The big losers from last week’s line-item showdown — besides struggling Maine families and towns and cities, all of which have been left in the lurch — were State Senate President Kevin Raye and Senate Majority Leader Jon Courtney.
Both men are running for Congress against strong Democratic incumbents and can little afford mistakes or conflicts that paint them as weak, indecisive or overly partisan.
But that’s where they both ended up, courtesy of Gov. Paul LePage.
When it comes to writing the state budget, the Legislature for many years has done something quite remarkable. Despite a devastating recession and a transition of power from Democrats to Republicans, lawmakers have been able to build state budgets that have won strong, bipartisan support.
And so it was with a supplemental budget passed two weeks ago. After a unanimous report from the Appropriations and Financial Services, and overwhelming, bipartisan support in the House, the Senate — including both Raye and Courtney — unanimously approved of the bill.
The governor was displeased with changes made by the Legislature. Members had not gone far enough in attacking poor people, despite making real reductions to the state’s General Assistance program.
General Assistance is the place people turn to as a last resort. Administered by towns and cities, the program can help keep families in their homes, pay for heating or electricity or make sure there is enough to eat.
The Legislature cut it and set up a process to make further changes down the road.
The governor demanded more.
The governor used the line-item veto to cut the funding for General Assistance, essentially leaving an unbalanced budget and towns and cities short of cash.
Maine has had the line-item veto since 1995, but this is the first time it has been used. The reason is pretty simple: It’s very limited in its power.
A simple majority of legislators in both the House and Senate can override the line-item veto and restore any appropriation or allocation disallowed by the governor.
Given Maine’s practice of passing budgets with two-thirds support, the line-item veto usually has little chance of success. Lawmakers, already on the record for a tough budget vote, have every incentive to maintain their prerogative and override.
But it didn’t turn out that way.
Republican leaders in the House and Senate refused to call their members back into session to consider the line-item vetoes. Despite a unanimous vote in the Senate in support of a reasonable compromise, leaders seemed desperate to avoid a showdown with the governor.
The Legislature is scheduled to return in May, and it will be forced to deal with the question of General Assistance then.
Perhaps, they will return to the carefully negotiated position that displeased the governor. Or maybe they won’t.
For Raye and Courtney, they have an opportunity to redeem themselves.
When the budget was negotiated, leaders on both sides of the aisle, Republicans and Democrats alike, made a deal. They gave their word.
That word is at stake.
At the same time, they cannot afford to anger the loudest segments of the Republican base, which wholeheartedly cheers on Gov. LePage’s slash-and-burn approach to anti-poverty programs.
So there’s the dilemma for these two men who would like to represent Maine in Congress.
They can keep their promise and uphold a bargain that they helped to negotiate, or they can continue to allow Gov. LePage to push them around and dictate their behavior.
Both options have consequences.
Mainers expect their congressional leaders to put partisanship aside and do what’s best for the state. And to be effective, voters and other lawmakers must know that you will keep your word, otherwise nobody will take a chance on working with you on the biggest questions of the day.
Electoral success will require the foot soldiers of the party, many of whom see compromise not as the noble art of the possible but instead as a sign of betrayal of orthodoxy. Such voters tend to hold a grudge.
But it will also require appealing to swing and independent voters, who place a high premium on personal integrity and go to the polls to elect leaders, not lap dogs for a chief executive.
Despite having a narrow and unlikely path to win election this fall, Raye and Courtney are decent candidates who had the opportunity to look the part of statesmen in regards to the budget.
That’s going to be hard to salvage now.
Gov. LePage won election by appealing only to his base. But Raye and Courtney can’t win that way. They need a broader coalition, and the governor just made that harder to build.
David Farmer is a political and media consultant. He was formerly deputy chief of staff and communications director for Gov. John E. Baldacci and a longtime journalist. You can reach him at dfarmer14@hotmail.com.
On the spot indeed. Like behind the 8 ball.
Courtney and Raye will be under additional scrutiny and pressure if there should be another compromise budget (and why should anyone believe them that the compromise will hold?) and should the governor veto the new budget, too. Sooner or later they will have to develop spines and stand up to the governor, but it’s already a bit too late for comfort since we now know they didn’t do the right thing first time around.
“When the budget was negotiated, leaders on both sides of the aisle, Republicans and Democrats alike, made a deal. They gave their word.”
So what? – they cannt speak for the rank and file members of the legislature nor for the Governor. This is not Raye’s and Courtney’s problem, but of course, Farmer and the Bangor Democrat News would like to spin it that way. Anything to take away from the incredible accomplishments of these two legislators in this session and anything to bolster the ongoing Democrat War on Maine.
You can be their lap dogs if you like. But you really can’t spin your way out of the fact that their decision to not come back to vote on the LIV has them looking like cowards, who don’t stand up for what they vote for.
Must legislator hold their nose when they vote for the budget. Voting for the budget does not mean that one agrees with every line item. That’s just common sense, something you and the rest of the wild-eyed liberals in these comments sections are sorely lacking.
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They both are obviously under pressure from the money people behind MHPC/ALEC/Tea Party, where compromise, consensus, cooperation are considered dirty words. What chance would we have in Washington to have Maines citizens represented by people that have Maines interests at heart if these two gain seats in Washington?
There’s nothing to this trumped-up controversy except timing. The GOP lawmakers simply decided that it would make more sense to meet at the next regularly-scheduled session in May to take up the two line items vetoed by the governor rather than at a special session that would have cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars that we can do better without spending. If the Democratic lawmakers want to throw a temper tantrum over this non-issue it’s their prerogative, and the voters will take note of their (lack of) maturity and professionalism come November.
They ARE “on the spot”…the spot where they get my vote.
Lepage is trying to blackmail the people of Maine.
Trying?
In the face of overwhelming support in both house and senate, LePudge did his grandstanding act of a line item veto. The republican sheep kowtowed to “His Immenseness” or did they? The only evidence that a majority of the republicans did not see reconvening necessary are the “words” of Raye and Nutting. Neither has submitted any actual results and neither is known for his integrity. It could be that those two are doing their counting a la Charlie Webster in announcing Romney as the winner among Maine republicans well in advance of the actual results. We’ll never know because this was not done “honest and above board” as we expect of our leaders.
Only totally different note, it is interesting that “conservatives” are anti-conservation.
The losers here are Mr. Farmer and JEB when they were asked to leave Augusta.
Which made the people of this state the winners.