Last night, the United States Senate held a key procedural vote to begin consideration of Harry Reid’s healthcare reform bill, and both of Maine’s Senators voted against consideration of the bill.
The final tally was directly along the party line, with 60 Democrats voting to consider and 39 Republicans voting against [...]
Hey, it’s Friday, it is a slow news week – why not, right?
National Geographic seems to be getting on board with that whole “Al Franken draws the United States” shtick – they asked members of the United States Senate to draw pictures of their home states from memory.
Not [...]
This is a question that I have been giving a great deal of thought over the course of the last couple weeks.
I have argued – more than once – that I felt Maine was a somewhat libertarian state. In other words, one that had a people who were rugged individualists [...]
The Republican Governor’s Association is meeting this week in Austin, Texas, and the attendees have a visitor – Matt Jacobson of Maine.
The Republican gubernatorial candidate is in Austin, schmoozing with the RGA, meeting the nation’s Republican Governors (and Governors-elect), and presumably networking with some national donors and consultants. More [...]
Recovery.gov has started posting detailed accounts of stimulus money, and how it has been spent. We are now able to go to the site and view the amount of money spent and the number of jobs that money has produced in each congressional district.
UPDATE: Verified.
This is completely unverified, but I am hearing buzz from multiple sources that tomorrow current Commissioner for the Department of Economic and Community Development, John Richardson, will be making his official announcement that he is running for Governor of Maine.
His entry into the race has been talked about [...]
Independent candidate Eliot Cutler is today calling on key legislators to enact charter schools in the state of Maine.
Cutler has sent emails to Senator Bill Diamond and Representative Emily Cain (the chairs of the legislature’s Appropriations Committee), pressing them to act quickly to bring the question of charter schools back [...]
On Tuesday, Public Policy Polling came out with a set of extended numbers showing Olympia Snowe with a dramatic base problem in Maine.
Facing a national mood which is turning decidedly anti-establishment and anti-incumbent, and also facing a Republican party which is growing increasingly angry with any lawmaker who steps [...]
Happy Veterans Day, everyone. Pine Tree Politics would like to take a few moments to specifically thank Matt Jacobson, Peter Mills, and Steve Rowe for their service to our country.
Jacobson is a graduate of the Naval Academy and served as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force. Mills served in [...]
Today, State Senator Kevin Raye was asked by the Associated Press if he would be running for governor in 2010. There has been much speculation surrounding the Senate Republican leader – even if the buzz has been quiet – but today he put the final nail in the coffin [...]
Today, Republican candidate Matt Jacobson will host what his campaign has dubbed a “Veterans Town Hall”, where he will unveil two separate policy proposals.
The first is a plan to eliminate the Maine state income tax on active duty and military retiree pay. The second is a proposal to gradually phase [...]
A few days ago, I made the argument that gay marriage lost in Maine because proponents were unable to persuade “middle Maine” – the somewhat suburban voters who were probably able to be convinced on the subject, but were simply not won over. These are people who are hardly “anti-gay”, [...]
You probably didn’t notice, but Les Otten has changed treasurers for his campaign. With no announcement, and no fanfare, William Ryan – a heavy hitter Maine businessman who serves as Chairman of TD Banknorth Inc., has been quietly replaced by Bruce Chalmers.
When Otten’s campaign was originally announced, Bill Ryan [...]
UPDATE: Since first running this story, I have heard back from Congressman Michaud’s office. They directed me to speak with Scott Milburn, Director of Communications for the American Forest & Paper Association about the issue of tax credits in the Van Hollen amendment.
I spoke with Scott on the phone and [...]
That has been the big question for a lot of people, both nationally and within the state itself. Now that gay marriage has been defeated in Maine, what will happen next?
Some of have suggested that this means that the equal marriage agenda is politically dead in the state, and any [...]
NOTE: I had the opportunity to write a piece on the Maine gay marriage fight which appeared in Politico today:
Long thought of as a “liberal” state by national political observers, Maine, whose voters on Tuesday voted down gay marriage, proved that cultural conservatism is — at least on this [...]
Mainers, and national observers, have woken up this morning asking how the Yes on 1 coalition won this fight. Through most of the lead up to this vote, observers (including myself) felt that it would be extremely close, potentially to a recount, and that the No on 1 folks had [...]
Pine Tree Politics is prepared to call question one. With 75% of the vote counted, the Yes on One campaign has widened its lead to nearly 20,000 votes.
The voter rich ares of Portland, Bangor, Augusta, and other large cities have either already been counted, or the remaining votes in those [...]
It wasn’t close from the moment results started pouring in. Question three – the ballot initiative aimed at overturning the Governor’s contentious school consolidation program – has gone down in flames tonight.
With 71% of precincts reporting, the no on 3 coalition can claim victory, currently holding 58% of the vote, [...]
With 63% of precincts reporting, the results are as follows:
Question 1 – People’s Veto of Equal Marriage Bill
Yes – 188,497 – 52% No – 176,473 – 48%As the night wears on and the numerical lead for Yes on One continues to be in five digits, that bodes well for their [...]
With 22% of precincts reporting, question 1 simply could not be ANY closer. What started out as a great night for the no on one crowd has significantly changed, and we are now officially in a dogfight.
Take a gander at the results so far.
Question 1 – Equal Marriage Veto
No [...]With roughly 17% of the vote counted in Maine so far, Question 1 has tightened up a great deal, currently standing at 48-51 for no. However, thus far in the night the response to TABOR has remained relatively steady – a complete and utter rejection.
Currently, no is winning handily. They [...]
Early returns are in. Currently the Bangor Daily News is reporting that with roughly 5% of the vote currently counted, the referendum questions are currently breaking down as follows:
QUESTION 1 – REJECT SAME-SEX MARRIAGE LAW
No 14988 - 54.48% Yes 12524 - 45.52%QUESTION 2 – DECREASE AUTOMOBILE EXCISE TAX
No [...]Okay, so she didn’t actually say those exact words – but the sentiment behind what she said certainly seemed to communicate that message.
Tim Pawlenty went on Morning Joe this morning, and observers everywhere are commenting on the exchanges about Senator Olympia Snowe.
When Scarborough – an unabashed Olympia Snowe apologist [...]
Even with some well founded warnings that the Secretary of State has a tendency to misjudge the turnout in the state of Maine, it does appear that turnout across the state is quite high – potentially approaching (some believe higher than) the 50% threshold.
If this is in fact true, [...]
This afternoon, Maine Governor John Baldacci stopped by MSNBC to talk to David Schuster and company about Maine’s Equal Marriage law, and the efforts to repeal it.
Baldacci’s comments focused on the evolution of the issue in Maine, the process that lead to its approval by the legislature as well as [...]
For about two weeks now I have been debating whether or not to issue a formal endorsement of any of the ballot questions – but particularly question one.
After all, it is really a no win proposition for me – regardless of what I recommend, I will likely end up inciting [...]
I’ve been asked so many times I can barely bring myself to write this article – “what do you think will happen on election day with question 1?” Usually this is followed up by a query on question 3. Then people typically ask me about question 4.
There has been plenty [...]
True believers. Litmus tests. Angry partisanship. Absolutism. Us vs. them.
It might sound odd for a borderline radical libertarian-republican (lowercase in both instances) such as myself to say, but I have had it absolutely up to here with this garbage. I am sick of it, and for thousands of reasons.
But chief [...]
It is just past midnight, and we are now officially in the month of November. About halfway through the month of October, I noticed a trend that bode well for Pine Tree Politics – we were on pace to smash our personal record for number of visits to the site [...]
I had some time this afternoon to re-watch (and/or listen) to the Bangor Republican candidate forum. I paid more attention this time.
One thing is driving me crazy, and it’s time for me to say so.
“Putting our fiscal house in order.”
Look, I understand – it’s a campaign. I’ve heard the [...]
Polls tell you a lot. They also give far too many people an overinflated sense of certain political trends. No matter where you turn today, you are likely to hear, “polls show that Maine people overwhelmingly feel…” followed by any number of phrases. Beware listening too much to polls – [...]
Les Otten has gotten hammered recently, by myself and others (and others) [and others] for his donations over the years to Democratic politicians. News of these donations has set off a good deal of conservative anger, with many GOP voters now very skeptical of Otten’s Republican [...]
It seems I am not alone in my defense of Olympia Snowe. Today, Quin Hillyer of The American Spectator wrote a manifesto, in defense of “principled moderates” such as Olympia Snowe – as opposed to faux moderates like Lindsay Graham.
In it, Hillyer argues that principled moderation is not [...]
We plugged the Bangor GOP candidate roundtable a little while ago – and it was held as scheduled yesterday.
All five of the declared GOP candidates appeared, and what followed was a spirited and enlightening discussion.
This is one of the first opportunities we have to see all five of them [...]
On a number of occasions I’ve joked that someone might win the Republican nomination by winning 20% of the vote. This, however, is not a actually a joke, it is a real possibility.
The Maine GOP field has five serious contenders right now, and if Steve Abbott follows through and does [...]
I love being right. Its so much fun.
All eyes were on Olympia Snowe yesterday, as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that the Senate plan would in fact include a public option – but would also allow an “opt-out” by states who do not want to participate in the system. [...]
Ed Muskie is a legend in the state of Maine. He, more than anyone, is responsible for the transition of Maine from an impenetrable Republican stronghold to a “deep blue” Democratic state. He built a grassroots operation that got him elected to the governorship, as well as the United States [...]
Last Wednesday, PPP took a look at Senator Olympia Snowe’s standing in Maine – an interesting exercise given her national profile on the healthcare reform debate.
The results of the poll were rather striking. 70% of Democrats approve of her job performance while only 45% of Republicans approve of her. [...]
Reporting about Les Otten’s contributions to Federal level Democratic politicians was met with disgust among the conservative base – but it lead me to wonder what the other candidates’ contributions have looked like over the years.
Donating to a Democrat or two is hardly a crime for a Republican. While most [...]
On April 22, 2009, 86-year-old WWII veteran and self described “lifelong Republican” Philip Spooner testified at the public meeting on the Maine Equal Marriage bill. His testimony was brief, but powerful, and the video of his words have become one of the central weapons that opponents of Question 1 have [...]
Thomas Brackett Reed is one of the least known, and least talked about politicians from Maine. I wouldn’t be surprised if you had never heard of him – but interestingly he may be one of the most consequential of all statesmen from the Pine Tree State.
Explaining why is a difficult [...]
Ted Ropple of the Republican Project touched on something I’ve been meaning to write about for a week or two. Les Otten has money. He gives some of it away. A lot of time to politicians. An inordinate amount of the time, the money he donates to political [...]
The Washington Post is out with an article today – highly speculative and devoid of any real hard facts – that the Obama administration is lobbying Senator Susan Collins on the healthcare reform bill, and theorizes that Collins “could be a critical crossover vote”.
That Obama is lobbying Collins and [...]
One of the reasons New Media platforms like Twitter and Facebook are both powerful and useful, is because it allows public figures to transparently and effectively communicate with the grassroots, engaged voters of a given state or district. Still, far too many candidates do not understand its true power, and [...]
Some people, it seems, take criticism quite well.
Others don’t take it so well.
Then there are others – like Representative Andy O’Brien (D, District 44) – who not only don’t take it well, but react to it in completely the wrong way. And by “completely the wrong way” I mean, acting [...]
If you thought this was going to be anything other than a dog fight, think again.
Democratic polling firm Public Policy Polling (who do extremely fair, good work, just for the record) has been spending a little time talking to voters in Maine. Today, they released a poll they conducted [...]
No politician in Maine history can claim to have gotten closer to the White House than James G. Blaine.
Blaine had not one, not two but in fact three opportunities to be elected president, and indeed ended up losing his election to Grover Cleveland in 1884 by only 36 electoral [...]
Once it became clear that Olympia Snowe was voting yes on the Baucus bill, the conservative blogosphere predictably erupted into a fury of anger, outrage and calls for vengeance against Maine’s senior Senator. While most conservative activists decided to simply vent their frustration, some were a tad more creative.
One [...]
The graphic on his website has gone from “Exploratory Committee” to the “Jobs for Maine Campaign” – and Les Otten made that lipstick change formal this morning, announcing that he was indeed formally running for Governor of Maine.
This surprises no one, of course, as we have been counting Otten [...]
One thing is for sure – you’ll never be able to accuse Bruce Poliquin of not putting his money where is mouth is. While the other GOP candidates have indicated tepid support for what has become known as TABOR II, Poliquin appears to be going “all in” on Question 4.
Ten [...]
Over the weekend, Saturday Night Live couldn’t resist poking fun at the recent news – specifically healthcare reform, the balloon boy, and Obama’s Nobel Prize. The satire took the form of SNL’s most recent “The Rock Obama” skit – and in this particular rendition, Maine’s senior Senator makes an appearance.
She [...]
Maine has never had a statesman occupy the oval office in the entirety of its 189 years of existence. While states like Virginia and New York have churned out an impressive army of Chief Executives, the Pine Tree State has not contributed anyone.
However, that is not to say that it [...]
Dirigo Blue has just posted on the record quotes from the major Democratic gubernatorial candidates explaining their opposition to TABOR.
I encourage you to read them all in full, but here’s my quick, boiled down takeaway:
Rosa Scarcelli spin: “We can’t simply cut our way to prosperity”
Between the Lines Translation: We [...]
Last night, Senator Susan Collins appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews to discuss healthcare reform. Right out of the gate, Matthews asked Senator Collins what would be required for her to support the reform bill – Collins pivoted and reiterated what she said in her press release from yesterday, namely [...]
This afternoon I posted an article, reporting that Senator Susan Collins opposed the Senate healthcare reform bill. This was in response to the Senator’s press release, which said that while she believes reform needed to happen, she felt the Baucus bill was a step in the wrong direction.
Imagine [...]
On the heels of Senator Snowe’s affirmative vote on the Baucus bill, Senator Susan Collins wasted no time making her feelings known on the legislation.
Snowe’s defection from the GOP opposition gave hope to Democrats that Collins would follow suit, lending more “bipartisanship” to the bill.
Those thoughts can be put to [...]
Maine Senator Olympia Snowe – and her colleague Senator Susan Collins – are often held up as the prime examples of GOP lawmakers who are “Republican In Name Only”, or RINOs. They certainly aren’t alone – this ridiculous label is assigned to any Republican who steps outside of Republican orthodoxy [...]
“When history calls, history calls” – so says Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine.
In a move that is sure to infuriate those on the right who already considered her a faux Republican all too interested in placating to the Democrats, Maine’s senior Senator has indicated that she will support the Baucus [...]
I had the pleasure yesterday of speaking with Mayor Paul LePage, Republican gubernatorial candidate in 2010.
Our talk covered a wide range of issues, including “getting our fiscal house in order”, our “Cadillac appetite and Volkswagen pocketbook”, and believe it or not, taxes on bull semen.
It was a pleasure, and we [...]
Head on over to Waterville, Maine’s government website when you get a chance. When you get there, stop on by the Mayor’s page. You might find something interesting.
Turns out that above the biography of Mayor LePage, and next to his picture, there is a text box with some [...]
Speculation about new faces jumping into the gubernatorial fray has died down quite a bit recently. Obviously, most of the people that observers have been wondering about have either already jumped into the race, or seem to be backing off any idea running. There remain a few names out there, [...]
It was only a matter of time. The force was strong in this one, but even he succumbed to the dark side. A moment of silence – please.
Peter Mills, the longest hold out among the major candidates from using the Twitter platform, has waved a white flag of surrender, [...]
For the past few days, the comment section of Pine Tree Politics has been engaging in a little back and forth about the question of who the GOP front runner is for the 2010 gubernatorial primary election.
We have heard from supporters of Peter Mills, Bruce Poliquin, and Paul LePage – [...]
Today, Republican candidate for Governor Bruce Poliquin announced the start of a state-wide listening tour, with the stated aim of hearing from Mainers about “how to bring competent management to state government”. Dubbed, “The Accountability in Augusta” tour, Poliquin will travel to 8 Maine cities in the next 30 days, [...]
In the first – admittedly unscientific – Pine Tree Politics gubernatorial primary poll, the newest entrant into the GOP primary, Paul LePage, emerged on top.
The poll lasted five days – Monday through Friday of this week – and LePage lead virtually the entire time.
Voting overall was lower than at our [...]
With all the brew-ha-ha over the Portland GOP event, there has been much talk about what is appropriate and what is not appropriate for committees to do in relation to candidate appearances. Several people have expressed concern about charging the candidates to appear (while others just had an issue with [...]
Welcome to Pine Tree Politics’ first poll of the gubernatorial season. We will be conducting these polls semi-regularly in the coming months, so we can track movement and changes in support as time goes by. Still – it should be noted this is not a scientific poll and should not [...]
The Republican primary has – up to this point – been a remarkably cordial, quiet affair with no real engagement between the candidates. Well, consider that segment of the campaign over, because the first real shots of the Republican primary have been fired, and Matt Jacobson started the volley.
Yesterday, [...]
The Governor is leaving today on another trade mission, this time to Spain and Germany. According to the Maine International Trade Center, the state-funded organization that is organizing the trip, this mission is different. This time, instead of focusing on a geographic area, the mission is focusing on wind energy.
According [...]
The Huffington Post yesterday ran a preview look at former White House speech writer Matthew Latimer’s new book, Speech-less: Tales of a White House Survivor. In it, Latimer mostly examines the atmosphere in the waning days of the Bush Administration – and is not too flattering in his [...]
Former United States Ambassador to Costa Rica, Peter Cianchette, has been looked to for another run for governor ever since he narrowly lost to John Baldacci in the 2002 gubernatorial election.
In 2006, he initially looked poised to run again, but ended up withdrawing from the race abruptly. For [...]
A DailyKos/Research 2000 survey was conducted from September 14 through September 16, and gave us our first glimpse of how the 2010 race looks as of right now. The results? Well, as you might expect, the polling data betrays the fact that there is an incredible amount of “unknown” [...]
I recently had the opportunity to sit down and speak with Democrat gubernatorial candidate Rosa Scarcelli. Of course, by recently, I mean she was nice enough to speak with me a week and a half ago, but I have been so under water lately that I haven’t had the time [...]
Prior to last Wednesday night’s Presidential address to a joint session of Congress, Senator Olympia Snowe reiterated her rejection of a “public option” in the healthcare reform bill.
“I appreciate that President Obama shared many of the details of his vision for health reform at this pivotal and historic moment, [...]
First of all, I realize that this article’s existence is in direct conflict with its title. So be it – this is an article that had to be written, and it is the last that I will write on this subject.
Earlier, I alluded to the fact that prior to [...]
On August 24th - in the midst of my vacation in Maine - something happened. A new candidate filed paperwork to run for Governor of Maine. Why this is noteworthy? We finally have our first Independent candidate worth discussing. This candidate, is Eliot Cutler.
Up until now, the batch [...]
The email dings started around 10:00 pm, and continued throughout the night as folks throughout Maine sent me the latest report on CNN.com that quotes “sources” who claim, “President Obama and top aides have quietly stepped up talks with moderate Republican Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine on a scaled-back [...]
Yesterday, it was made official. Opponents of gay marriage in Maine have gathered enough signatures to place the question in front of Maine voters. Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap has affirmed that enough registered voters from the state of Maine (60,391 - they only needed 55,087) have expressed their [...]
Glenn Thrush of Politico is reporting that the Obama Administration is in serious talks with Maine Senator Olympia Snowe on assigning a “trigger” mechanism to the idea of a public option, as a compromise to move forward the healthcare reform bill that had stalled in August.
The general idea of [...]
In part of my full conversation with Senator Peter Mills, I asked him about the equal marriage bill that recently passed the Maine legislature. Mills was the only Republican in the Maine Senate to vote for the measure (though, as he correctly points out, several Republicans in the [...]
I recently had a chance to sit down with Senator Peter Mills, Republican candidate for Governor of Maine. We had the opportunity to record the conversation, as well - and so we invite you to watch the video below (it is roughly 52 minutes). Senator Mills and I touch on [...]
This past two weeks, I have been vacationing in Maine (you may have noticed Pine Tree Politics was a little quiet). While there, I had the pleasure of getting a much better picture of the Maine political scene, by way of meeting with literally dozens of lawmakers, candidates, and opinion [...]
I met a friend for drinks in Washington DC last Friday night - and little did I know I was about to get into a heated discussion about the fundamental nature of Maine voters that would last for more than three hours. Yes, you read that right, three hours.
The conversation [...]
The President of the Maine Senate has officially thrown her hat in the ring for Maine Governor in 2010. Libby Mitchell filed her paperwork yesterday, confirming the recent rumors that she was considering a run for the Blaine House.
Mitchell has served in the Maine House of Representatives for [...]
Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine stopped by Morning Joe this morning to chat with Joe Scarborough and company on the issue of healthcare. Scarborough noted that Snowe certainly isn’t “summering in Maine” this year because of the work in the Senate on healthcare reform - and he is [...]
In part three of Pine Tree Politics’ gubernatorial interview series, we sit down with Republican Matt Jacobson, currently head of Maine & Company. Our conversation covered a wide range of issues from tax reform, to charter schools, to the east-west highway.
For full audio of the interview, simply click play below:
[...]
Peter Mills has already submitted his paperwork, and we all knew he was running. But today came his formal announcement, as well as the unveiling of his campaign website, [www.millsformaine.com].
A brief look at his website shows it to be a good effort to begin with. There are [...]
In my interview with Green Party candidate Lynne Williams last week, I brought up the long held belief by many Maine citizens (specifically Republicans, but also many others) that Maine is one of the highest taxed states in the union.
Her answer that it all “evened out” in the [...]
In part two of my gubernatorial interview series, I had the pleasure of speaking with Green Party candidate Lynne Williams. This interview was slightly different than the one I conducted with Bruce Poliquin, as this time I will be posting a full recording of my conversation with her below.
Our conversation [...]
You’ll forgive the tabloid-esque story this one time, but I couldn’t resist. Today, The Hill came out with it’s annual compilation of the “50 Most Beautiful People On The Hill“, their sort of serious and sort of not list of the fifty people who work on Captitol Hill [...]
Pine Tree Politics is planning to interview every serious candidate for Governor in the coming months - from all parties. We will soon be speaking with Republican Matt Jacobson and Green Independent Lynne Williams, but the honor of my first interview in this series goes to another. I recently had [...]
We all knew this was coming - Peter Mills is running for Governor of Maine once more. Despite speculation that Mills would go the independent route, the state Senator from Cornville filed his paperwork today to run in the GOP primary. As our friends at Augusta Insider [...]
Our friends at Augusta Insider beat me to the punch on this one - today posting video from Peter Mills’ appearance at a healthcare rally this past Saturday. But if I may, I’d like to expand on this subject a little more.
In the video (posted below), Mills makes [...]
This morning the Associated Press published a story highlighting the fact that Senator Susan Collins plans to vote for the confirmation of Justice Sonia Sotomayor:
His prediction came as Sen. Susan Collins of Maine became the latest Republican to publicly commit to voting for President Barack Obama’s first high court [...]
“If we want change, we have to change who we send to Augusta” - so says Rosa Scarcelli, the most recent entrant into the Maine gubernatorial race. She’ll be facing off with Steve Rowe, who is already being pigeon holed as “more Baldacci”.
Scarcelli (pronounced SCAR-chell-ee) is the owner and CEO [...]
Those constantly groping for a “third way” likely love today’s story from Huffington Post - “Gang of Six Centrist Senators Demands Delay on Health Care Reform“. If you can guess who two of the six in the “gang” are, I’ll give you a cookie. (Disclaimer: Under no circumstances will [...]
Today is the filing deadline for Maine candidates, and the details of their reports have already begun circulating. Candidates are required to file the June pre-election semiannual report if the candidate raises or spends more than a total of $1,000 before June 30, 2009. So, those candidates who just [...]
As a new media professional in Washington DC, one of the things I have enjoyed most about the fledgeling 2010 race for Governor in Maine has been the embrace of new media by prospective candidates, as well as some among the grassroots.
The latter is even more encouraging to me than [...]
