If the state House in Augusta looked like the epicenter of political gridlock during the past two years while a Republican governor continually rejected the initiatives of a firmly Democratic Legislature, just imagine the possibilities for the next two years.
Tuesday’s elections have remade Maine’s Legislature, but not as decisively as the elections of 2010, when Republicans gained control of both chambers for the first time in 40 years, or 2012, when voters gave control back to Democrats. Republicans have retaken control of the 35-member Senate. In the House, they’ve gained 10 seats, but not enough to rob Democrats of their majority.
That leaves a Republican governor working with a Republican Senate and a Democratic House. On the surface, that doesn’t leave open an obvious path for passing a budget and making headway in other key policy areas.
Before, when Democrats controlled both chambers by comfortable margins, the path to progress was at least clear in concept: garner just enough Republican votes to overcome a LePage veto — eight in the House, four in the Senate. That was the equation that allowed the Legislature to pass a two-year state budget over LePage’s vocal objections, avoid a government shutdown and keep the state budget balanced this past spring, even when LePage refused to participate in the budgeting process. Legislative Democrats used the same path to place a small business bond measure on this year’s ballot and pass a comprehensive energy policy bill.
It wasn’t a path that worked for all key initiatives, though. Democrats couldn’t manage to put together the votes needed to pass an expansion of Maine’s Medicaid program, for example. With LePage re-elected and opposed to the expansion and most Republicans on board with his way of thinking, a Medicaid expansion seems to be off the table in the new Legislature.
That doesn’t mean these next two years will necessarily be two years without action, said John Martin, an Eagle Lake Democrat, former House speaker and legislative veteran who won a return trip to the House in Tuesday’s elections.
“Basically, what it does mean is that if either side, either party wants to accomplish anything, they’re going to have to work together, and they’re going to have to cooperate,” Martin said. “And that’s doable. It’s happened in the past, and it’s doable again.”
It has been two decades since the Legislature saw a similar setup. Following the 1994 elections that propelled independent Gov. Angus King to power, Republicans controlled the Senate and Democrats controlled a closely divided House.
Before that, control broke down in a similar way 20 years earlier, following the election of Maine’s first independent governor, Jim Longley — a right-leaning politician with some similarities to LePage. That was the first of the 10 terms Martin served as House speaker, presiding over a Democratic House. Joseph Sewall oversaw the Republican-controlled Senate.
“In a way, it’s not quite the same but pretty similar,” said Martin, who said he doesn’t plan to seek the speakership or a House leadership position this time around.
Despite the division, legislators managed to find common ground on several policies. One example was a major structural reform that required a constitutional amendment: the elimination of the executive council, a body that provided a check on the governor’s powers, including his appointments. Voters agreed and eliminated it in a November 1975 referendum.
“I don’t think it diminishes the ability to accomplish things,” Martin said of divided legislative control. “I think it means that there may more compromises and there are different avenues by which it would be done. I think that this is not the end of the world.”
But this will be a divided Legislature in a more sharply partisan era. The partisan division and constant political positioning that have largely stopped business on major issues in the nation’s capital have trickled down to Maine’s capital and the state’s politics. Whether the newly elected — and divided — Legislature can overcome those forces is an open question.
As a practical matter, it’s tempting to imagine a coalition of sorts forming in the House that joins the chamber’s 68 Republicans and just enough Democrats — eight, to be precise — to form a majority. But that’s unlikely, Martin said.
“I’m sure we’ll be able to come together on some things and not on others, but it’s difficult right now to predict what those will be,” said Sen. Roger Katz of Augusta, current assistant Senate Republican leader. “The most important job the Legislature has is passing a budget.”
And the budget — as it often does — could very well become the vehicle for major policy initiatives in addition to the document that parses out state funds.
“During the last session, it seems as though the Democrats passed a great deal of legislation almost knowing that it was going to be vetoed and the governor’s veto sustained,” Katz said. “Hopefully, the parties are going to work together, more cooperatively this time.”
Neither party should be resigned to two years of no progress, Martin said.
“I don’t see this as a period of stagnation,” he said.
Matthew Stone is BDN opinion page editor.