Politics
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Independent gubernatorial candidate Rick Bennett voted in Maine’s Democratic primaries last week but did not answer Tuesday questions about who he supported.
Bennett, a state senator from Oxford, told reporters he felt “totally liberated” after casting his first-ever Democratic ballot. The longtime Republican who served as the state party’s chair from 2013 to 2017 refused to say who he voted for in the U.S. Senate and gubernatorial races.
“Maine has a long tradition of the governor of whatever party and the congressional delegation of whatever party working closely together and setting the partisanship aside when Maine’s interests are at stake,” he said at a Portland news conference. “I will be that kind of governor.”
The longtime Maine politician has been touring the state after last week’s primaries to pick the Democratic and Republican nominees for governor. The only independent in the race and could occupy a pivotal position given deep Republican roots and Democratic endorsers. Both parties have looked to brand him in the early going as aligning with the other.
That continued on Monday, when Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, who runs a conservative group, publicized Bennett’s ballot choice. Likely Republican nominee Bobby Charles posted a Tuesday video criticizing several of the lawmaker’s recent votes with Democrats, including when he was the only Republican to vote against banning transgender girls from female sports last year.
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But Bennett has also criticized outgoing Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, particularly around state spending, comparing her 2024 letter urging lawmakers to not amend her state budget proposal to “a letter from Vladimir Putin.” He has been among the most moderate lawmakers in Augusta since returning to the Senate in 2020.
The parties will find out who their nominees will be following a ranked-choice count expected to conclude on Wednesday. Four Democrats — Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, former Senate President Troy Jackson, former House Speaker Hannah Pingree and former public health chief Nirav Shah — can all win. Charles is in a strong position on the Republican side.