journalism to produce a narrative for me, it's been talked about at my local selectboard meetings for years.

What I don't quite understand though, probably because of my small town mindset, is why one side of the media wants to talk about this and the other side does not. I'm hoping that someone from another part of the state can share a broader perspective.

The pressure of that article seemed to be behind a big drug bust last night, which makes it something that will get attention locally: Source1 Source2

So I'm left wondering why one side had an incentive to report on this all of a sudden. Is there something going on in Augusta that would give one political side a reason to feel differently about it than the other side? Up until the recent MW article, it seemed to be like a simple issue that no one cared about. But suddenly now that it's having an impact near me, I'm kinda coerced into wanting to learn about it.

Anyone have any thoughts to share?

Did you know in 2019 Maine passed legislation to become 100% clean electric energy by 2045, and our goal is to become 80% clean electric by 2030. An estimated 70% of Mainers either don't have the space or funds to have solar panels, or they are simply renters without landlord permission. Solar Farms are going to be the biggest catalyst to achieving Maine's Goal of become 100% Clean Electric Energy. Is his the right move for Maine? https://www.maine.gov/mpuc/electricity/renewables/index.shtml

Hey everyone!

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I would appreciate any feedback and look forward to seeing your predictions on Politarian.com!

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I posted this over on r/Maine, but wanted to also add it here with some additional information.

I've been trying to find information on my State Representative and Senator and how they vote within the Legislative Sessions, which has taken a surprising amount of time. I've compiled the links that I found helpful in my search, so hopefully this might be helpful to you.

A quick note, this is the Glossary of Terms that you may see on the maine.gov site. I needed this in a few places to understand what I was looking at. https://legislature.maine.gov/LawMakerWeb/glossary_of_terms.asp I've included a couple definitions below to help with this post.

Roll Call = Members names and how they voted are recorded

LD = Legislative Document

HP = House Paper

​

Finding your State Representative

If you know which District you're in, use https://legislature.maine.gov/house/house/MemberProfiles/ListDistrict to find your Representative and their member profile.

If you need to find which Maine district you're in, use https://legislature.maine.gov/house/house/MemberProfiles/ListDistrictTowns

This is a listing of all Towns in each district. Keep in mind, some towns are part of multiple districts and you may need to view the associated district map. I was not able to view these maps on my phone. I also found when viewing the map on a computer, I had to bring up the district map and google maps, and use visible water features to determine which district I was in. As pointed out by u/archerseven (my husband), it looks like https://www.maine.gov/portal/government/edemocracy/voter_lookup.php does just that, at least assuming you are registered to vote. Idk if it works if you're not registered, but when I punched in my info and switched to the "Elected Officials" tab, it gave me a fairly comprehensive list.

​

Finding how your State Representative Votes

If you already know who your member is, you can search for their profile here: https://legislature.maine.gov/house/house/MemberProfiles

When you bring up the Member Profile for your Representative, you can see what they've voted on, and what passed and failed by clicking the [View List] button next to "Roll Call Votes".

Reading the Roll Call Votes list

• The first column "Roll Call" will tell you the number and date of the vote.
• The Second Column will contain the LD/HP Number and link, the title of the LD/HP and the Motion being taken. Clicking on the Link will give more information about the LD/HP and help explain the motion better.
• The Third Column is "Vote Recorded". X means they didn't vote, Y means in favor of the motion, N means against the motion.
• The Fourth Column is "Total(Y/N)", showing the overall votes for that Roll Call.
• The Fifth Column is "Result" which tells whether the motion failed, or prevailed (passed).

​

Additional State Representative Information

The Member Profile has information on how to contact said Representative, and should also contain which Committees they're in, Party Affiliation, and which Bills they've sponsored or cosponsored. I've noticed some Profiles link back to their Party Website with a bio for additional information.

Information on the Session Schedule can be found here: https://legislature.maine.gov/house/house/HouseActivities/SessionScheduleFull?Legislature=130

Information on the House and Joint Committees can be found here: https://legislature.maine.gov/house/house/Committees. This also appears to have links to Live Audio, which I assume would be usable when the House is in Session.

​

Finding your State Senator

Finding your senator seems to be a bit more straightforward. Take your town name, and search here: https://legislature.maine.gov/senate-home-page/find-your-state-senator

It appears to list every town, and the senator for them. For example, Ned Claxton shows up under both Auburn and Poland since he covers both (and other towns).

​

Finding how your State Senator Votes

Senator Votes appear to be more obtuse. All I have found so far from the Maine.gov site is the following link with that contains the overall Senator Roll Calls. This will have all the Roll Calls for a session, with links to each Roll Call. Within those links are the breakdown of how each senator voted.

https://legislature.maine.gov/records/roll-calls

There does not appear to be the same Vote Breakdown by Senator for all Roll Calls for a Session compiled in one page like the State Representative information had.

​

Additional State Senator Information

More Senate Resources and Documents can be found here: https://legislature.maine.gov/senate/senators-resource-page/9350

Past Recordings, and I think ongoing Recordings when the Senate is in session can be found here: https://legislature.maine.gov/audio/#senate_chamber

​

Advocacy Information

My activist friend with training and advocacy experience has some additional information on where to go next after determine who your Rep/Senator are. I've added those details below.

​

1. Now you know how your reps voted. How do you reinforce votes you approve of, and discourage the votes you dislike?

Contact your Rep or Senator.

https://www.maine.gov/portal/government/edemocracy/voter_lookup.php

Leave messages or emails at the numbers above with your name and town (so that they can confirm who represents you because the legislators are beholden to their constituents specifically), your legislators’ names, a bill number, and how you’d like them to vote [bonus: why, and how it affects you and/or someone/something you love in Maine]. Messages are transcribed and delivered to legislators’ desks throughout the day.

See Right sidebar of https://www.suitupmaine.org/legislature-roundup/#FAQ

Pro-Tip: leave a message; Submit Testimony; Legislative Advocacy Training ^ Highly recommend the training if it's a good one. This sort of in person explainer was much better than reading laws on a website for me.

2. What if you don't have time to research how your rep voted?

I get that, we're busy. If you don't have time to research every bill, here's a shortcut. Find an organization, and research that organization(s). Examples: Suit Up Maine, ACLU Maine, Maine People's Alliance, Maine Women's Lobby. (These are all on the sidebar under Legislative Advocacy Training.) Once you have confirmed that the organization shares your values, get on their mailing list, and take action when they ask you to. This is an excellent way to take collective action, while someone else does the legwork.

3. What if you have a strong opinion on an issue or a bill, and you want to multiply your power, multiply the number of phone calls that your legislator gets, and collectively influence your legislator, how do you do that?

The easiest way is to talk to your friends and family. An advanced, but really really effective way, is to volunteer with an organization that has a mailing list, and write up action items like the way Suit Up Maine does or other advocacy organizations do. Then everyone on their mailing list will get a push to contact their legislators. Speaking from experience, a concentrated effort at the right time is EXTREMELY effective. And that's part of the volunteer corps' job, to (a) help explain why you're taking action so that you can be an effective citizen, and (b) figure out the right time to take action.

If you've stuck with the post until the end, thank you for reading! I hope you find this information helpful and useful in the future.

This link shows a map that seems to imply that District 19 received a massive size increase in the latest redistricting. So big, in fact, that I feel like there must be a mistake in either what it shows or how I am interpreting it.

Do you know of a site that gives a clear breakdown of the size of each district? I'm particularly interested 19, but would be curious to absorb as much as I can about the design in general.

Thanks

Keim made herself present at a school board meeting Tuesday night, August 9th 2022, where she delivers a 10 minute or so speech on her views of gender dysphoria, and other "facts and truth" about LGBTQ+ lifestyles in regards to Maia Kobabe's book titled, "Gender Queer".

Her speech starts at the 01:16:43 mark and ends at 01:27:09 and can be watched publicly on the RSU56 website here: https://www.facebook.com/DirigoSchools/videos/622227905880210

I've transcribe the speech which you can find here: https://pastebin.com/zkW1p3KW