Category Archives: On the Campaign Trail

Democrats turn to authentic, populist progressives to take back State Senate

As Steve Mistler notes, Democrats are emphasizing rural districts in their effort to win back control of the State Senate this November. Perhaps more interestingly, they’re depending on authentic, progressive candidates to win those seats. As Senate Candidate Jonathan Fulford described himself and his fellows, it was “a logger, a builder, a lobsterman and a […]

Newspaper rebukes Rep. Picchiotti for “hateful and dehumanizing” Facebook posts

The reporting staff of the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel have continued to ignore Rep. John Picchiotti’s long series of racist and anti-muslim Facebook posts. A story following his re-election to the Town Council in Fairfield last week still only refers to the one post that initially attracted public attention and notes that he apologized […]

Maine State Representative posts anti-Muslim diatribe on Facebook

Representative John Picchioti, a Republican representing Fairfield, Mercer and Smithfield and serving on the Insurance and Financial Services Committee, today published an anti-Muslim rant as a public post on his personal Facebook page. The post was noticed and a screenshot posted to Twitter by progressive activist Steven Biel. We got Mike Willette situation in the […]

Cain, Baldacci both take aim at Rep. Poliquin

Emily Cain and Joe Baldacci, the two Democratic congressional candidates in Maine’s Second District, seem to be squarely focused on Republican Congressman Bruce Poliquin, whom they hope to face next November, with lessĀ attention or criticism spared for each other. “We’ve got to get rid of Bruce Poliquin. He’s bad for Maine people, he’s bad for […]

Lewiston Mayor: shame welfare recipients to keep out special needs kids

In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Lewiston Mayor Bob Macdonald finally explained who exactly he was targeting with his plan to publish the names and addresses of Mainers who receive public assistance. When Fox and Friends host Tucker Carlson mentioned Somali immigrants, Macdonald denied that they were his focus and instead claimed that […]

Rep. Poliquin flips on Planned Parenthood, votes against women’s health

I was surprised and pleased to hear Second-District Representative Bruce Poliquin’s statement to Maine Public Radio last week on Planned Parenthood. Sure, he used the opportunity to repeat some of the worst lies about the organization promoted by anti-abortion rights activists, but at least he said he would vote against the attempt to strip away […]

David vs. Goliath battle shaping up on Portland minimum wage referendum

The Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce plans to spend at least six figures in an attempt to defeat a local initiative to increase the minimum wage put forward by the Portland Green Independent Committee, according to Chamber CEO Chris Hall. “A successful [campaign] will have to have six digits at the very least,” said Hall. […]