(or, how I’m steadily losing faith in my state)
First came the vote to defeat gay marriage in Maine last November. Now, with the choice of Paul LePage as Maine’s Republican candidate for governor, it’s clearer why; there’s a vocal part of the state that is quite happy on the far right side of the political spectrum. In my view, both as a Democrat and as a Mainer, that’s bad for the state.
Thoughts on the Democrats
I didn’t vote for a candidate yesterday. In fact, the two issues on which I did vote (yes on questions number 2 and 3) passed by a fair margin. I just didn’t have any real preference for any of the Democratic candidates, and to be honest, it was tough to distinguish between the four of them. A few thoughts about each:
- I liked McGowan’s views on a lot of issues, but he seemed too focused on a select group of areas. I also had a difficult time believing that someone so in favor of renewable energy would have mass appeal with more conservative voters.
- Of the four, I heard the least about Mitchell. Apparently she was able to muster up support from somewhere, but I didn’t really have a solid opinion of her either way.
- I like how Rowe thinks, but he’s just not a very compelling candidate. He’s a Democrat and I agree with him on a lot of things. That’s pretty much it.
- Scarcelli tried to differentiate herself, but those differences turned out to be the reason I didn’t really care for her. Her views on issues like class size and nuclear power didn’t do much to win my approval, though I liked a number of things about her campaign.
The biggest downfall of the Democrats seemed to be that none of them had an extremely solid message. Some of the Republicans, on the other hand, did.
What it means for November
Let me say this first: if Mills won yesterday, there’s a big chance I would’ve voted for him in November. I wouldn’t have minded having Abbott as a governor, either. In my opinion, a moderate candidate would be best for the state right now (though a liberal candidate would work, too).
LePage, on the other hand, is exactly what we don’t need. In my mind he represents old, traditional thinking Maine. We need to attract people to the state right now, and a mindset like that just won’t cut it. (He also scores a weak 1.5 on my checklist; he’s not against renewable energy, as far as I can tell, and he only sent out 20 tweets. I’ll give each of those points a 0.75.)
Normally, I’d be happy about an extreme candidate in the opposing party. But Eliot Cutler is going to make November a three-horse race, and that means that the election could easily go in any of those three directions. I’m eager to see which candidate moderate Republicans choose to support. It’s going to be a battle, and that battle is going to signal a lot about Maine come November 3.
I want Maine to move forward. It’s time to speak up about it.