Maine Republicans and Democrats are saying this week that it’s time to work together, after the GOP took over the state Senate and Republican Gov. Paul LePage was re-elected to office.
Moreover, a Republican Party official said the elections are reflective of a long-term trend in Maine away from the left and toward the center — a sentiment that on the face of it doesn’t generate arguments from some Democrats including state Sen. Dawn Hill of York.
Republicans clearly dominated the elections last Tuesday, gaining a 20-15 majority in the Senate, and also gaining 10 seats in the House, where Democrats remain in charge by a margin of 79 to 68 seats. LePage bested Democrat Mike Michaud 48 to 43 percent, with independent Eliot Cutler garnering 8 percent of the vote.
The GOP gains are a reflection of many different factors, said Mark Brewer, political science professor at the University of Maine. “Transitory” reasons include the statewide bear baiting issue, which drew people who typically don’t vote; a general national anti-Obama trend; and even a LePage boost from his strong stance to quarantine nurse Kaci Hickox after she returned to Maine from West Africa.
LePage has always had a solid block of support among 38 percent of the voters, “who were going to vote for him no matter what” and that helped candidates up and down the ticket, said Brewer. But the Republicans also mounted a strong get-out-the-vote effort.
“They appear to have caught up with Democrats on their ground game.” he said. “This is an area where the Democrats have dominated for a long time. The Republicans’ strategy clearly closed the gap this time.”
It’s true, said Maine Republican Party communications director David Sorensen.
“We had a ground game we’ve never had before,” Sorensen said. “We built a data base of supporters, we identified supporters of both parties and independents, we kept track of who was voting and who was not, we made phone calls, we canvassed neighborhoods, we helped people with absentee ballots.”
But, he added, “without an issue to get behind, the ground game doesn’t really matter.” And for Republicans this election season, it was welfare reform.
“That’s what drove people to the polls. People got really upset about this issue,” he said.
Gov. LePage filed a number of bills to curb welfare fraud and limit where EBT cards can be used, and he hammered home this issue both during the last session of the Legislature and on the campaign trail.
“It is a very popular issue for Mainers and a problem for Democrats,” said Brewer. “And I think that’s going to be an area where Democrats are going to have to compromise.”
Hill agrees the message on welfare reform was effective, and she said “My take is that we didn’t get out the message effectively enough about this issue. It’s inaccurate to say that there’s widespread fraud. It’s less than 1 percent. Far, far below the national average. So people were more concerned about welfare than they needed to be and we didn’t do a proficient enough job of explaining this.”
Welfare is just one of many issues that will be coming before the Legislature next session, including energy, the economy, education and elder issues. State Reps. Roberta Beavers, D-Eliot/South Berwick, and Deane Rykerson, D-Kittery, both re-elected, said it’s important to remember that 90 percent of all bills pass with bipartisan support.
“The few issues that make it to (floor) debate are the ones that everyone hears about, so it seems we’re fighting all the time, but we’re not,” Beavers said.
“The committee process encourages bipartisanship. That helps a lot,” said Rykerson. “We have this huge issue in Maine with the economy and job growth. Everyone wants the same thing, but we have a difference of how we can get there. If we can compromise, we can accomplish a lot.”
House Speaker Mark Eves, D-North Berwick, is expected to be re-elected by his party when legislators meet this coming week. He admitted the next two years are going to be a balancing act.
“The first thing we’re going to do is to find common ground,” said Eves, saying issues like his “Keep Me Home” initiative to keep seniors in their homes longer are ones that can generate bipartisan support. “But we’re not going to compromise our convictions.”
He said Medicaid expansion is a good example of an issue that has broad support among Democrats and “that’s something we’re probably not going to agree upon” with the GOP. But he said there will undoubtedly be room for compromise on a wide range of issues.
“I’ve made a sincere offer” to LePage and Senate leaders “to do this together. The governor needs us and we need him.”
And there, said Brewer, is the rub.
“It will be interesting to see how the governor views things, how he approaches this new environment we’re going to have,” he said. “His actions are going to go a long way in setting the tone for the next Legislature.”
Sorensen said he sees no stopping the gears set in motion this past Tuesday.
“We’re looking at the election not as just a snapshot in time but as something to build upon for election cycles to come,” he said. After many years of dominance by Democrats, he said, Republicans are finally “bringing the state to the middle. We’re becoming a more moderate state. This is a lasting thing. We’re here to stay.”
Hill doesn’t dispute Sorensen’s contention.
“I think Maine is more in the middle now, but both sides have to move to the middle,” she said. “We’re not going to get anywhere if they have an extreme right agenda. They’re going to be watched closely for what they bring forward, too.”
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