What Do You Do About Maine?

Angus King, an Independent and popular Senate incumbent, caucuses and generally votes with the Democrats. He's up for reelection in November. His ProgressivePunch lifetime crucial vote score is pretty miserable, closest to Missouri conservaDem Claire McCaskill, but slightly better than 3 Democrats, Joe Donnelly (IN), Heidi Heitkamp (ND) and Joe Manchin (WV). Still, his 67.71 score is considerably better than the least horrible Republican, Susan Collins (also from Maine), whose score is 26.24. The state's PVI is D+3-- but the Democratic Party is not exactly thriving there. Not exactly.

Maine has one of the worst governors in the country, Paul LePage. In fact, one of the worst governors in American history. How is that possible? Here's how. The foul mouthed and uneducated pig became governor with just 37.6% (218,065 votes) in 2010. Eliot Cutler, an independent came in second with 208,270 votes (35.9%) and a weak and uninspiring Democrat, Elizabeth Mitchell, was crushed with just 109,387 votes (18.8%). LePage also won his reelection battle in 2014 with less than 50%. This time it was Cutler, again running as an Independent, who was the spoiler:

• Paul LePage (R)- 294,519 (48.2%)
• Mike Michaud (D- 265,114 (43.4%)
• Eliot Cutler (I- 51,515 (8.4%)

That same year, Democrats ran an awful EMILY's List corporate Democrat, Emily Cain, in the second district to hold onto Michaud's then open congressional seat (ME-02). Horrible candidate, albeit not as horrible as the monster the GOP ran, Bruce Poliquin. But Poliquin beat her-- not necessarily because she was such as wretched and uninspiring candidate but because an indecent, Blaine Richardson, took 10.6% of the vote. Poliquin won with 45.2% to Cain's 40.2%. Again, the Independent was the spoiler who threw the election to the Republican.

Hillary beat Trump in Maine but very narrowly-- 357,735 (47.83) to 335,593 (44.87). But in the state caucuses, Democratic voters were not looking for a status quo candidate. Bernie beat her 64.3% to 35.5%. In fact, Bernie beat her in every single county. She didn't win one. Bernie was an inspiring candidate. In the general, a plurality of Maine voters held their noses and picked her-- the lesser of two evils, although she lost one of Maine's 4 electoral votes by losing ME-02. She ws such a shitty, uninspiring candidate that she put a state in play that Obama had won 401,306 (56%) to 292,276 (41%) against Romney.

This morning a very politically powerful friend of mine asked me if I thought she should get behind the Democrat, Zak Ringelstein, in this year's Maine Senate race. She knows Angus King well enough to detest him. But she is also aware that backing Ringelstein, could help throw the race to Republican Eric Brakey, a state Senator from Auburn with Libertarian leanings; (the guy in the red speedos). Brakey, for example, wrote the bill that eliminated the requirement to obtain a permit to carry a concealed firearm in the state.

So it's the old conundrum about deciding who's the spoiler and then backing the lesser of two evils candidate. In Ringelstein's case, though, he's a really good candidate. Without a doubt the DSCC and Schumer would fully back King. Ringelstein is the kind of Berniecrat they fear (and loathe). Just look at his campaign site issues page: Medicare-For-All; corporate money out of politics; fair taxation; and here's his 20 steps to reduce income inequality:

• Getting big money's influence out of politics
• Cutting taxes for the working class and small businesses, and making the rich pay their fair share
• Ending tax loopholes for big corporations
• Increasing the federal minimum wage to $15/hour and creating a rule that allows minimum wage to rise with inflation
• Getting tough on federal antitrust laws
• Encouraging investment in entrepreneurship, innovation, and research and development
• Giving American workers more vacation time, more sick leave, and better pay standards
• Empowering communities to create tougher local laws against multinational corporations
• Rewriting international trade agreements to favor American workers over multinational corporations
• Investing in better public schools for all American children
• Investing in research-backed early childhood and in-home/community education programs
• Making college affordable and ending the era of crippling college debt
• Creating an effective single-payer healthcare system
• Making financial literacy a public school course that bears equal importance with traditional classes like math and English
• Investing in adult education and career counseling programs for Americans who want or need to switch careers
• Creating a federal law protecting net neutrality
• Restoring Glass-Steagall to break up large banks
• Giving all workers the right to organize and collectively negotiate in the workplace
• Creating a participatory budgeting framework on the local, national and state levels of government
• Ending agricultural monopolies to benefit local farms and give consumers healthier native crop options

You won't be hearing anything like that -- especially not the cutting edge stuff-- from Angus King... or Chuck Schumer, at least not in a serious way.