AUGUSTA, Maine — Democrats may have been too complacent leading up to elections in 2010 when they lost the governor’s office, both chambers of the Maine Legislature and the U.S. House. This time around, though, they’ve learned their lesson, Democrats said Saturday at their state convention at the Augusta Civic Center.
“We got a wake-up call” in 2010, said Timothy Carter, a convention delegate and former state representative from Bethel, “and I think we’ve got to go out and work harder.”
Expect Democrats this election cycle to loudly contest Republican talking points that advocate for tax cuts for top income earners and “trickle-down economics,” Carter said.
“We need to get out the vote,” said Robert Talbot, a delegate from Bangor. “We need to adequately publicize the failures of this Republican leadership and return the civility to the political process.”
“We’re fired up and ready to go,” he added, echoing an Obama campaign refrain.
Delegates interviewed by the Bangor Daily News on Saturday said they plan to talk to voters wherever they are — at the grocery store, going door-to-door, phone banking — and especially young voters.
“I think we need to do everything we did in 2010, but with more excitement,” said Nathan Davis, a 20-year-old delegate from Portland. “We need to reiterate the principles we’ve been saying before.”
“What Democrats need to do is make it clear what we’re going to do if we take back the Legislature,” said delegate Jack Woods of Portland.
Republican victories in 2010 were due to a combination of “complacency, a bad economy and some poor choices” by Democrats, said Roy Gedat, a delegate from Norway.
“We let the state slip into the hands of Republicans, and we need to get it back,” he said.
Those GOP victories were understandable in 2010, said Bill Kenny, a delegate from Cumberland.
“Basically, people were frustrated. They’re fed up,” he said. “They’re looking for change.”
And this time around, that desire for change will work in Democrats’ favor, Kenny said.
“We’re just basically losing the safety net and not taking care of our most vulnerable,” he said. “I think people will come back and say, ‘I don’t want that anymore.’”
“What Democrats need to do is make it clear what we’re going to do if we take back the Legislature”
Well if it’s anything like the previous 40 years of tax and spend Democratic policies, then it’s pretty clear. The Dems are in for another bad year. The people of Maine know that it’s the Republicans that lead with responsible, common sense ideas that benefit Mainers who work hard for their money.
I hope that you are right because if democrats regain control, then we are back to more misery and pain.
Well hopefully they don’t win because they intend to inflict alot of damage onto us. They intend to toss aside the income tax cuts the Republicans passed that would lower the top rate to a flat 4%. Instead they want to create new brackets of 10%, 12.5% and 14% on top of the current 8.5% bracket we have now. They also want to raise the sales tax to 6% or 7% , and to include alot of items that was on that bogus tax reform law that we voted down. They want to expand these stupid Welfare Programs to everyone. Ben Grant (Maine Democrat Party) , Emily Cain ,
Peggy Rotundo, Cynthia Dill, Justin Alfond, Phil Bartlett II, Diane Russell , John Martin, Troy Jackson all have said they want to ” help” those who Republicans they claim have been hurt by them. They feel any individual or couple who makes $50,000 a year should pay higher taxes. All it will do is make Maine with Dead Last Economically on a permanent level. Those who think Maine’s Welfare Problem is bad now wait till this happens. Maine will then have the Welfare Bums coming in like crazy they will love it if Maine is a permanent Welfare Haven. Businesses will die, Working People will leave and Maine will be left with everyone collecting the lavish Welfare Benefits.
Republicans are out to rob us blind!
they buy the Votes with a $134.00 average Family tax break and then give the farm away for corporations to plunder.
How about they work hard for the people and not just for votes! And that goes for both sides!
…..
Why because they don’t get free handouts anymore?
The poor have been hurt enough by the right, can you explain what you mean by that statement?
Thats “RIGHT ” !
You mean work harder to give away the farm
How many voters will have forgotten 40 years of tax and spend in the last 24 months? That’s the question democrats should be asking themselves. Hopefully there are still more people paying taxes in this state than there are that one way or another are sucking off of the government teat. We’ll find out in November.
Your wake up call was you never woke up.
All you care about is “votes”. Seems like that
was one theme. And if you keep wanting to
give everything to everyone you will definitely
get the recipient vote. But then when all you
have is recipients and can’t give them freebies
anymore, whose vote you going for then?
Here’s a twist, How about DOING SOMETHING to DESERVE the votes.
“Work hard for votes” means we’ll advertise and trash the other side. Great job, that’ll fix the country.
What ever happened to my father’s democrats? You know, the ones that rooted for everybody. They did exist. I know they did. I voted for them. Now we’re stuck with only ultra lefties who want to force multiple agendas down our throats because they know SO much more than we do. You see THEY are the enlightened ones. The ones that will tell us what we can or can’t say, what we can or can’t eat and drink, what we can’t build, why we can’t build it where we want to build it, what kind of light bulbs we can burn, the list is long and it just keeps going on and on.
So when the “Dems” ask themselves why they took a shellacking in 2010, they need to understand that a progressive, far left agenda is NOT what made the Democrats a once great party that represented a majority of working Americans. It is also not what the majority of Mainers want in their state legislature. The “change” they need to make is moving back towards a more moderate party of reason, sensibility and practicality. If they don’t, this year will make 2010 look like a good year. Smarten up!
What you are saying is both sad and true. The Democratic party has been hijacked and I think that is part of the reason for the polarization of politics in America. I really hope that this country can head back to the middle or there may not be much of a future for any of us. The party needs to once again become the party of the working class instead the party of the entitlement. The ultra left and for that matter the ultra right need to go. They have no place in deciding anything in this state and this country.
“a progressive, far left agenda is NOT what made the Democrats a once great party that represented a majority of working Americans”
Um, actually that’s EXACTLY what made the Democrats a great party that had the support of the majority of working Americans. Hell, a comparatively progressive agenda was what made the GOP a pretty decent political party back in the day.
Social security, civil rights for minorities, the eight hour workday and seven day work week, welfare, the abolition of slavery, the creation of the interstate system, minimum wage, giving women and minorities the right to vote, setting regulations and standards for industries, public schools – all of these great American institutions were liberal, progressive reforms when they were enacted. Heck, even the creation of a constitutional democratic republic in the first place was an act of progressive liberalism.
The problem isn’t that Democrats became too extreme. The problem is that large swaths of American society – and the American Right in particular – turned their backs on the liberal ideals that had been at work making America a better nation and embraced a selfish and ignorant brand of jingoistic conservatism.
Ben, a good comment. Let me define my view a little bit further. Many of the programs you describe were what made “my father’s democrats” a great party. Soc. Sec., workers rights, voters rights etc. were all part of the sensible, reasonable and practical democratic party of the past that I wish they could return to.
I would argue though that “setting regulations and standards for industries” while needed, have become neither sensible, reasonable, nor practical. In fact they have become so burdensome that in many cases our competitive edge has been totally lost to overseas interests. If the USA is the only one following stringent enviro regs. then we are only shooting our own workers in the foot. These over zealous practices have wiped out good jobs for American workers in virtually every state in the Union. Just look at all the debate over the proposed E/W highway as evidence. This has been discussed since I was a kid. I’m 48 now. By contrast, the interstate highway system you mention was proposed by Eisenhower in 1955 and COMPLETED by 1965. Valuing nature to the detriment of human beings is not logical nor sustainable.
Creating “green” jobs SOUNDS like a good idea, but when examined more closely the reality is that billions of dollars have been spent by the US taxpayer with VERY little to show for it. Cap and Trade is another job killer and consumer budget buster that are examples of far left- wing ideology that hurts the economy and penalizes only us (the USA). These are NOT sensible, reasonable nor practical policies either.
I would also argue that since big government has taken over education there has been rapid decline in almost every measurable way. My kids go to public school and I would say that their education is based as much on social issues now as it is on the 3R’s. The teachers seem very willing to promote far left views while discounting, in many cases, alternative viewpoints or even objective ones.
So while I liked your post Ben, it is my contention that the majority of today’s elected Democrats ARE too extreme. Their beliefs and priorities misplaced. Especially when measured through the lens of what the party once stood for and the economic state of the typical American family today.
Since this was an article on the Democratic convention, my critique is aimed squarely at them. The Republicans certainly have their issues as well. I’ll try to give them an objective overview when they have their convention.
All democrats do is say that they fight for minorities and for me, that is enough to never ever consider voting for one. This country was built on majority, not minority and while I do not believe we should walk all over minorities, the dividing and grouping into minorities for the benefit of democrat votes is what has ruined this country. The progressive movement is one that expects to have its way regardless of what a majority of Americans want. Democrats are so blinded by their own agenda they have no time to consider what people want or what is best for the country and that is why the democrat party has been and will continue to be a failure. Your post is proof of that concept.
The Democratic Party will need to work hard to ensure they receive votes, but it’s going to be a challenge. Republican policies and initiatives have at least attempted to begin serious and lasting reforms to our tax, energy, and environmental polices to innovate, renew, and create a more sustainable approach to government in Maine. The achievements of State Republicans will be challenging to combat in the coming election.
One can almost tell how threatened the teaparty republicans are by the comments and “likes” here.
Keep yelling…it’s one of those “give them enough rope and they’ll hang themselves” situations.
Carry on.
Yeah,we want to be taxed more,sure? Duh?
Okay, little quiz. Can you name a state that is controlled by a liberal house, senate, and governor that has a robust economy i.e. unemployment rate lower than national level, balanced budget not dependent on government handouts or accounting tricks, and businesses expanding and creating net new jobs? Probably not. Liberalism is not healthy for the economy or public.
Ever notice that the Democratic states like California, New York and Illinois are the states in the worst fiscal shape. While the Conservative states like Texas are doing very well.
There is a reason for this.
Liberal policies do not work.
Paying women to have babies is a bad idea.
So why isn’t the BDN all over the fact that the Dems claimed to be expecting more than 3,000 show up? A few hundred show up and it is not even pointed out that is is far from expected. If the republicans claimed to be having 3,000 and didn’t come through you would see request to file charges against them for deception. The following is a quote from the Mainedems website.Why attend the Maine Democratic State Convention?
Convention is the largest single gathering of Democrats in Maine.
More than 3,000 delegates, candidates, elected officials, exhibitors and
guests are expected to attend. Convention is also the only place you
can vote for our delegates to the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic State Committee and the Democratic National Convention. Or download the forms on this website and run yourself!
You can watch the speeches of all four candidates here:
http://www.dirigoblue.com/2012/06/convention-speeches-of-the-4-us-senate-candidates/
And Gov. O’Malley’s keynote address here:
http://www.dirigoblue.com/2012/06/maryland-gov-omalleys-keynote-address-at-maine-dem-party-convention/
The title of the article says it all… pledge to work harder to get votes.. LOL!
Nothing about lets work harder to create a better Maine for Businesses that create jobs for the people of Maine..
Jobs and Businesses should be their pledge… But being the selfish party they are only concerned about themselves.