More than 3,700 Mainers will square off in county caucuses starting Saturday that will shape the field of roughly 600 people who will help pick a new Democratic nominee to run against U.S. Sen. Susan Collins.
Here’s what to watch in the eight counties that caucus today — Androscoggin, Cumberland, Franklin, Hancock, Kennebec, Lincoln, Penobscot and Washington — and the remaining eight that go tomorrow.
Campaigns are stacking the fields.
Former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson has had the biggest public delegate push of any campaign, with 670 delegate candidates who have indicated support for him, according to a Bangor Daily News analysis. Former public health chief Nirav Shah and Secretary of State Shenna Bellows are tied at 445 entering Saturday’s caucuses.
That’s after Jackson, Bellows and Shah released delegate slates on Friday and Saturday. Interestingly, 67 delegate candidates appeared on both Bellows’ and Shah’s slates, which is something to watch. We’re treating those people as uncommitted for now. Everyone else running has negligible visible support and has not released slates.
However, the vast majority of the 3,700-plus delegate candidates named no preference in statements they filed with the Maine Democratic Party. Our reporters on the ground this weekend, including partners with the Midcoast Villager and Lincoln County News, will be gathering information on them.
That big Jackson lead is partially a transparency gap. He is the only candidate to have publicly circulated a list of 500 preferred delegates his campaign is urging supporters to vote for at their local caucus. Shah and Bellows have not released comparable public slates.
Saturday is the real prize.
The counties that caucus today together elect 319 of the 500 delegates being chosen through county caucuses this weekend, led by Cumberland County’s 149 delegates and 30 alternates on its own. That’s a majority of the 601-person convention that will pick the nominee July 25.
The other 101 votes belong to the party’s state committee, whose membership was set well before this process began and isn’t affected by this weekend’s results.
Today’s results still offer the clearest early read on how the delegate math is shaking out, since a majority of the caucus-elected bloc will be decided before Sunday’s meetings even begin to elect the remaining 181 caucus delegates.
The format varies by county.
County chairs decided by July 14 whether their caucus would be held in person or virtually, and the rules differ depending on which they chose. In-person meetings use a paper or electronic ballot, with voting open for at least 30 minutes after the chair calls for a final round of ballots. Virtual meetings use an electronic system run by the state party, with a fixed one-hour voting window, though a kiosk will also be available for in-person voters who can’t use their phones.
Neither format allows ranked-choice voting or proxy votes. Participants must be present and can vote for no more delegates than their county is allotted. Whoever gets the most votes, up to the number of seats available, wins a delegate spot; the next-highest vote-getters become alternates.
Campaigns are adapting their organizing to fit both formats. In a video to supporters, Jackson strategist BJ McCollister urged backers to vote only for the campaign’s published slate card in each county, rather than splitting support across other Jackson-aligned candidates on the ballot. Senate candidates are also allowed to have space in and around the halls.
“It is essential that we concentrate Troy’s support on the same group of delegate candidates,” McCollister said, adding that the campaign built its slates from data on who was both likely to support Jackson and able to attend the convention in Bangor.