Businessman Les Otten announced yesterday that he will seek the Republican nomination for governor in 2010. Based on his campaign website and materials, however, he looks more like he's running as a Democrat. One Democrat in particular.
I served on the academic discipline committee for two years in college and this is still one of the most blatant rip-offs I've ever seen:
A front page post on the website of the Republican Project, the organization created by unsuccessful first Congressional District candidate Dean Scontras in an attempt to turn the Maine GOP to the right, endorses a video labeling Democrats "traitors" and calling for a second American Revolution.
Most of the video, which Scontras' group calls "A meesage [sic] worth hearing and taking to heart" consists of an actor dressed like Thomas Paine frothing against immigrants and calling for the advancement of American "uniculture." At about the 4:30 mark, however, things get a little bloodthirsty.
Pseudo-Paine references "The party that claims to be the party of the people and shouts 'we want change'" and declares that "They call themselves progressive, global thinkers. We had another word for them in 1776. We called them traitors."
He then warns that "This happened all once before. 232 years ago it led to revolution and thousands of dead in the streets. It will happen again unless you take back America now."
So there you go, Maine. Elect Republicans or face a violent insurrection.
Les Otten's web firm, Insyt New Media emails over a clarification of the strange language previously accessible on the putative gubernatorial candidate's campaign site. They apparently received some worried phone calls from Otten's campaign staff after yesterday's post.
From the website managers: The language Mr. Tipping found in the password-restricted construction site of a yet-released website was nonsensical wording used just as a placeholder until the actual language is uploaded. The words he discusses in today's blog are meaningless until the real content is loaded. Thank you for your understanding.
While Otten may now lose some support from single-issue anti-evil-robot voters, he does gain some points for using a Maine-based web firm, which appears to do some good work.
The 2010 gubernatorial field is quickly getting crowded. Today, Dawn Hill, a second-term state Representative from York jumped into the race for the Democratic nomination. Hill is a lawyer and owns a dog daycare center called "It's a Dog's World".
Yesterday, Les Otten, a businessman whose most recent venture is Maine Energy Systems in Bethel and whom MaineBiz described as "one of Maine's most admired and reviled entrepreneurs" announced that he will take steps to form an exploratory committee early next week. He will likely seek the Republican nomination.
Someone is currently in the process of building a campaign site for Otten. Visiting www.lesotten.com/test and hitting "cancel" a few times brings up a page with the title "Les Otten for Governor" along with some malformed code and the phrase "It's imperative that the center of the Earth is re-conquored [sic] from the Decepticons, as soon as possible. The fate of the universe is in our hands." I really hope that's part of his official campaign platform.
Update: The page has been removed from public view and Otten's web firm has issued a clarification.
Democratic former Attorney General Steve Rowe has filed papers to run for governor in 2010 and has launched a very narrow website.
At Down East this week, I take a look at the Portland Charter Commission election, including its possible effect on state politics and a likely explanation for why Jim Gooch's campaign signs have all gone missing.
Maine 2nd District Congressman Mike Michaud appears to be out of sync with fellow members of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of conservative Democrats in the House, on the issue of federal health care reform.
The Blue Dogs today sought to limit the bounds of discussion on reform, releasing a memo outlining the conditions under which they would be willing to support new health care legislation.
In particular, the Blue Dogs are seeking to severely limit the size and scope of any public option passed by the House. They are also demanding a "trigger" in the legislation that would delay the implementation of such a plan until private insurers have failed to meet "specific availability and cost targets."
The coalition has 51 members and, if they voted as a block, could potentially side with Republicans to scuttle health reform legislation in the House.
Michaud apparently opposes placing these kinds of limits on the health care debate.
"The congressman believes that we should explore all options with regard to health care reform," said Michaud's Communications Director Ed Gilman by email today. "He worked with the Blue Dogs to encourage the committees to have an open and bipartisan process in the formulation of legislation. He thinks this is too big of an issue to limit debate."
Gilman also pointed to a statement made by Rep. Michaud less than a week ago in which he called a public plan a "major improvement" and stated that he is "committed to a public insurance option."
While these statements leave Michaud with plenty of wiggle room on the details of any government-backed health care option, it's clear that he doesn't currently support the stringent conditions proposed by his fellow Blue Dogs.
In related news, Jason Levesque, an Auburn Republican and owner of a telemarketing management firm, has announced that he will seek the GOP nomination to challenge Michaud for the 2nd District congressional seat in 2010.
For the first time in 30 years, Maine's budget has decreased in size. Hardest hit are state services for children, education funding and state workers. The budget passed the House 119-26 and the Senate 33-2.
It's not every day you get quoted in the election platform (page 38) of a political party.
The Progressive Conservatives took the quote from a government press release I signed off on last year. Of course, now my friends are accusing me of being a secret Tory.
The Nova Scotia election occurring right now is a very interesting one. If I get a chance, I'll be sure to write something about the political similarities and differences Maine shares with its neighbour.
Senator Collins' Special Assistant, Bobby Reynolds, goes head to (shiny) head with Lewiston Sun Journal Opinions Editor Tony Ronzio over the "Cash for Clunkers" bill:
Senator Susan Collins has written an informative blog post on her weekend trip to Quebec as part of a ten-member congressional delegation to a US-Canadian legislators' conference.
While there, she explains that she managed to pass a consensus resolution calling on both countries to work to expedite marine regulatory reviews, an important step for the building of an LNG terminal in Washington County.
One quibble: Collins says her ability to speak a bit of French helped her win support of some "party Quebecois" legislators. Assuming she meant her federal counterparts, they were actually members of the Bloc Québécois. The Parti Québécois is the provincial separatist party.
My column at Down East this week is about why Snowe will stick with her party, despite Democratic hopes (and overtures).
I also enjoyed this response, from an anonymous commenter:
Unlike Sen. Specter, Sen. Snowe has always been a Republican. And let's not forget that the senator's husband is a Republican. The senator has been a steadfast member of the party from Augusta to Washington, from majority to minority. Although the churlish right wing of the party, which is under the misimpression that it gets to decide who's a Republican, disagrees, the letters "G-O-P" are in Olympia Snowe's DNA. Despite the meanness and name-calling of certain inflexible zealots, the senator is doing just fine. She's got the office and they don't, and she doesn't need to switch parties.
The folks at the Portland Phoenix received some good satire in the mail.
How come I just get tripe like this?
Kris Holtzclaw sent a message using the contact form at http://www.mainepolitics.net/contact.
Leviticus 20:13
13 "The penalty for homosexual acts is death to both parties. They have committed a detestable act [sin] and are guilty of a capital offense.
