MAINE, USA — Labor Day weekend typically signals the end of a quiet summer political season. But people in the top-of-the-ticket races in Maine have been busy and sometimes making headlines.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Paul LePage was caught on video a couple of weeks ago threatening to "deck" a photographer if he got too close. LePage was warning a 'tracker'— a Democratic party staffer whose job is to record public appearances and gather material that might be used against the candidate. It has become a common practice for both parties in Maine.
LePage's reaction and tone were very familiar to Mainers, who remember his eight years as governor. Republican analyst Phil Harriman said while this might be red meat for LePage supporters, he reminded the former governor that "if you want to get through this campaign, you cannot have these explosions to turn into a news story."
Democratic analyst Betsy Sweet said the outburst "triggers people's memories of way worse stuff [LePage] has said, and so I think it makes it much harder for him to say 'I'm different, I've changed.'"
The political advertising blitz has already begun, but it's not clear which messages might resonate with voters.
Sweet questions the effectiveness of a TV spot from the Jared Golden campaign. It features the Democratic congressman grimly tearing a lobster apart while he talks about 'cracking' President Joe Biden's big money agenda by voting against the massive Build Back Better plan.
"This is the classic Washington consultant," Sweet said, "Thinking they're connecting with Mainers by having a lobster in the picture, where those of us who live in Maine are like, 'You're in a diner eating, taking apart at $12.99 a pound lobster and trashing it?' If the message is to working-class Mainers, that totally misses the mark."
In the race for governor, the LePage and Janet Mills campaigns have been running ads featuring the candidates' families and telling their own stories. Both Mills and LePage are well known to longtime Maine voters, but Harriman pointed out that "during the pandemic, we had thousands of people move into the state of Maine who knows nothing about these candidates. And this is their opportunity to introduce themselves to new Mainers."
On Thursday night, Biden delivered an unusual prime-time address warning that former President Donald Trump's dominance of the GOP is a threat to the nation. Biden said election deniers and "MAGA Republicans" are attacking American values.
Sweet felt the Biden address was not really an effort to sway Trump supporters. "I think the target audience is all of the people who feel like they're going to sit out the midterms. All the people who say, 'Oh, I'm not so interested in the candidates. I'm sick of politics. I don't like any of them.' I think this is to say to people, 'Oh no, this is not about candidates. This is not about issues. This is about democracy.' And I don't think he's wrong."
But Harriman said Biden delivered an angry speech telling "Seventy-four or 75 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump, 'You are the problem.'"
Our analysts also discussed the Maine Supreme Court ruling this past week that said part of the referendum to stop the CMP transmission corridor may have been unconstitutional, the FBI seizure of classified documents from the Florida home of Donald Trump, the effort to defeat charter changes and citizens' initiatives on the Portland municipal ballot, and Biden's plan to forgive student loan debt for millions of Americans.
Political Brew airs Sundays on NEWS CENTER Maine's The Weekend Morning Report.