I don’t know what is going on in Maine. I remember that there were shenanigans involving Mitt Romney snagging Ron Paul’s delegates, and I know that their governor is a certified lunatic. But now it looks like a lot of fairly prominent party members are fleeing the GOP in frustration. The thing is, they appear to be angry that the GOP is too moderate and accommodating. How is this possible?
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
You have to admit, for your typical resident of Maine, surveillance drones, raw milk, and the NSA are pretty much the three greatest challenges in your life.
What about mind reading moon beams and pink flying saucers?
I smell platform language!
The ones leaving are disgusted with the state GOP’s refusal to go completely off the deep end.
They’re not leaving the party, so to speak, their party left them.
What happened?gEeeEez https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mokoolapps.sevenwondersoftheworld
LePage won with 36% (iirc), because a wealthy Independent wrongly figured he could beat a crappy Republican despite the floor on the Democratic votes, and he’s doing a great job representing the Tea Party extremists, so much so that even the faux-moderates are fleeing.
He’s actually a great argument that you’re correct in thinking that there is a right-wing so extreme that it loses even the power to obstruct. At least, he will be once he loses power.
Cutler’s running again. Michaud is running. They’re oil and water. The Two Maines problem may save LePage’s ass.
There wasn’t really enough difference culturally between Libby Mitchell and Cutler to act as a deterrent to tactical voting. Mitchell’s 20% isn’t a lot different from the 14% or so Cynthia Dill got running, with Angus King, against Summers in the 2012 3-way Senate race.
We voted tactically then, and got King, though Mitchell is significantly more progressive. Will it happen twice?
Michaud is pro-gun, pro-life, and the only Blue Dog caucus member left in New England. Cutler voters aren’t crossing over to vote for that. Michaud represents what they’ve run away from, risen above, or because they’re From Away, have never seen anyways.
And Michaud’s older, French-er, mill-town voter base contains a lot of Reagan-Democrat-ish types who aren’t crossing in the other direction. They’ll probably elect a Republican to replace Michaud unless the state GOP nominates a loonie — and with the libertarians and constitutionalists heading for the exits, the chances of a sane GOP nominee are increasing.
My guess? Despite early polls, it’s still LePage’s race to lose. The wildcard in 2010 was Shawn Moody’s vaguely progressive* small business/non-partisan/independent vote was twice LePage’s margin of victory…
(* Green Poujadism, anyone? *His auto-repair firm is 35% owned by an ESOP)
Michaud supports background checks and has a 100% rating from NARAL. Right now he is at 40% in the polls. I spent the last two weekends canvassing for him in the 1st District and the response was really good.
I think Cutler’s statements about teachers unions and charter schools will cause problems for him in a lot of towns who have seen property tax increases to fund the schools since the revenue sharing fiasco.
Cutler and Michaud haven’t started running ads against each other yet. You can’t just run against LePage — everybody’s against LePage. You’ve got to differentiate yourself within the opposition.
I’m not a Michaud fan, but if I were a Mad Conservative Scientist, I’d create a Cutler-bot to keep throwing the state to the Republicans. He’s really good at it.
(My problem with Cutler vs MItchell wasn’t any fondness for the latter; it was the refusal of the former to take into account the fact that party politics and party loyalty actually exists in the real world, and you have to fact that into your actions.)
Mainers hate parties, and hate politics, and hate politicians.
Perot finished second to Clinton here in ’92, and two of the last five governors were independents. One of them now is an independent senator.
The next best thing to making it all go away is voting for a Cutler-type “I’m so so not a politician” politician.
LePage’s charm, such as it is, was that he didn’t come across as a politician, either. Rabid ideologue, yes, politician, no. No one ever accused him of running on polls, or excessive caution, or calculating every move. Gut-worship. Authenticity. All that crap.
I dunno. I phone-banked for Obama/Allen, and people loved Collins. They loved Snowe, too, actually, didn’t they?
I’m from Ohio, so I really don’t get to criticize anyone.
On that logic, I should never open my mouth – on matters American at the very least…
I think this is about the caucus. Remember how the teabaggers and the GOP could not count votes.
This has been brewing since the conflict with the Ronulans at the 2008 Republican State Convention. The Ron Paul wing is splitting off from the party which isn’t a big surprise.
That’s what I got from reading the linked article. The Paulites WON’T BE IGNORED anymore!
I did like the fact that these dissidents are pissed at the Governor as well. Paul LePage- RINO!!!! defies parody. Then again, lots of incidents involving today’s GOP defy parody.