New England Is Now, Congressionally Speaking, A Republican-Free Zone— Congratulations

Winning smile

Although Maine’s largely rural second congressional district voted for Obama both times he ran, in 2016 it was anything but Hillary country. First Bernie wiped her out in the state caucuses 64.3% to 35.3%. And in the 2nd it was even worse for her. Bernie took every county, Oxford with over 70%. When the general election rolled around, Hillary was toast; Trump beat her 51.4-41.1% in the district— and Wall Street Republican Bruce Poliquin easily beat a hapless identity politics laughing stock the Democrats cluelessly decided to run (again). Poliquin beat Emily Cain 192,878 (54.8%) to 159,081 (45.2%). Two years earlier he had beaten her 133,320 (45.2%) to 118,568 (40.2%) in a 3-way race.

This year, the state House whip, Jared Golden, didn’t wait for the DCCC’s— or anyone else’s— blessing. A former front line Marine (Afghanistan and Iraq), he jumped in and ran on a Bernie-like agenda geared towards the district’s working families. The establishment preferred one of their own, hereditary multimillionaire dabbler Lucas St. Claire. Golden beat him 54.3% to 45.7%.

In the first round of general election voting Poliquin led by a little over 1,000 votes— 46.2% to 45.6%, but because neither candidate received 50%, the state’s ranked choice voting system kicked in— at it kicked in before Poliquin lost his lawsuit trying to stop it from going forward. This afternoon, after the final count, Jared was declared the winner, surging past Poliquin by slightly less than 3,000 votes after the ranked-choice votes of two independents in the race were redistributed.

The final vote tally was 139,231 votes for Golden versus 136,326 votes for Poliquin— or 50.5 percent to 49.5 percent.

This is the first time in U.S. history that a congressional race was decided using ranked-choice voting, which allows voters to cast ballots for their favorite candidate but also rank other candidates in order of preference. Those ranked-choice votes only come into play, however, when no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote on the initial tally.

Thursday’s vote tally may not be the end, however. Poliquin is challenging the constitutionality of ranked-choice voting in federal court, and the campaign could ask for a recount of the results.

…Poliquin and three other plaintiffs had asked U.S. District Court Judge Lance Walker to declare the ranked-choice process unconstitutional and effectively declare Poliquin the winner. They also asked for Walker to halt the tabulation process until he can consider the constitutionality question.

Walker’s order on Thursday denied the request for immediate intervention but leaves open the possibility of a legal battle over the results.

Walker cited Maine voters’ repeated support for ranked-choice voting in his ruling Thursday.

“As it stands, the citizens of Maine have rejected the policy arguments plaintiffs advance against RCV,” Walker wrote. “Maine voters cast their ballots in reliance on the RCV system. For the reasons indicated above, I am not persuaded that the United States Constitution compels the Court to interfere with this most sacred expression of democratic will by enjoining the ballot-counting process and declaring Representative Poliquin the victor.”

…Of the second-choice votes redistributed Thursday, Golden received 10,232 while 4,695 went to Poliquin. More than 8,000 of the ballots cast for independents did not designate a second choice.

This is the first congressional race in the nation to be decided using the ranked-choice voting process. Maine voters have endorsed the ranked-choice process twice via two separate ballot questions.

Another manifestation of the pernicious Trump Effect: no more Republicans in the House from New England-- and just the very vulnerable Susan Collins, who is up for reelection in 2020, in the Senate. I expect great things from Jared who will hit the ground running, having been the progressive "tip of the spear" in the state legislature and who knows exactly how to get legislation passed in a split government.

Jared by Nancy Ohanian