Politics
Our political journalists are based in the Maine State House and have deep source networks across the partisan spectrum in communities all over the state. Their coverage aims to cut through major debates and probe how officials make decisions. Read more Politics coverage here.
U.S. Sen. Angus King will back New York’s Chuck Schumer to lead the U.S. Senate.
That puts the soon-to-be senior senator from Maine at odds with U.S. Sen.-elect Troy Jackson, who affirmed late last week that he wouldn’t support giving Schumer the gavel.
King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, credited Schumer with Democrats’ stunning success in last week’s election, which handed them at least a 55-seat majority in the upper chamber after Scott Colom was declared the winner in Mississippi and at least a 255-seat majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. Just under a dozen House races have yet to be called, while results are outstanding just in Alaska’s U.S. Senate race, where Democrat Mary Peltola has a narrow lead.
“Chuck has outlined an aggressive plan for the new Democratic majority which is directly responsive to the message we heard from the voters, and he has the experience and unique mastery of the Senate process to make it happen,” King said in a Friday statement.
“Why would you fire the manager when you just won the World Series?” he said.
But the Democratic caucus is divided over whether to anoint Schumer U.S. Senate majority leader. U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland on Thursday announced that he would jockey with Schumer for the gavel, saying that “the American people called for change” in the midterm election.
In Maine, Schumer was instrumental in convincing outgoing Gov. Janet Mills to run for the Democratic nomination in the U.S. Senate race.
Her loss to insurgent candidate Graham Platner was seen as a repudiation of Democratic powerbrokers like Schumer. And when Platner’s campaign imploded after an ex-girlfriend accused him of rape, Schumer notably kept to the sidelines as Maine Democrats scrambled to find a replacement, telling Politico back in July, “I’m staying out of Maine.”
One anonymous Democratic strategist bluntly told Politico at the time that Schumer’s influence was “toxic.”