PORTLAND, Maine — Democrats from across Maine will gather over the next two days in advance of what could be the most important election for liberals in Maine in years.
Choosing Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton delegates to attend the July Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia tops the convention agenda. Perhaps more important to the party in Maine are discussions about what Democratic legislative candidates will tell voters in the coming months about why there should be a Democratic majority in the Maine House and Senate.
Here’s what to watch for during the convention, which takes place Friday and Saturday at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland.
Developing a winning campaign message
Democrats retook majorities in the House and Senate in 2012 after losing them in the disastrous 2010 election but lost ground again in 2014. With a politically ambitious Republican Gov. Paul LePage entering his final two years in office, ceding any more ground to Republicans is the last thing the party wants.
Presidential elections in 2008 and 2012 provided coattails for Maine Democrats to ride to major gains in legislative elections, but the party’s nomination process this year has drawn fewer participants in most states, signaling that local candidates might not receive the boost they did with Barack Obama at the top of the ticket those years.
In 2012, a ballot question about legalizing same-sex marriage also served to draw voters more likely to be supportive of Democratic candidates to the polls. With a list of ballot questions likely to lure progressives and conservatives equally this November, that boost might not factor in 2016.
Maine Democratic Party Chairman Phil Bartlett said many candidates will focus on job creation and the fact that Maine is lagging many other states on economic development.
“People are frustrated that the system seems so rigged against them, that no matter how hard you work, you can be laid off tomorrow with no recourse,” he said. “Our convention is to represent something different than what the Republicans have been doing. In both Maine and at the national level, they have been very divisive. We want our focus to be on opportunity and hope.”
Bartlett said specifically that many Democrats will be advocating for increasing the minimum wage, decreasing pay inequality and fighting GOP attempts to erode labor unions.
Divided Democrats?
Despite the talk of unity, there is a chance Maine Democrats could emerge from the convention more divided than ever.
Approximately 64 percent of those who attended the party’s March presidential caucuses supported Bernie Sanders, but Hillary Clinton appears destined to secure the nomination. As a result, Sanders controls a majority of Maine’s caucus-assigned delegates, but three of Maine’s five superdelegates — people who can support whoever they want at the national convention — have said they support Clinton. One supports Sanders and the fifth, Bartlett, has not voiced a preference.
Democratic Rep. Diane Russell of Portland, a Sanders supporter, plans to propose an amendment to party rules that would force superdelegates in Maine to support candidates based on caucus results — but not until 2020.
Trying to make the switch this year through an amendment proposed on the convention floor Saturday, which would benefit Sanders this year, could put Maine at odds with national rules, which could lead to some of Maine’s delegates being refused participation in the national convention. In a way, it recalls what happened to Maine Republicans who supported Ron Paul in 2012.
Bartlett and Russell said they are angling away from that.
“There are some Sanders supporters who want this to take effect in 2016,” said Russell, whose amendment includes nonbinding language urging the superdelegates to represent the candidates proportionally according to the Maine caucus results. “I am opposed to that. It is just not fair. … We run the risk of losing up to 50 percent of our state delegates [at the national convention]. That would hurt Bernie’s campaign because we would lose some of our delegates.”
Clinton, Sanders sending surrogates
The Maine Democratic Party announced Thursday afternoon that the Clinton campaign is sending former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts to speak at the convention and that Jon Fishman, drummer for the rock band Phish, will speak for Sanders. Also speaking for Sanders will be former Democratic state Sen. Troy Jackson of Allagash, who is one of the candidate’s most visible supporters in Maine.
Those speeches are scheduled to begin at around 11:30 a.m. on Saturday.
Also on the speaking schedule for later in the day are 1st U.S. House District Rep. Chellie Pingree and Emily Cain, who is challenging 2nd District incumbent Rep. Bruce Poliquin.
