My absentee ballot arrived last Thursday. I mailed it back Friday. As a Democratic “activist,” I had no uncertainty about who I’d pick for U.S. Senate: independent Angus King. Many of my political friends, however, are still torn between party loyalty and the risk they recognize that a vote for Democrat Cynthia Dill will really be a vote for Republican Charlie Summers.
Cynthia Dill is a dedicated, experienced public servant. She and I share many of the same political values and instincts. But this year she is the Dennis Kucinich of our party: correct on the issues but without a snowball’s chance of being elected. We went down this road two years ago –- and we now have Gov. Paul LePage.
If the Republican candidate were Olympia Snowe, it might be a risk worth running. If the Democrats lost to her, we’d still have a moderate, thoughtful senator, capable on some issues of reaching a decision independent of her party. But she is not the candidate.
Summers instead typifies the crew of new far-right Republicans throughout the country running for the Senate. Most, like Summers, have sworn never to raise taxes, even on the super-rich, and seem contemptuous of large groups of our fellow citizens. They are unwilling to concede that human actions affect the safety of the environment and, woefully, are decades out of date on women’s issues.
(Todd Akin is now a fully rehabilitated member of the 2012 GOP Senate wannabes, not because he’s abandoned his “legitimate rape” anatomy lesson, but because the beyond-the-fringers have convinced their colleagues that a Republican brain is a Republican brain, no matter how small.)
This is a scary prospect. Think Supreme Court nominees, tax fairness, foreign policy, how people are treated and the role of the federal government. (We tried governing once before by letting the states have all the power under the Articles of Confederation. How did that turn out?) I’m not at the moment arguing the merits of any of these questions – -I’m just asking whether Maine Democrats should risk helping this gang win control of the Senate.
I could not have voted for King if I wasn’t convinced that he is decent, honest and intelligent. I remember him in office as a hard-working governor, easy to talk to, with an optimistic view of the future and wonderfully prescient about the value of laptop computers in schools. He would be a refreshing voice in Washington and as an independent would be able to broker solutions that break down some of the brick walls we call party lines.
Voting in Maine has started. It’s time for Democrats to look at the polls, and – to paraphrase former President Bill Clinton – to do some arithmetic.
Bill Sullivan, a long-standing Democratic activist, has lived in Bangor for 36 years.
Mr. Sullivan is not thinking clearly, and he certainly did not read that King left the state with a 1 billion dollar deficit, and I doubt that his Democrat successor took kindy to that, and now our Governor LePage has to deal with King’s and Baldacci’s run of the mill spending.
Angus is a liberal, always will be a liberal, and does not look at both sides of the issues-if he does, will still side with liberals. Independent is a ruse!
Maybe he did and realized that it was a lie.
Angus WILL win, and Summers-The-Lying-Slimeball who is more loyal to the ultra-radical Grover Norquist than the people of Maine will go down in flames.
Ah, the tolerance of the left! And they are the ones to decry the lack of civility in today’s politics! Stay classy, Tin.
A brilliant OpEd; a remarkable OpEd!
Angus King for US Senate 2012
I am right behind you in casting my vote for Angus King.
4lifeandfreedom needs some better facts. No governor can leave the state with a deficit. To suggest otherwise is nothing but false advertising by the big out of state funders that are driving the Summers campaign. The constitution of Maine doesn’t allow any governor to leave a deficit, or any budget to be unbalanced. That’s just simple facts.
There is a difference between what government would like to spend and what it can spend (see LePage’s current $750 million shortfall). All governors face that and it all resolves itself with some sharp pencils and some gnashing and wailing. But that is different that ‘leaving the state with a deficit’.
‘Balancing’ a budget by borrowing to cover the shortfall, or just using funny math, has been rife in Maine for years. And why not? It may be required by the state constitution but there’s no penalty for not doing so, or any binding definition of ‘balanced’. LePage deserves some credit for being the first Maine governor in living memory to refuse to issue bonds as soon as they were authorized.
One needs to understand what a “structural gap” is to understand that claims that King left a deficit or shortfall are wrong. Gov. LePage and the 126th Legislature will be facing a $710 million structural gap as they draft the FY2014-15 budget after the election.
Watch it explained here:
http://youtu.be/btFkjJulC0Q
The term “shortfall” appeared in BDN articles throughout King’s tenure, including as something incoming Governor Baldacci had to contend with. Let’s not try to re-define the problem away: whatever it’s called, King overspent or overcommitted the state’s income (and so have most other recent governers, but that doesn’t mean King didn’t).
Democrats get the message – you keep nominating extremists that cannot win. Hint, nominate someone that is centrist and reasonable, like Charlie Summers is for the republican side.
Democrats are now running away from their own brand and hiding behind the Independent label…Most if not all the moderates have switched parties especially in the south…Will the democrat party split in the near future with the far left Obuma wing being cast off to form a Socialist Democrat Party like in Europe??? Either way it means more GOP victories in 3 way splits…Maybe not Summers this time but King Angus is already in his 60s..The future looks bright for the GOP…
Centrist and reasonable? Seriously?
Dill an extremist? Summers centrist and reasonable?
Uh, no. Not quite.
Dems afraid to vote for their own party, yet feel comfortable with faux-independents like King or Cutler. Sounds like their party is splintering apart.
As a Democrat, I will not be bullied into voting for a man who will not disclose which party he will caucus with. My vote is going to Dill, the valid Democratic Senate candidate.
If we end up with a Republican Senator, so be it! The blame will lie with voters wasting their votes on King, the has-been. Yet Angus continues to sit on a fence at age 68; (those spikes have to be hurting by now.) He doesn’t know which party his views are closest to??? Or, has he not been informed of his opinions yet? TAKE a POSITION King Angus…give the voters a CLUE about where your loyalties lie.
Mr. Sullivan, a true Democrat would be voting for the true Dem. candidate. You are not part of the solution…you are a part of the problem by advising folks to vote for a man who refuses to get off the fence and take a position. Vote for a guy who wants to keep people guessing what he might do in the Senate? I think Not!