Suzanne Murphy and Alan Brewer talk with Eliza Townsend of the Maine Women's Lobby.

Download this episode here. Subscribe to the podcast here.

Big Talk host Suzanne Murphy speaks with Alex Cornell du Houx, a Maine State Representative who served as a Marine in Iraq.

Download this episode here. Subscribe to the podcast here.

Author, journalist and frequent Maine Politics contributor Colin Woodard has recieved a great deal of national attention for his new book, American Nations, in which he examines what he believes are 11 distinct cultural regions within North America.

Woodard recently did a daytime call-in program on MPBN, now available online, in which he discussed not just his general thesis, but the place of Maine within our nation's cultural landscape.

Suzanne and Al discuss Maine's Clean Elections system with Andrew Bossie, executive director of Maine Citizens for Clean Elections.

Last week, Maine's Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee voted along party lines to strip out the matching funds provision of the Maine Clean Election Act without replacing it with one of several proposed alternative provisions, virtually gutting the act.

You can sign an MPA petition in favor of clean elections in Maine here.

Download this episode here. Subscribe to the podcast here.

Read more »

The congressional "super committee" has failed to reach an agreement to cut the federal budget deficit, but the battle over taxes is continuing. At least one Maine business owner says it is time wealthier taxpayers like himself step up and pay more.

Jim Wellehan is president of Lamey-Wellehan Shoes, based in Auburn and with six stores across the state. He has signed a letter to Congress, along with 99 others who are business owners, investors and wealthy individuals in the top five percent of the U.S. economy. The letter asks federal lawmakers to pay for most of the deficit reduction with higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations, he says.

"Some children are given great advantage and other children are given great disadvantage. It just makes no sense to worry about taxes rather than worry about what kind of society your kids will grow up in."

All of the signers have incomes of more than $200,000 and are willing to pay higher income-tax rates if the Bush-era tax break for the wealthy is allowed to expire.

Wellehan says the lack of political will in Washington is hurting the economy, job growth and efforts to build a green economic sector. He says it wasn't always the case.

"If you look back at anything, from the Tennessee Valley Authority to the Hoover Dam, they all required great cooperation to get things done, and they did get things done."

Those opposed to raising revenue through higher taxes say it will cost jobs and hurt business. However, recent polls indicate a majority of Americans strongly support higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations. Read more »

Big Talk host Al Brewer and I discuss the results of Tuesday's election, with a focus on the Portland mayoral race and Question One on the statewide ballot.

For the poll numbers we discuss, see these posts over at Down East.

For the full results of the mayoral race, including the IRV rounds, see this detailed spreadsheet courtesy of Jack Woods.

Download the episode here. Subscribe to the podcast here.

My home city of Portland, Maine is having its first mayoral election in 88 years, the result of a successful ballot referendum and popular disgust with the city council's handling of a proposed development on the Maine State Pier. Fifteen candidates are on the ranked-choice ballot, making it especially difficult for voters to become educated about the would-be mayors.

As regular readers know, I'm a big proponent of following the money in politics, but under current law, mayoral candidates didn't have to file campaign finance disclosures until last Friday evening -- just eleven days before voters go to the polls. (An effort to change this law for future elections has been stalled in Augusta.) Media coverage of the content of those reports has, to date, been focused merely on how much money each candidate raised, rather than from whom these resources came.
Read more »

This week on Big Talk, Host Suzanne Murphy speaks with two members of the Portland Food Co-op, Communications Director Michelle Smith and Board Member Sean Cooper

The PFC is a newly developing local business. Though they do not yet have a physical storefront, the member-owners collectively purchase more than $6000 worth of food each month from both local and national producers.

Download the episode here. Subscribe to the podcast here.

Here's a Big Talk show from two weeks ago that I'm just putting online now. Election season seems to have put me into quite the blogging debt. Let's see if I can climb out of it.

Big Talks hosts Suzanne Murphy and Al Brewer welcome into the WMPG studios members from Occupy Maine. Six protestors shared stories and reasoning behind why they are staking out in downtown Portland. We hear from Travis, Sarah, Jake, Holly, Shane and Jen.

Download the episode here. Subscribe to the podcast here.

Preti Flaherty lobbyist Ann Robinson has been showing up frequently in my reporting this year. She served as co-chair of Gov. Paul LePage's transition team, compiled his much-maligned "Phase I" regulatory reform agenda, and serves as his key regulatory reform advisor, even as she maintains her day job as a corporate lobbyist. She also serves on the committee that recommends judicial nominees to the governor and -- as expected -- was just nominated to the board of MPBN by the governor.

This past week she's been under additional pressure from Democrats, after my Phoenix story revealed her to be the new state co-chair for the controversial American Legislative Exchange Committee. So, not surprisingly, the Bangor Daily News picked up on the story today, asking if it matters that corporations are writing many of the bills legislators introduce in Augusta.

But halfway down the story is a real shocker. Governor LePage's spokseperson, Adrienne Bennett, told the News that despite "Democrats' claims," Ann Robinson is not an advisor to the governor!

Oh, really? Read more »