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News and notes
The word of the week in the governor's race is "elitist."
— That's what former Gov. Paul LePage called Gov. Janet Mills in an interview with the conservative Breitbart News published this week and then in a fundraising email issued on Wednesday.
— "Janet Mills comes from a multi-generational political family, and she is very much out of touch with Mainers because she’s an Elitist," the email opened.
— It's an attempt by the Republican to leverage his familiar origin story of being homeless at age 11 after escaping an abusive father against that of Mills, a Democrat whose family's run of officeholders dates back to the early 1900s. Her father was well-connected in the Republican politics of the 1960s.
— LePage, however, has gone from outsider to a behind-the-scenes controller of Republican politics here between his first run in 2010 and his third now.
— "Paul LePage wants to convince the people of Maine that they were better off under his leadership than Governor Mills'," the Mills campaign said in a fundraising email last week. "There’s just one problem: he’s wrong."
A paid family and medical leave referendum drive is pitched as a failsafe.
— Progressive groups running a brand-new effort to put a sweeping paid family and medical leave referendum on the 2023 ballot says it is designed to give supporters an alternative to a legislative panel's work on the issue.
— "This gives us two chances to make PFML a reality next year, and we couldn’t be more excited," the coalition said in a Thursday newsletter. |
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What we're reading
— Maine's two senators argued for Electoral College reform in a Senate hearing on Wednesday with a key measure on track for passage.
— A quiet part of Belfast is the epicenter of what police called a giant theft ring. Things got heated there on Monday evening, when victims reportedly showed up at a home looking for their property.
— Maine Center for Disease Control Director Nirav Shah isn't really running for office, you guys.
— This Belfast middle school teacher helped to engineer the escape of a Ukrainian counterpart whom her classroom connected with last year.
— Maine is among the top states where rising home values are driving wealth. |
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| 📷 Della, a canine "staffer" for Precision Paving of Bangor, sits in a truck while crews work on a railroad crossing in Presque Isle on Wednesday. (Star-Herald phot by Paula Brewer) |
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