MAINE, USA — Political Brew this week features longtime WGAN Radio Morning Show host Ken Altshuler and Ray Richardson from WLOB Radio.
President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden met for their second and final debate this past week. Our analysts believe it's unlikely any minds were changed.
"I think this election's decided, we just don't know the results yet," says Richardson.
And Altshuler agrees there was no knockout punch. But he thinks Trump's calmer demeanor may have come too late to make a big difference in the polls, saying, "If Donald Trump had been like that in the first debate, would we be looking at the same numbers? I'm not so sure."
As for the presidential race in Maine, it's clear the Trump campaign is putting a lot of resources into Maine's 2nd Congressional District, where Trump won one electoral vote four years ago.
Vice President Mike Pence drew a crowd in Hermon this past week, and Richardson says there are rumors that Trump himself may return to Maine before Election Day.
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Richardson believes, "The president is going to win a lot bigger up there than anyone realizes. The enthusiasm is off the charts."
Altshuler says Trump believes he's behind in the race, so he has to go for every possible vote, even when it's just one from northern Maine.
"I think they want that one vote, it's psychologically important, so it doesn't surprise me they're doing it, and they're doing it well."
In Maine's U.S. Senate race, the four candidates all faced off for the final time in a NEWS CENTER Maine Voice of the Voter debate on Thursday.
Altshuler calls the debate a tossup between front runner Sara Gideon and incumbent Susan Collins, and Richardson believes that, like the presidential race, voters have already made up their minds.
The debate was held virtually because Sen. Collins had to be in Washington for Senate business. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is looking to get Judge Amy Coney Barrett confirmed to the Supreme Court as quickly as possible. But he has reportedly told the White House that it shouldn't push for a new pandemic relief package before Barrett is confirmed.
Richardson finds that odd.
"The Senate is able to walk and chew gum," he says, and they "should be able to do all of these things all at once. And I believe that's what the American people want."
Altshuler says the stalemate over a relief bill is all about the election.
"The Democrats have no political reason to have a stimulus package," he says, "because it only helps the president. Mitch McConnell feels that the stimulus package will divide the Republicans. He believes that some Republicans, the bigger it is, the more expensive it is, you're going to have Republican senators who are going to say no."
Political Brew airs Sundays on The Morning Report.