PORTLAND, Maine — This past week, Maine Representatives Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden joined all but two Democrats in the U.S. House to support a resolution setting the rules for the next phase of the impeachment inquiry, including public hearings.
Golden, who represents the second district, which gave Donald Trump an electoral vote in 2016, says this vote does not mean he is in favor of impeaching the president, and he refuses to prejudge the outcome of the inquiry.
State and national Republicans have been quick to criticize Golden for this vote.
Republican Phil Harriman, a former state senator, says Golden needs to be persistent in telling constituents that he is "in favor of having public hearings for an inquiry, and that's it. If there's a decision to impeach the president that's a separate vote. He has to hammer that message home."
Democrat John Richardson, a former Speaker of the House, says Golden is being smart politically. "He can say 'I'm being transparent, I'm making this a public process. You can see what I see, and when I have to make up my mind, you can either agree or disagree with me.'"
Republican Sen. Susan Collins has had nothing to say about the merits of the inquiry, but she told NEWS CENTER Maine on Thursday that "If articles of impeachment come to the Senate, we have to put everything else aside. And we will meet six days a week, having a trial as was done with President Clinton. And the Clinton trial took six or seven weeks as I recall."
Collins says she has been working to get appropriations bills passed as quickly as possible.
She adds "I do worry about whether we can get that all done before we see what appears to be inevitable articles of impeachment from the House."
Richardson tells us "It's a legitimate concern for Susan Collins, I'm not so sure it is for the U.S. Senate, because I think under Mitch McConnell, we haven't seen much get done."
Harriman says Sen. Collins is right to worry. "If the Senate does have a trial to decide whether to impeach President Trump, it is probably going to consume the rest of the fiscal year. No question about that."
One of the Democrats looking for a chance to run against Sen. Collins next year was slapped with a fine by the Maine Ethics Commission this past week. Sara Gideon was cited for violating campaign laws in 2016. Her leadership PAC reimbursed Gideon for two contributions she made to other PACs. The panel said the fine underscores the importance of following election law, even if there is no attempt to deceive the public.
John Richardson says this would be a problem if there were a pattern of behavior like this. But he says "This is a one-time technical mistake she made, she owned up to it, it was transparent."
And Phil Harriman agrees. "I'm going to give Sara a pass that this was a rookie mistake... If this is one and done, this will not be heard from again."
Our analysts also talk about the difficulty Sen. Elizabeth Warren is likely to have in selling her plan to pay for "Medicare for All," and the electoral math of the race for mayor of Portland.
"Political Brew" airs Sundays on The Morning Report.