This November, the election most people will be paying attention to is the presidential race. But as important as it is, if you glance several inches downward on your ballot as you vote, you will see a place to register your choice for your local state senator and state representative. This will be, for you, a far more important choice to make.
In the most recent polling by Portland-based Critical Insights, President Obama held an eight-point lead over former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. I am of the mind that Romney can make Maine competitive, but it will be wholly dependent on spending some time and money here, which he may or may not be willing to do depending how the other states shape up.
Still, Maine is likely to vote for President Obama, so the vote you register for president isn’t necessarily going to decide the fate of the national election. Famous last words, I realize.
The state legislative battles, however, are entirely undecided, and truth be told the results will likely have more immediate and real impact on your everyday life than who becomes our next president.
The Republican Party captured the Maine House and the Maine Senate in 2010, controlling the Legislature for the first time in four decades. How they have acquitted themselves once in office, punctuated by their actions this past week, make them deserving of retaining control in 2012.
For forty years of Democratic rule in Augusta, there seemed to be one truth: the Legislature would put off hard choices, take the easy path rather than the right path, raise taxes, increase spending, grow government and fail to reform or innovate.
This caused a slow but noticeable trend. Like a man trying to squeeze an ever shrinking bit of toothpaste out of an increasingly abused and vacant tube, Maine’s Legislature continued to spend more money, tax its residents to pay for that spending, be shocked when Maine’s economy failed to grow or shrank, and then squeezed the tube more.
Innovative and creative solutions, genuine government reform or simply the capacity to say “no” to just about anyone were all things that seemed to be lacking from Maine’s government.
That all, mercifully, has changed in the last two years.
To be fair, the Republicans didn’t have much of a choice. When they took over, the state was in pretty rough shape, budgets were busted, cost overruns in state departments were astronomical and things were generally a mess.
But they could have done what so many Democratic Legislatures had done and simply punted down the field in an attempt to be popular, rather than reforming government. They could have handed the problems they faced to future Legislatures and congratulated themselves on their own cleverness, like so many Democratic Legislatures had done. But they didn’t.
This Legislature enacted the largest tax cut in Maine history and cut your taxes multiple times. They removed 70,000 lower-income filers from having to pay taxes in the first place. They increased deductions and eliminated the marriage penalty.
All things you would expect from any Republican Legislature. But they didn’t just rely on the “tax cuts” mantra so often repeated by the GOP.
They reformed Maine’s health insurance system, and we are seeing the results now as rates for individual health care plans in Maine will drop as much as 60 percent in July.
They reformed Maine’s pension system, reducing the unfunded state government pension debt — a black hole in the budget — by nearly two billion dollars.
They reformed Maine’s welfare system in an attempt to be accountable to the people of Maine and help lift people out of government dependence — not keep them on it in perpetuity.
They then did the hard work of dealing with massive cost overruns in DHHS, reforming that department as well.
You may not agree with everything the Republicans did in the Legislature, but you can’t deny things feel differently in Augusta. Where the status quo once ruled, and stagnant, uninspiring leadership once called the shots, there are now bold, reform-minded Legislatures trying to clean up state government.
That change of attitude by itself is refreshing. They deserve an opportunity to continue what they started.
Matthew Gagnon, a Hampden native, is a Republican political strategist. He previously worked for Sen. Susan Collins and the National Republican Senatorial Committee. You can reach him at matthew.o.gagnon@gmail.com and read his blog at www.pinetreepolitics.com.
Well said. You will probably get beat up bad by the left and Fried for this, but I hope some people take time to see past the rhetoric of the left and see the truly good changes this legislature has made happen.
There is one thing missing from this 40 years narrative: reality. Republicans were never shut out during debates, were never denied seats on committees, etc. This claim that it was far left liberals running the show with no attempt to cooperate is a lie. Now that Republicans are in power, has the converse been true these past two years?
I’m also curious how this author knows about the ~feeling~ of Maine when he lives far removed from here in DC where he works as a political strategist. I don’t take much of what he claims to feel or believe to be sincere. It looks a lot more like politics.
“It looks a lot like politics” …
What a coincidence! PINE TREE POLITICS.
Matthew when was the last time you sat down for breakfast at Dysart’s. How about shopping at the Hannaford’s on Western Ave? Have you stopped in at The Coffee Break Bakery lately? Have you had occasion to go into Schacht’s ? I only ask because I have and to be honest with you the people I have talked with in those places do not seem to share your opinion of what the tea party republican controlled legislature has done. In fact Matthew the majority of the people, average working people, seem to have an entirely different take on what Maine’s republican legislators have done. As a business owner Matthew , you know one of the real job creators, I get to talk to quite a few people everyday from diverse backgrounds and with few exceptions what I have been hearing are extremely negative comments about not only the republican legislators, but also the Chairman of the Maine Republican Party as well. I am not finding many people singing the praises of Paul Richared LePage either Matthew. Now granted I haven’t had to replace any overhead doors or buy or sell any commercial real estate so I haven’t had an opportunity to speak with either Deb Plowman or Mr. Cushing. You mentioned health insurance Matthew and spoke about how some will be seeing as much as a 60 percent reduction in rates come July. My company provides group insurance coverage for our 18 employees and frankly Matthew we have been told that our rates will increase, not drop. In fact one of my neighbors is an insurance agent who handles commercial lines for one of the State’s larger agencies and he says that while he has seen some health insurance rate reductions for some , the majority of his customers will be seeing increases. I know you feel that what has been done by the republicans in Maine is refreshing and feel that they should be returned to Augusta in next November’s election. I bet all of those tea party republicans will feel bad that you won’t be able to vote in Maine.
I doubt there are universally negative feelings and you really are just running in more leftist circles, especially seeing as you call the legislature “tea party controlled” (who these tea party legislators are is a mystery to most as the agenda has been moderate at best). Probably the people you talk to haven’t a clue about actual legislation to come out of Augusta these past two years. But if those negitive sentiments are the majority you can thank Republicans for being able to celebrate your victory with a nice personal fireworks show. That’s more than you can thank the Dems for.
You may or may not believe what I said but for the record I have been a registered republican since 1967 and I tend not to run in circles. The people I socialize with are both democrats and republicans and we do have some interesting conversations. If you are unaware of who the tea party republicans are in the Maine Legislature I suggest you do some research like the rest of us have. Something tells me your response is driven more by ideology then by fact. As far as fireworks shows are concerned if what I have been hearing is correct and I believe it is. There will be plenty of fireworks on November 6th after the election results come in and I highly doubt it will be the tea party republicans celebrating.
I don’t believe you have a very accurate read on the electorate. Heaven help us if you do.
We are finally getting back on track. The last thing we want to do is replace the party in power with the one that has burdened us with an overtaxed, overregulated state.
Dream on.
Sounds like he’s basing his opinions on some comcrete experiences. Can’t say for sure which way he leans policially. Certainly can’t establish as ‘leftist”.
In the small sample group that you hang out with in Hampden, I doubt that it is truly representative of Maine as a whole. I hear much more positive commentary about the republicans in Augusta but I will admit, I have not been to Dysart’s in a few months and I have never visited the Coffee Break Bakery. Most of the criticizing has come from the left and that side always makes more noise because they have the news media representing them, the unions representing them and academia representing them. Republicans have plenty of support in the business community, your personal business excepted, but those people go to work every day and are not in the public eye like those on the left with nothing better to do all day but criticize everything from the right. If you honestly believe that democrats and their policies are better for Maine, then stay with them and adopt their liberal attitude where they actually believe that they can tax and borrow their way to prosperity. I still believe that you have to get up and go to work every day and will continue to do so and complain about the taxes that I pay that go to support people that could support themselves.
The news media like the BDN which published this pro-Lepage anti-reality piece by the Republican shill? Got it.
Go back to watching MSDNC, will ya?
So your argument is that if I want to see liberal media that I need to watch a cable news channel and that the rest of the media is fairly centrist? Great thanks for clearing that up and proving my point.
The reality is that this is an opinion piece; it is not the same as publishing a news article and reporting it as fact. Liberal or Conservative, in this age actual news is washed out by opinion pieces and commentators. I would agree with you if the BDN had tried to publish this article as news; but this is clearly an opinion piece. They also publish opinions of left-minded writers as well.
So then the argument is that since all news articles report facts they can be neither conservative or liberal (except of course they appear to be liberal since reality does have a liberal bias). However if you want to read about Obama being born in Kenya or Elvis’s love child with an alien you can in such conservative newspapers as the weekly world news or Fox news.
Speaking of Elvis’ love child with an alien: what planet are you from?
See if you would pay more attention to reality you would know that since I am indeed posting here I am human and therefore from earth. I realize you cannot believe that someone who does not agree with your skewed version of reality could possibly be from the same planet.
You are exactly what I was speaking of in my post. Thank you for making my point, loud and clear.
I don’t know, but I’ve been going to work for 32 years, have raised two daughters, and will stack my work ethic against yours any day. And I’m a progressive liberal so keep your misinformed character assassinations to yourself.
By the way if you think the media is still biased in a liberal direction, you clearly haven’t been paying attention over the last ten years. It clearly is no longer true, if it ever was. Heck you can stay in your conservative “alternate reality” bubble full time now, and never have to be burdened with the truth, or the effects of your heartless decisions.
Actually the sample is much larger then just those places I mentioned in Hampden. It was a question to Matthew on if he had been to any of those places that are relatively well known in the Hampden area. I certainly in no way would use a small sample to judge an entire electorate. Furthermore , as I said , I deal with business people from a diverse background and from all over the state. As far as going to work every day is concerned I have done just that since I was old enough to get a job. Of course the last few years I have kind of slacked off by going to Florida from January to May. I guess we will find out on November 6th which sampling is correct the one I use or yours.
I believe you and what I cannot understand about a successful business person is how he/she can switch to a liberal just because of a very deep and personal dislike for the current governor. He has done some good things and while hie delivery is tough to take, he means nothing personal by it, it happens to be who he is. I came from a very poor household myself and understand how he can be who he is. I would prefer more polish, but I will take LePage over Baldacci or Angus “windmill” King any day.
You seem to automatically assume that anyone who does not march in lockstep to the ideology of the current Maine Republican Party is a liberal. On that you are dead wrong. My biggest problem with LePage isn’t that he is a conservative, my biggest problem with LePage is that in almost year and a half as Maine’s Governor he has yet to say one positive thing about our State. To hear him tell it Mainers are uneducated, lazy, couch dwellers who are constantly sucking of the public teat. That is just not true. The majority of Mainers are hard working people who get up every morning and go to work to feed, house and provide for their families. Oh and as far as John Baldacci is concerned I will never forgive him for selling the State’s liquor monopoly at bargain basement prices and I have told him so to his face.
I live in the Mid-Coast, with the group that got Paul elected, and we are excited and happy at the reforms he has made. Anything is better than Baldacci who only paved roads on election years and spent almost 1 million on new stairs and gardens for the state house, then got re-elected months later, and King who was an out and out leftist spender. The legislature has busted their humps, and most of the executive committee actually has a brain, and thats always good. There are a few new dumb laws they are passing,a nd that is turning off the core, and the Gov. better watch it because we did not elect him or anyone for new busybody laws.
You last comment, 4mermainer, why wont “all those tea party republicans be able to vote in Maine”?
I have no problem with being quoted, however it would be nice if you could take the time to do it accurately.
He said the tea party repulicans will feel bad that Matthew won’t be able to vote in Maine. He does not live here.
Business owner … just renewed our employee med. insurance coverage … Anthem … under 50 employees … same coverage .. same deductible … ***300. less*** per month, per employee. Me = happy employer!
Good for you. I wish I could say the same.
“You may not agree with everything the Republicans did in the Legislature, but you can’t deny things feel differently in Augusta”
And things gonna feel a whole lot more different come November.
Agreed, Republicans should heed the words of House Stark, “Winter is coming.” It is going to be a long cold one for those republicans who stood by Emperor LePage when they find themselves looking for work.
LePage has taken on reforms that have infuriated the progressives in the state of Maine, but absent his courage to change the status quo and tackle the unpopular issues we would see Maine going down the same road as CA, albeit on a smaller scale.
California has steadfastly refused to confront the tough choices and now faces a $16 billion deficit, tax receipts have declined sharply as a result of taxpayers and businesses fleeing the state. And now Governor Jerry Brown is proposing yet another tax increase to address huge deficits. Let’s wait and see how well that will work out for the Left Coast.
Maine is turning away from the abyss; the decisions aren’t fun, but in the long run Maine will be the beneficiary of confronting the tough choices.
Turning away from the abyss? More like throwing children, the poor, and the elderly into it.
Give me a break. 19 and 20 year olds rarely need insurance anyway, and now can purchase it more affordably thanks to the Republicans in Augusta. Head Start programs have shown very mixed results for all the money we taxpayers pour into it.
If you and your friends are so concerned about the needy, then I suggest you recalculate your state taxes back to before Mr. LePage’s tax cuts, and then give the money he has saved you and your friends to the charities of your choice.
We Maine taxpayers are fed up with being forced to pay for bloated ineffective state-run social services. I want more money in my pocket, so I can determine which charities I voluntarily wish to support. And if I give to none at all, that is what is called “liberty”.
No that is called being selfish. Liberty is the concept created by Locke Hobbes and Rousseau that included adherence to a social contract that included an individuals ability to be as free as possible within a government that provided stability. In other words someone cannot tell you how you should live your life (until of course it affects another’s life) however they can tell you to pay taxes (assuming you have a say in the makeup of the legislature) and what those taxes will be spent on.
Speak for yourself…you clearly lack empathy, which is pretty important to a civilized society.
And now we find out that Moody’s has cut our rating based on our excessive Mainecare spending. Ask someone in the Occupy Party to explain what effect that could have on our financial situation.
It’s takes zero courage to cut poor people’s assistance, they have no political voice. What would take courage would be for him to resist the directives from his Republican overlords from out of State, and actually govern with fairness instead of putting the screws to the least fortunate amongst us so his rich buddies can have another tax break.
Matt,
I can hear the fear in your voice, and I know that you fully understand the Republicans blew their chance. And they did have a chance, but they were to concerned about whether the whoopie pie or blueberry pie should be the state dessert to do any real good for the state. They came in on a jobs platform, and immediately moved to social issues. Sorry Matt, but the writing is on the wall, and your article proves that you can read it.
Independent
Well written and thoughtful commentary. The left wingers will be furious but the truth always hurts and this commentary is all about the truth and the way Maine has been operated for the past 40 years of hard core democrat rule.
Republicans talking about truth, as if they have even a passing relationship with it, is quite laughable. This is the party of Mitch “I’m lying if my lips are moving” McConnell. This is the party of Fox News, where truth takes a decided back seat to conservative propaganda, if it makes an appearance at all. You guys are so mal adjusted to actual reality and the truth, that you have to create an artificial reality 24/7 by never leaving the Fox/Limbaugh/Hannity/O’Reilly bubble. It’s really pathetic that people lap this stuff up as if it’s not the tremendously destructive propaganda that it clearly is. Right wing behavior in the last three years has really opened up a lot of people’s eyes . It has bordered on treason, with Republicans fighting every effort to improve the economy. They are willing to damage the country to regain power. What do you call it?
For a minute I thought I was on the MSNBC website – do you write for them too?
LOL there aren’t even opinion articles on the main MSNBC website. Nice try at a dig though, haha.
Gagnon states that Republican legislators had “removed 70,000 lower-income filers from having to pay taxes in the first place.” He means, of course, income taxes, since these folks still pay sales and other taxes directly, and property taxes either directly (own) or indirectly (rent).
What Gagnon doesn’t tell you is that under the Republican income tax plan, the four lowest brackets, which include Mainers with adjusted incomes up to $35,269 (350,697 taxpayers, or exactly half of those that file a return), realize just 9.0% of the reduction. Those earning less than $14,427 would see a savings of nine dollars.
On the other hand, those in the highest bracket, earning more than $117,914 (70,138 taxpayers, or 10% of all those who file a return), will receive 43.7% of the reduction, on average, a savings of $964.
Under the Republican plan, the poorest 50% of Mainers receive 9.0% of the tax cut while the richest 10% receive 43.7%.
It’s funny how those who paid all the taxes are usually the ones who receive the biggest benefit from a tax cut, huh? Next, you should do an analysis on what percentage of public assistance each group consumes.
PPP is better than Dirigo Blue.
A person in my family, single (unmarried, no dependents) had an income 102,000 in 2011. His only deduction was his home mortgage interest. Between state & fed income taxes, he paid 42,ooo. He owns a small business with one employee. The bottom line (“profit”) of his incorporated business flows through to his personal tax return. He works 60-70 hrs per week, takes a one week vaca. a year, provides benefits of health ins., payroll taxes and two weeks paid time off and additional personal leave for his one employee.
“Must be nice” eh? Under your DEMOCRATIC PROGRESSIVE LIBERAL plan, this greedy small corporation owner is bilking the system.
Oh please, this “small business” meme is a bit tiring.
In my response to a comment related to the content of the article, would you expect to see a comment about video games? baseball? chocolate cake?
But it’s a phony meme. The title of “small business” is generally used to cover entities wildly different from the one you describe. A small business with one owner and one employee can have hundreds of millions in assets and still maintain the “small” title. The example you’ve outlined in the exception in the whole group of “small businesses.”
Then evidently you haven’t traveled to all the corners of small towns in Maine yet.
The lack of concern about small business is a symptom of the greater problem our economy faces. Small business is where job creation happens. It has not been big corps for a long time. If you actually read the comment you would know this is a real small business. This is not the exception, it is actually the typical case. The small business with millions in profit is the outlier.
He sounds incompetent if he runs a business has 102,000 in income and is paying 42k in taxes. My guess is that eventually his incompetence will catch up with him and he will no longer have to worry about the hardship of being a business owner.
Incompetent? Guess again. No tax loopholes, no subsidies, pays full property taxes, excise and sales taxes, receives no “settlement” checks, no “entitlement” checks, never gone through bankruptcy, pays bills and vendors on time. He has been in business for 18 years.
It’s that nasty term, called “private enterprise”. By “incompetence”, maybe you mean he is single with no dependents? He should not be declaring part of his income? He should be on disability for his “bad” shoulder? He should be a professional “slip & fall” victim in someone else’s parking lot? Or maybe he could be a professional victim in every job he’s fired from, every building he’s evicted from, or of any person who causes him “anxiety” or a panic attack. Truth is, he’s not a “victim” of anything. He seems to look more at his choice to be in business as a “consequence of the CHOICE” he made. (what a concept!) Right now, pocketing 60,000 of his hard earned money seems to be a better choice than any alternatives for him.
The REALITY is that he is now realizing a gross income that used to be the “American Dream”, by natives as well as immigrants who traveled to the US, believing that they could have a piece of the pie, through practices of hard work, by contributing …. doing their part for all of society. But that’s so 20th century. The pride and dignity that came with achievements and contributions is now looked upon as self-serving, if not evil. This is what PROGRESS looks like in the 21st century.
The mistake you are making is thinking that liberals are why your business pays high taxes. Teh GOP has reduced taxes for the beautiful people by giving them all of the tax breaks, leaving you and I to pay the bill. All the while they blame liberals for their slight of hand.
You and this small business demonstrate why the conservatives approach to trickle down does not work. Small businesses are the job creators, not the multi-nationals.
Romney will reduce taxes focusing on those earning over 1 million per year. This will mean that you and your business will be responsible for an even greater share of government revenue than you currently are.
Watch out! While they are trying to convince you this election is about gay marriage and socialism versus capitalism, they are setting you up to make a bad decision in anger. Don’t fall for it. You don’t want a Ryan type budget given your circumstances. That is what Romney want to serve up and it is going to hurt all but the beautiful people. Your income says you are not in that club.
When you pay 1000 dollars in taxes, Gerald, and get a 10% tax cut, you have saved 100 dollars. When you pay 100,000 dollars in taxes and you get a 1% tax cut, you have saved 1000 dollars.
This is the fallacy of the left on this issue. Volume matters. If you give ANY tax cut of ANY kind to a wealthy person – even like half a percent – the raw dollars will accumulate to more than what a lower income person will save, even with a MASSIVE tax cut. And rightly so, when you pay such a titanic amount of money in taxes any small change – higher or lower taxes – means a large sum of money (either way) that dwarfs what a poor person deals with. It has always been more than a little disingenuous to play with the narrative the way you are.
The fact of the matter is, *all* levels of taxation in Maine were too high, had grown too steadily, for too long, so a correction was needed… yes, for all taxpayers in the state. Rich and poor. Big and small. That means that Donald Sussman will save a nice chunk of change, yes, but it also means people that are struggling to get by will have more in their pocket too.
All of that money belongs to the people who earned it, and taking less of it – at all levels – is a good thing. When you constantly squeeze more and more tax money out of a smaller and smaller pie, you shrink the tax base and end up getting less in receipts anyway.
Nice twist on the numbers and for most Maine people, that will work. But you insult the intelligence of any Maine resident with a high school education.
Excellent – excellent – excellent.
Mr. Gagnon continues to impress. He has his finger squarely on the pulse of this state.
He is, of course, exactly correct. Kick and scream all they want, the media and the leftists they promote and defend cannot deny with any credibility that this administration and legislature has demonstrated true leadership.
Well done, 125th!
No he has his finger on the pulse of 38% of the state…
And from out of state. Is he anonline palm reader?
Yes, and Mr. LePage will be in office for another 6 yrs 6 months of duty….
After this coming November, he will occupy the office for the remainder of his one term, but he will not have the power to govern. The Tea Party experiment in Maine is over, and it was a resounding failure.
We will see……….I think the only people that are unhappy with Lepage are the ones who post here, guess what, that isnt that many people……LOL….
Yea cause the teachers love him… oh wait, no they don’t, not after his little tirade of threatening to cut education if he didn’t get his way.
All those involved in social services, both public and private love him… oops wrong again after this past week they hate him too.
How about the elderly and disabled? They gotta love him right? No, they prob aren’t his biggest fans either.
How about all those loggers up north who are trying to compete with the cheaper Canadian Labor? No, they hate him too after he vetoed the tax cut for employing Mainers.
How about the town of Millinocket? He should get re-elected in a landslide there right?
How about the states many union employees? Oh wait, I forgot about the mural thing and the ignorant remarks LePage has made about labor and unions.
Oh wait, the 1%-ers they like him after the tax cut, there you go, LePage has 1% of the vote when reelection rolls around.
That’s not true, he also will have the delusional 27%. The same amount of people who in the waning term of GWB still thought he was doing a bang up job. I mean anyone can lose 4 million jobs in a year. There are a hardcore 27% of partisans on either side who will always believe that their politicians are doing a good job. If LePage keeps it up, I fully expect he will get 28% of the vote.
Yes, there are those too…
You’re absolutely right, there’s always the delusional he can count on, because for them it’s not about whether our governor actually cares about the people of his state, it’s only about being a Republican. Lepage has clearly shown time and again he doesn’t think much of Mainers or their work ethic. funny how in the rest of the country Maine’s strong work ethic is universally acknowledged. But from the minute he came into office he’s been tearing down the State, and it’s workers, to achieve his goal of pleasing the extreme right wingers from out of State. As soon as he’s retired, I’m sure he’ll leave the State that he clearly has such contempt for.
He is a loveable guy, what can I say….
This caricature of a leader, barely scraped into office with 38% of the vote. That means 62%, or over 6 out of every 10 voters, voted against Lepage, and with his attacks on common sense and common decency, I don’t think his standing has improved. Of course, the cool aid drinkers that inhabit Gagnon’s comments wouldn’t recognize that.
You should know better. Politics doesn’t work that way. Voting for another candidate doesn’t mean you are voting “against” anyone, it means you are voting FOR somebody. Plenty of Cutler voters were fine with LePage winning, and plenty of LePage voters would have been fine with Cutler winning… they just liked their chosen candidate better.
The hilarity of this ridiculous meme from the left is that by that logic, 81% of the state of Maine voted against Libby Mitchell and the Democratic agenda. So really… I mean… come on…
The point is he only appeals to certain segment of the population, certainly not a majority. Mainers are way to smart to endorse another term for this hatchet man. He had his chance, and has pretty much alienated everyone, except for the authoritarian types, who love his combination of arrogance and ignorance.
Lepage was elected because people thought he may know how to create jobs. Where are the jobs? Isn’t that what you jokers promised, a focus on jobs and look what you’ve focused on instead.
You’re pretty dishonest. Cutler and Eliot were both left leaning so that means the majority voted for a left leaning candidate. It was a fluke that LePage won. Without the same kind of split vote miracle, he won’t get another term and you know that.
I think you mean “Cutler and Mitchell”. And, no they weren’t. Eliot ran as a moderate, and cut the very typical “fiscally conservative, socially liberal” profile. His economic agenda wasn’t really all that far off from LePage’s to be honest… he talked endlessly about cutting and reforming, finding inefficiencies, etc. Yes, he was to the left of LePage on fiscal matters, but not by a whole lot… and were you to plot them on a map, he was much closer to LePage than Mitchell.
I didn’t just make that up… although you’re free to feel like I’m being “dishonest” if you want, but I know dozens upon dozens of Republican friends of mine who voted for Cutler, but were totally fine with LePage winning.
Fact of the matter is, Cutler tried to create a persona of “making hard, fiscally conservative choices, with a liberal conscience”, for lack of a better description. That kind of think appeals across the board to a lot of people, from conservatives, to moderates, to libertarians, to New Democrats, and right on down the line.
So, Cutler voters were not, no matter how much you want them to be, secretly Democrats who got tricked into defying the party… and they were not necessarily anti-LePage.
LOL okay, so you’re not operating in reality, clearly. You’re great at what you do though, spin spin spin.
That was one of the things that I didn’t have room in this column to include – but this legislature being labeled “tea party” is laughable. They’ve governed very much as moderates, smoothing off the edges of LePage’s agenda, saying no more than once, amending his ideas more than once, and acting very much independently.
To say that they are “tea party” is hilarious, if you look at what ACTUAL tea party legislatures around the country are doing. And to say they’ve failed, with the success of the health care reform, lower taxes, lower unemployment, and a straightened out budget, is even more hilarious.
The forty years of Democratic control of the legislature is what was the resounding failure. The funny thing is, Maine voters kind of always felt that way, but the Republican Party was inept, unproven, and frankly incompetent for much of that forty years.
Now they found a way to get power, and they demonstrated that they were serious legislators interested in doing things differently, reforming the status quo, and changing the paradigm in Augusta. If you think that amounts to failure, I think you’ll be in for a little surprise this November.
You mean like when they bargained in good faith with the dems, then pigeonholed them by not returning to vote on the line item veto? Or how about when they wouldn’t give accurate numbers during the previous DHHS budget when Mayhew and the Governor knew all along that the numbers that were given were wrong? Bully LePage even threatened the schools over that one. Yea that’s a real crop of winners there.
Remember the old adage, you don’t judge a person on how they treat their betters and equals, you judge them on how they treat those less fortunate than themselves. So legislation passed by these Republicans harms the poor, elderly, disabled, and mentally ill, yet gives tax deductions to the wealthy. Sorry, that is not a sign of good people.
The Occupy Party will always provide anecdotal evidence about how being fiscally responsible is akin to killing babies and starving old people (and now constitutes a “war on women”), but the truth, as we learned from President Clinton’s welfare reform, is the opposite. Reducing handouts does not kill, it creates incentive.
Keep drinking the cool aid bud…any flimsy justification to put the screws to someone less fortunate than you…how did you become so judgemental about other people? You know less than nothing
Great article Matt………..
You are right on the money…….
Big KUDOS….
She definitely has an accurate read….the majority of Mainers want nothing more to do with Lepage….he’s an embarrasment to the State and was brought in strictly as a hatchet man to carve up state services so his rich friends could avoid paying their fair share of taxes.
She definitely has an accurate read….the majority of Mainers want nothing more to do with Lepage….he’s an embarrasment to the State and was brought in strictly as a hatchet man to carve up state services so his rich friends could avoid paying their fair share of taxes.
If Romney wants to have a chance at winning Maine he has to change his tactics and deal with reality. There are three major knockouts that he is only making worse as he campaigns. First, he made that ill fated statement that waterboarding is not torture. He is wrong about that. This is not for him or any president to decide. It is war crime. Period. Second, he claims he would let the Too Big To Fail banks fail. If he did that he would preside over the next depression. The only way to alleviate the need to bail them out is to break them up. Ain’t gonna happen on Mitts watch so either he changes his tune or he will be remembered as the president that destroyed the American financial system. In reality, he would bail them out but voters will have to figure out Mitt-speak to get to that point. Finally, and most importantly, he will not win over independents if he does not deal with the truth about the deficits.
The deficits we are seeing are almost entirely the legacy of Bush. When you decompose the spending, the wars, Rx plan and tax cuts for the rich are responsible for nearly all of the deficit we are running. If he wants to be taken seriously by the non-partisan voters, he needs to address these things honestly. If he plans to continue or add on to the tax cuts, he will preside over higher deficits. There is no way to cut your way to deficit neutrality without fixing the give-aways to the top earners.
Since most independents are not inclined to believe all they hear on Fox and Rush, Romney himself will have to speak honestly about the deficit. Just because Fox beats the blame Obama drum 24/7 doesn’t make it true. The only way to honestly blame Obama for these deficits is to lie to yourself and set yourself up for a decision failure by believing your own lies.
And you’ll be helping vote them in, won’t you Matthew. Oh, right, you no longer live in Maine so I gues you can’t vote.
Stop Gopher, Gagnon understands the ~feeling~ of Maine. He knows better than we do!
A very refreshing perspective from BDN.
As stated, “You may not agree with everything the Republicans did in the
Legislature, but you can’t deny things feel differently in Augusta.
Where the status quo once ruled, and stagnant, uninspiring leadership
once called the shots, there are now bold, reform-minded Legislatures
trying to clean up state government.”
A position such as this is bound to draw the ire of our progressives who seem to never tire of spending other people’s money. Maine lacked balance for 40 years. The past two years are not a radical departure from our “best of breed” welfare state, but it is a change in direction to a smaller government that may become sustainable and offer opportunity for our young people to enjoy a productive and rewarding life… in Maine.