It was a comparatively quiet week in Maine politics, a lot in order that one of many largest political tales concerned … sidewalk chalk.
The underlying subject right here — whether or not girls ought to have a authorized and/or constitutional proper to abortions — is of monumental significance to individuals on all sides of the abortion debate. However the response to Sen. Susan Collins’ response to these chalked messages was illustrative of how contentious the talk over abortion rights has been, and will likely be in November though Maine’s senior senator isn’t on the poll.
The incident started final weekend when somebody wrote, “Susie, please … Mainers need WHPA – Vote sure, clear up your mess” in multi-colored chalk on the sidewalk in entrance of Collins’ Bangor dwelling. “WHPA” is brief for the Ladies’s Well being Safety Act, a invoice put ahead by Democrats to codify abortion rights in federal regulation.
The town washed the messages away solely to have the sidewalk scrawlers return with extra. Collins’ name to police and her description of the messages as “defacement of public property” to the Bangor Each day Information made nationwide headlines and put her on the middle of one more social media storm amongst her vocal critics in Maine.
Liberal commentators, from MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to late night time host Seth Meyers, joined in, too.
“Terrified Susan Collins calls cops after chalk vigilantes politely ask her to guard girls’s rights,” declared the headline of 1 column in Self-importance Truthful.
On Tuesday night time, Collins’ workplace put out an announcement saying that, “As a result of Senator Collins periodically will get threatening letters and cellphone calls, now we have been suggested by Capitol Police to inform the native police division when there may be exercise directed at her round her dwelling.”
Collins has acquired a number of threats which have been investigated by police. One girl was despatched to federal jail for mailing a powder-laden letter to Collins’ dwelling in 2018.
Collins’ workplace supplied newer examples as properly. In a single, the author referred to as her a traitor and mentioned “the angel of dying is about to go to your own home.” And in a voicemail, a person tells Collins he would kill her if she voted “for that Black (expletive)” in reference to newly confirmed Supreme Court docket Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who Collins supported.
However Collins’ critics weren’t shopping for the equivalence between these actual threats and a sidewalk message that the Bangor Police described in its incident report as “intricately drawn” and in “a number of colours.”
Collins was as soon as considered by some abortion rights activists as a uncommon ally (at occasions, no less than) in a Republican Occasion dominated by anti-abortion politicians.
However any goodwill dissipated after she forged the pivotal vote to verify Supreme Court docket Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. Kavanaugh was among the many 5 justices who signed onto the draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, as supporters predicted he would in 2018.
Deepening that divide, Collins joined all of her Republican colleagues on Wednesday in blocking the Ladies’s Well being Safety Act from arising for debate within the Senate.
The Maine Republican mentioned she helps codification and has launched such a invoice with Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. However she mentioned the Democratic invoice goes too far by overturning some state-level necessities and probably forcing Catholic hospitals to carry out the procedures. Supporters of the WHPA, in the meantime, say the Collins-Murkowski invoice leaves gaping holes that received’t overturn extraordinarily restrictive state legal guidelines, together with Texas’ ban on abortions after six weeks.
The truth is that neither the WHPA nor the Collins-Murkowski invoice have a path across the 60-vote filibuster.
Dust street wars
State Sen. Chloe Maxmin, D-Nobleboro, has acquired numerous native and nationwide consideration for her latest column within the New York Instances that asserts Democrats have “willfully deserted” rural communities.
The column, a prelude to Maxmin’s ebook, “Dust Street Revival,” has landed Maxmin appearances on FOX Information and Invoice Maher.
It additionally landed her within the Maine Dem doghouse, significantly amongst activists who helped her win a state Senate seat two years in the past.
Julia Brown was a key participant in that victory. Brown previously ran the Maine Senate Democratic Marketing campaign Committee, a by-product of the Democratic celebration specializing in state Senate elections. Maxmin doesn’t identify Brown in her column, however she asserts that the MSDCC advised her marketing campaign in 2019 “that it didn’t consider in speaking to Republicans.”
“That blinkered technique is holding the celebration again,” Maxmin and co-author Canyon Woodward wrote. “When Democrats discuss solely to their very own supporters, they see however a small fraction of the modifications roiling this nation. Since 2008, residents of small cities have fallen behind cities on many main financial benchmarks, and so they watched helplessly as increasingly more energy and wealth have been consolidated in cities. We noticed up shut the loss, hopelessness and frustration that actuality has instilled.”
The declare was irresistible to FOX Information, the place TV personalities usually espouse a cruder variation of the assertion that Democrats don’t care about “actual America.”
Brown noticed the connection, tweeted about it and ultimately posted a prolonged response to Maxmin’s thesis on Medium, noting that Maxmin’s victory in rural Lincoln County wasn’t as pioneering as some have been led to consider. In spite of everything, Maine is a rural state and Democrats don’t have majorities in Legislature simply because they occur to dominate Portland and are aggressive within the suburbs (See: Senate President Troy Jackson, a Democrat from Allagash).
“Over the past three marketing campaign cycles, State Senate candidates and their groups have knocked over 300,000 doorways,” Brown wrote. “Greater than half of those conversations have been with Republican and Unbiased voters. It’s why I’m so offended by claims that Senate Democrats don’t discuss with Republicans — it’s a flat out lie. In reality, how Senate Democrats discuss to voters has been important to our success cycle after cycle.”
Brown doled out a number of different critiques, together with that Maxmin might marketing campaign the way in which she did as a result of she will afford to.
However the intranacine tit-for-tat obscured a bigger level: Maxmin wasn’t the one Democrat who received Senate District 13 in 2020. President Joe Biden carried an awesome majority of these cities, as did Democratic U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree. In a number of cities Biden and Pingree acquired a larger share of votes than Maxmin did.
Moreover, Maxmin — who critics concede labored extraordinarily laborious in 2020 — additionally benefited from teams that may spend limitless cash to affect legislative contests. In 2020, Senate District 13 was one of many high targets for such spending, drawing almost $270,000. Greater than 73% of that spending was designed to bolster Maxmin or assault her Republican opponent, former GOP Senate chief Dana Dow.
Semi-open primaries
Maxmin can take credit score for a brand new regulation that may ultimately permit Maine’s unbiased voters to forged ballots in celebration primaries.
Maxmin sponsored the invoice, which handed final 12 months, however wasn’t funded till the second common session of this 12 months. Gov. Janet Mills allowed it to grow to be regulation with out her signature.
Beneath present regulation, unenrolled voters can vote in a celebration main, however solely after they enroll in a kind of events and stay enrolled for no less than three months.
The brand new regulation implements what’s generally known as a semi-open main system, permitting unenrolled voters to vote in one of many celebration primaries with out having to register with that celebration.
June 14 is the following main election, however the brand new regulation won’t go into impact till 2024.
Dem conference
The Maine Democratic Occasion started its state conference this week.
The occasion is held each two years, however the pandemic wrecked the standard in-person gathering in 2020.
The Democrats’ in-person actions will likely be held on the Cross Heart in Bangor with scheduled speeches and rallies ramping up on Friday night and ending Saturday afternoon.
A full schedule of the audio system and estimated occasions of their addresses will be discovered right here.
Mills goes 5-for-5 on vetoes
As talked about on the high, the Legislature wrapped up its 2022 session on Monday.
Gov. Janet Mills efficiently blocked 5 payments from turning into regulation after supporters didn’t safe the two-thirds majorities wanted to overturn her vetoes. These payments handled bail and probation necessities, non-essential electrical energy corridors, tax credit for the forest merchandise trade, membership of the College of Maine System Board of Trustees, and tweaks to Maine’s new earned paid go away regulation.
Tribal sovereignty invoice quietly dies
One invoice that didn’t come up was the tribal sovereignty measure, regardless of a last-ditch try.
The invoice, LD 1626, would have overhauled the 42-year-old authorized settlement between the state and the Passamaquoddy Tribe, the Penobscot Nation and the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians. Tribal leaders mentioned the invoice — which handled taxation, prison justice, land use, pure useful resource administration and different points — was concerning the state recognizing their communities’ inherent sovereignty.
It acquired preliminary approval within the Home and Senate however confronted an all-but-inevitable veto from Mills, who warned it might create extra issues and authorized wrangling as an alternative of much less. Reasonably than trigger a politically embarrassing confrontation throughout an election 12 months, Democrats within the Legislature opted to not drive Mills’ hand by sending it to her desk.
Sen. Rick Bennett, an Oxford Republican who has been a vocal supporter of the sovereignty push, tried one final time to place the invoice on the Senate flooring for a ultimate vote. However that effort failed, so the invoice was amongst a whole bunch that died a quiet dying because the Legislature adjourned for the 12 months.
Mills and tribal leaders have vowed to proceed discussing the problems.
