PORTLAND, Maine — It was another busy week of politics in Maine and across the country. From the creation of a commission to investigate the circumstances leading up to the Lewiston shootings to the latest on election results, our political analysts weighed in on the key issues.
Lewiston shooting commission
More than two weeks after the deadly shootings in Lewiston that killed 18 people and injured 13 others, there are growing calls for action. Gov. Janet Mills formally created a commission to investigate the police response to concerns about the shooter in the weeks and months leading up to the tragedy.
GARRETT: "I think this is a really good place to start. You know, the other place that I would recommend the legislature to look when they come back is this is warranted of a government oversight investigation. I think that the government oversight committee should absolutely launch their own investigation into all of this. The more answers that we can have, the better. But I think the worst thing that we could do is let these studies sit on a shelf like we need to make some decisions after this is done. And far too often we let these great reports go to waste. So, I think it's a good start. We'll see where it goes. But we've got to take we've got to take some action."
ETHAN: "I think the members that she's put on it, they're really all in the judiciary, a lot of them former judges. You know, there are people who know how to look at evidence and try to get to the facts and draw some conclusions. They're not partisans, they're not advocates. I think that's a good thing. My hope, my hope and my concern, my hope is that they look very broadly, as Garrett was just saying, look at policy. Don't simply look at did the police get this right or wrong? Did the family get it right or wrong? Did mental health experts get it right or wrong? Because then we're sort of limiting. We're trying to create a human error and find somebody to blame, as opposed to looking at what the legislature can do from a policy perspective, whether that's what I believe, which is we've got to get stronger around gun control issues."
GOP debate
Five Republican candidates running for president took the debate stage again this past week. Once again, frontrunner Donald Trump was not there, but it did allow Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis to stand. There were even some heated moments between Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy.
ETHAN: "You know, it was very interesting to me watching this debate. You know, if Republicans could get it together to nominate Nikki Haley, I think that she would actually give us a run for our money. She's very accomplished, very smart, very articulate. She obviously gives it as good as she takes it. You know, Ramaswamy, he looked terrible from my perspective. And he had his sort of moment where he peaked, and he’s just been plummeting. And I think he realizes that because he spent the whole time just sort of attacking anybody and everybody he could. But I do think that Nikki Haley did a good job. I give her credit for that. I also thought Tim Scott did a pretty good job. He was stayed way above the fray the whole time. Yeah, he just told us he keeps telling his personal story and if he can survive. But again, this is really Trump's race to lose, and he's not going to lose it."
ZACH: "At the end of the day, these candidates on the stage are just trying to fight to be that Trump alternative?"
GARRETT: "It was a fun debate to watch for second place. And, you know, I don't know, endorsement for me on this race but I mean, the bottom line is the big winner of the debate was Donald Trump. He held a rally a few miles away. You know, he spoke directly to his supporters. He spoke he didn't have to answer any questions. He didn't want to. And, you know, that strategy is working out for him."
Question 3 fails
It was a landslide victory for Maine's power companies, Central Maine Power and Versant, this week with Question 3 failing at the ballot box: 70 percent of Mainers voted no on Pine Tree Power, the effort to create a statewide consumer-owned utility.
ZACH: "Did you expect it to be such a landslide?"
ETHAN: "I didn't. That was that was quite a beat down, as we would say in politics. Look, you know, when you're outspent 40 to 1, it's very hard to win. I think most of us expected that it was going to go down. I think, you know, it almost universally went down in every town. But I do think, you know, going forward, I look to see for those who think that the consumer owned utility should go back to the legislature, they're not going to touch it."
GARRETT: "CMP has some issues they need to deal with internally. You know, they're consistently ranked very poorly in customer service. I think this was kind of a shot across the bow in regard to the public saying like, hey, you know, we need to fix some things. I mean, 80,000 people signed these petitions, you know, and so there's obviously people out there who think we need to do something about our utilities."
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