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What we're reading
🔎 We fact-checked claims from the ad war in Maine's 2nd District on taxes and abortion.
⏩ Siding with the lobster industry, a federal judge agreed to expedite an appeal of new rules that aim to limit fishing to aid endangered whales.
👂 Bangor is considering a temporary "shelter village" for homeless residents, although it may be less likely than the Lewiston area to have one.
💼 Home sellers in Maine are profiting less. It is good news for buyers. |
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| 📷 Sen. Susan Collins speaks to an employee at the LP Houlton facility in New Limerick on Aug. 31, 2022, during a tour of the company's new SmartSide line of products. (Houlton Pioneer Times photo by Joseph Cyr) |
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💰 Maine's senior senator takes an appropriator's tour at a key time.
◉ Drowned out a bit in the din of the Nov. 8 election has been a key moment for Sen. Susan Collins, who has a lot riding on the outcome despite not being on the ballot. She is in line to be the top Republican on the appropriations panel and will also take her party's top spot on a defense subcommittee.
◉ If Republicans win a Senate majority, she will lead both panels. It is not assured, with FiveThirtyEight giving Democrats a 61 percent chance to keep control. Republican chances rely on candidates including Georgia's Herschel Walker, who is anti-abortion and has denied allegations that he paid for an abortion in 2009 for the mother of one of his children, getting past the finish.
◉ Collins' ascension to these spots was one of the main promises of her 2020 campaign with Democrat Sara Gideon. Maine has made out well in the return of congressional earmarks, something largely attributed to Collins. She will be in a strong ranking position if Republicans lose, but her fate is tied to her party.
◉ She has been doing Maine events this week previewing her role in that top slot. Collins told a Portland biomedical conference this week that she would continue to champion research funding. On Thursday, she will tour Piscataquis County projects supported by federal funding.
💵 Democrats double spending in the biggest legislative race in Maine history.
◉ The amount of money flowing into the Democratic effort to to defend Senate President Troy Jackson of Allagash in his race with Rep. Sue Bernard, R-Caribou, is staggering. In the last six days, outside groups aligned with Jackson have doubled their total spending to $679,000 in the toss-up race.
◉ Bernard was boosted by a $100,000 anti-Jackson campaign from a national Republican group this week. She has only gotten another $57,000 so far in outside support with Republicans swamped by national Democratic money.
◉ The $836,000 in outside spending has already smashed a Maine Senate record set in 2012. We are still counting in this one and $1 million is in reach.
🔑 Maine is one of two states where both legislative chambers are toss-ups.
◉ That is according to the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, which puts both the Senate and the House of Representatives in that column. Only seven chambers nationwide are in that category with control of states becoming foregone conclusions. Michigan is the other two-chamber, toss-up state.
◉ For the first time in a while, the pre-election chatter among observers is that the Maine House seems more in play than the Senate, something that lines up with another set of predictions from CNalysis leaving the House on a coin flip and tilting the upper chamber toward Democrats, who control both now.
◉ Redistricting is a factor. Republicans have structural advantages in the Senate and House now, according to a Princeton University analysis. The one on the House side is bigger. Democrats still outnumber them here, but districts are configured in a way that gives Republicans better chances than registration suggests. Look to this factor as a tiebreaker if things are close. |
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