I don't know why this was missing from the web version, but....
"LePage’s call for June statewide vote on cutting $100 million in state spending meets resistance in Legislature
AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Paul LePage’s proposal for a statewide referendum in June to ask Maine voters whether they want to reduce government spending by $100 million met stiff resistance Wednesday from lawmakers and others who said it isn’t a new idea at all.
LePage first raised the idea during his State of the State address in February. Democrats immediately assailed it as a rehashed version of past tax cap proposals rejected by Maine voters at least twice previously.
Sen. Doug Thomas, R-Ripley, and Jonathan Nass, a senior policy adviser for LePage, were the only people who testified in support of the proposal when it was presented to the Legislature’s Taxation Committee on Wednesday afternoon. They argued that the bill, LD 1813, could provide a mandate for lawmakers on the issue of taxes and spending.
“If people affirmatively answered yes, we believe that would provide some backbone and some political momentum,” said Nass. “We’ve been debating a lot of these issues as a Legislature and we haven’t gotten very far.”
Taxation Committee member Rep. Joe Brooks, I-Winterport, was unequivocal in his opposition to the bill.
“I see this as being more of a popularity contest rather than a mandate,” he said.
Thomas, also a member of the Taxation Committee, said Maine needs to cut taxes in order to be more economically competitive with other states.
“I don’t believe there’s any reason that we should be spending $6 billion in the state of Maine every two years. I think it’s too much,” said Thomas. “I believe that Maine needs to compete with the other 49 states. I don’t believe that we do and we need to start somewhere. This is a good start.”
Some members of the committee said LePage’s proposal repeats numerous tax reform initiatives that have failed at the ballot box, including the so-called TABOR I and II proposals in recent years and the tax cap proposal forwarded by Carol Palesky by citizen initiative in 2004. TABOR stands for Taxpayer Bill of Rights.
Rep. Ryan Tipping-Spitz, D-Orono, said his major problem with the bill is that the question it proposes to put on the ballot would not include any specific spending cuts or budget priorities.
“Shouldn’t we talk about where exactly we’re cutting?” said Tipping-Spitz. “In the past couple of years there have been different parties in control here and there wasn’t $100 million laying around. … The cuts [under this proposal] could be textbooks for your children or health care for someone who needs it.”
Thomas shot back by calling Tipping-Spitz’s argument “scare tactics.”
“I don’t believe that as a body we are going to cut textbooks for school children,” said Thomas. “I can assure you that if we cut $100 million of a $6 billion biennial budget or if we cut $100 million from an annual $3 billion budget, the sky is not going to fall.”
Representatives from the Maine Municipal Association and Maine Mayors Coalition testified against the bill.
Geoff Herman of the Maine Municipal Association said voters need something more substantive to vote on than one sentence.
“Our concern with this bill is the cart and the ox and which should be first,” said Herman. “We need to educate the voters so when they go to the ballot box they know what they’re voting on. That’s the order of events that’s appropriate.”
Herman and other opponents of the measure questioned the value of having the referendum because as proposed it would be only advisory in nature.
Because LD 1813 is an emergency measure, it requires approval from at least two-thirds of the Legislature, which means a significant number of Democrats — who hold majorities in the Maine House and Senate — would have to support it. Members of Democratic leadership said Wednesday afternoon that such a level of support from their caucus isn’t likely.
Rep. Jeff McCabe, D-Skowhegan, the assistant House majority leader, said it’s clear that this bill and others proposed by LePage in recent weeks “are really just campaign issues for the governor and a way to get press.”
House Majority Leader Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, agreed.
“I don’t expect the bill to go very far in this Legislature,” said Berry.
The bill is scheduled for a work session, during which the Taxation Committee is likely to vote on a recommendation to the full Legislature, on Friday.
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LePage praises new photo welfare benefit cards
Combative Maine governor faces fight
My Maine Man
I guess you know where I'm coming from these days.
Now once is an error, twice is intent:
"Rivals in ideology, temperament to face off in Maine" Associated Press June 11, 2014
AUGUSTA, Maine — Liberal consensus-builder Emily Cain and conservative firebrand Bruce Poliquin won their parties’ primaries on Tuesday for the open congressional seat in Maine’s massive rural district, which the GOP hopes to wrest away from Democrats for the first time in two decades.
Cain easily defeated Troy Jackson, a logger from Allagash, to win the Democratic nomination for the Second Congressional District. On the GOP ticket, Poliquin beat establishment Republican and former chief of staff to US Senator Olympia Snowe, Kevin Raye.
Cain was winning 71 percent to 29 percent with 128 out of 422 precincts reporting in unofficial returns. She will take on the winner of the hotly contested Republican primary between Tea Party favorite Bruce Poliquin and establishment Republican Kevin Raye.
Both races to fill the seat in the largely rural district in Maine pitted political firebrands against those who vowed to mend the partisan divisions in Congress.
Jackson and Poliquin framed their foes as being too eager to compromise their party’s values. Cain and Raye countered that their opponents’ “my-way-or-the-highway” attitudes would further political division in Washington.
Cain campaigned on her time in the state Senate negotiating billion-dollar budgets while highlighting her differences with Jackson over social issues. A Kentucky native, she moved to Maine to go to the university in Orono, where she lives and works in marketing and alumni relations for the honors college.
Jackson, a logger from Allagash, said he would be a much-needed voice for hardworking Mainers and would fight Republicans to uphold Democratic values, like health care.
He tried to paint Cain as a Republican and criticized her for being one of the few Democrats who have been able to work well with GOP Gov. Paul LePage. He also attacked her for supporting a budget that included $400 million in tax cuts, which he said helped only the upper class.
Cain countered that she was consistently in favor of abortion rights and highlighted that her opponent was the only Democratic senator to vote against same-sex marriage in the legislature in 2009. Jackson, for his part, said he wished he could take back his vote against same-sex marriage.
Throughout the bitter battle for the GOP nomination, Raye was framed as the establishment Republican in the race against tea party favorite Poliquin.
Poliquin called Raye a “liberal,” and attacked him for not signing a no-tax pledge. The Harvard-educated businessman and former state treasurer also campaigned heavily on his opposition to abortion rights, which Raye has supported.
Raye said his opponents’ “my-way-or-the-highway” approach would only continue the political gridlock in Washington.
The former chief of staff for U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe also questioned Poliquin’s decision to move to the 2nd District instead of staying in the 1st District to challenge Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree.
The departure of Rep. Mike Michaud, who’s leaving after three terms in Congress to challenge Republican Gov. Paul LePage, gives the GOP a chance to reclaim the seat that Democrats have held for nearly 20 years.
Cain, a state senator who also works for the honors college at the University of Maine, campaigned on her experience writing budgets in Augusta and touted her ability to stay at the negotiating table to deliver results.
She said Tuesday that her victory reflects the frustration that residents across the state have about the gridlock and dysfunction in Washington.
‘‘It just reinforces the importance of sending someone to Washington who knows how to bring people together,’’ she said in an interview.
In Bangor on Tuesday, Poliquin told supporters he was running to help his son Sam and other twentysomethings, describing ‘‘a horrible business climate in the Second District and throughout Maine.’’
He said voters want someone to help.
‘‘They want someone who'll go down to Washington and fight for their interests and not become part of the mess. And I will do that,’’ he said.
And we don't care what letter is after their name.
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Also see: Maine GOP promotes party unity after primary
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