NEWS CENTER Maine’s Political Brew: Sunday, September 11, 2022

[ad_1]

This week’s analysts are former state senator and mayor of Portland Ethan Strimling and former state senator and Yarmouth city councilor Phil Harriman.

MAINE, USA — There’s not a lot proof that high-profile endorsements change political races in Maine (although some have argued that the TV advert that includes my former NEWS CENTER Maine colleague Invoice Inexperienced performed a major position in serving to Sen. Susan Collins win re-election in 2020).

However a marketing campaign has some worth when political celebrities come to city. This previous week, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin campaigned in Maine on behalf of Republican candidate for governor Paul LePage.

Democrat Ethan Strimling mentioned endorsements like this are actually solely “good for fundraising, they’re good for the bottom, it will get them fired up.” Republican Phil Harriman agreed with that evaluation.

However when Youngklin returned to Virginia the following day, he distanced himself from among the controversial, racially inflammatory feedback LePage made throughout his eight years as governor, akin to calling individuals of colour “the enemy.”

The Portland Press Herald reported that Youngkin denounced such feedback but additionally advised they could be slips of the tongue, not reflective of a person operating a “unifying marketing campaign about bringing Mainers collectively.”

“The Paul LePage I do know just isn’t a racist, however the feedback he makes ad-lib are good fodder for the media,” Harriman mentioned.

However Strimling countered that “his feedback are racist, and he is needed to apologize for a few of them and take them again as a result of they had been.”

He added, “I do not assume even LePage would say he is a uniter. He is somebody who goes in and fights for what he believes in, and for higher or worse, individuals like that.”

Lobster is turning into a problem within the campaigns for governor and Congress. The business had a nasty week, with an environmental group “red-listing” lobster because of the risk the industry poses to endangered right whales. Maine lobstermen misplaced one other spherical in courtroom as they pushed again on new restrictions meant to guard the whales.

LePage and Republican congressional candidate Bruce Poliquin are making the case that their opponents, Gov. Janet Mills and Rep. Jared Golden, are responsible for the lobster business’s woes due to the insurance policies they’ve supported.

Harriman thinks the goal shouldn’t be the elected officers, however at regulators, who he mentioned are primarily unaccountable.

“As Ethan and I do know from our time within the Maine Senate, if the regulators run too far forward of you, you have to put in laws to rein them again in. Possibly that is what they should do,” Harriman mentioned.

Strimling does not assume anybody will be capable of pin the business’s issues on Mills or Golden.

Bruce Poliquin misplaced his seat in Congress 4 years in the past in a ranked-choice voting depend. He led within the first spherical however was edged out by Jared Golden when second-choice votes had been utilized.

Poliquin faces one other election during which ranked selection is an element as a result of there may be an unbiased candidate, Tiffany Bond, within the CD-2 rematch.

Harriman mentioned, “Bruce ought to use this as a chance to say, ‘if I am not your first selection, I must be your second selection, and here is why.'”

However Strimling thinks Poliquin has to play for all of the marbles as a result of individuals whose first selection is Bond are unlikely to rank Poliquin second.

“So I feel Poliquin’s whole play, he must recover from 50 % on the primary poll and/or hope that Bond voters do not vote for anyone the second time via,” Harriman mentioned.

Our analysts additionally mentioned Sen. Susan Collins’ efforts to go a bipartisan invoice to guard same-sex and interracial marriage, the possible influence of abortion rights on the autumn elections, and the appointment of a “particular grasp” to look at confidential paperwork seized from the Florida residence of former President Donald Trump.

Political Brew airs Sundays on NEWS CENTER Maine’s The Weekend Morning Report.