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After more than 13 years in a job that most people keep for a short time, Jason Savage, the executive director of the Maine Republican Party, is stepping back from the role.
He confirmed last week that he’s starting a multistate consulting firm with Republican lobbyist Josh Tardy, operative Riley Ploch, who has worked for Sen. Susan Collins and other Maine Republicans, and fundraiser Damien LaRochelle of former Gov. Paul LePage’s team.
The name of the firm isn’t final, Savage said. It will be separate from Tardy’s lobbying shop, Mitchell Tardy Jackson, which excels at working across party lines in Augusta due in large part to the influence of the Republican and his Democratic partner, Jim Mitchell, a key conduit to Gov. Janet Mills.
“We’re excited to have the very wide and deep skill set that we have with the team,” Savage said.
Savage is not making a clean break with the party entering a crucial 2026 election cycle. He said he will still be doing political work while stepping back from organizational and administrative tasks.
Savage got into politics through LePage, whom he worked for at Marden’s Surplus and Salvage before working on the former governor’s 2010 campaign. He ran LePage’s political group and was hired by the party in 2013. These are usually jobs that people have for two years, but he held it for more than a decade under five different party chairs.
Republicans’ greatest successes came early in his tenure, including the 2014 that saw LePage and Collins reelected along with a takeover of Maine’s 2nd District. Democrats have dominated state politics since then, although Collins’ 2020 election to a fifth term remains a highlight.
This firm could have some heavy pull within a Maine Republican Party that has a much smaller operative class than the Democratic one. Spanning the LePage-Collins worlds, it could conceivably do work for a wide range of politicians and causes.