Today at Down East, a summary and some thoughts on LePage's claims of discrimination and other Crazy Train statements.

Reader John Kosinski writes in with some further questions about the episode:

Other questions remain of the whistle stop tour. For example, we learned through the PPH that the train ride was intended to be a fundraiser for LePage. Mainers willing to shuck out $750 were given special VIP access to the candidate. Who exactly paid $750 for this train ride? Last time I checked, one could ride from Brunswick to Rockland for a mere $42. Why would someone fork over $708 extra dollars for a train ride with Paul LePage? What kind of access were they given?

When the PPH called LePage’s office seeking a comment, his chief of staff told the PPH reporter she needed to talk with Paul. But Paul wasn’t available. He was out of town. Let me guess... was he on an out-of-town fundraising junket? Is he collecting checks from the Tea Party crowd in other states? Or is he hobnobbing with corporate leaders, cutting deals for some fresh campaign cash?

This may be a record for the fastest meltdown in Maine political history, but we're just getting started. It is only July, and the summer people are still hanging around. Once they leave, and Mainers are paying attention to this race again, I can’t wait to see what Mr. LePage tells us then.

I'm back from Prince Edward Island, where I've spent the past week away from the internet and cell phone reception, and back to blogging.

I'm not the only one with something to say online, as you can see over at my latest Down East column.

Speaking of blogs and ideological ties; as I note on the about page of this site and to the right of every Down East post, I work for the Maine People's Alliance, a decidedly un-conservative organization.

Full results here.

At Down East this week, I talked about just a few of the 32 contested Maine House primaries that will be decided a little more than a week from now.

Since I wrote the piece, there have been a couple more independent expenditures reported.

Conservative activist (and former Maine GOP executive director) Tony Payne's Maine Prosperity PAC bought newspaper ads supporting two Democrats: Lawrence Greenlaw in Senate District 28 (a race I discussed a few weeks ago) and Benjamin Wootten in House District 37.

Last year, Payne made news by announcing a plan to run conservative candidates in Democratic primaries in an attempt to shift the party to the right. These expenditures may by part of that strategy.

According to the Castine Patriot, Wootten, a small business owner and investment advisor, was once chairman of the Blue Hill Republicans. He switched parties in 2001.

Wootten may be Payne's choice, but he doesn't seem to be a doctrinaire conservative, at least on the issue of health care. He told the Bangor Daily News that he supported a public option as part of federal health care reform and supports a single payer health care system in Maine.

For Down East this week, I looked into the apparent theft of the Maine GOP delegate list by the Abbott campaign.

Here's a bonus quote from David Cameron, one of the LePage supporters who brought the issue to my attention:

"Paul wants to run a clean campaign. No dirt, none of that crap. This is from me personally. I just don't feel right that this is occurring."

With my Down East column on Pat McGowan now online, I've completed my series of interviews with each of the Democratic candidates.

The others: Rosa Scarcelli, Libby Mitchell, Steve Rowe

Now I just need to figure out who to vote for.

This week's column is a look at the primary contests for the Maine State Senate to be decided in June.

Here's a look at previous (grey bars) and potential (colored bars) TV ad spending in the governor's race based on the latest fundraising reports. Much more at Down East.

There's one redeeming feature of the faux-populist angry old white conservatives who make up the Tea Party. They provide some great unintentional sign-based humor.

I take a look at some of the best signs from their April 1st outing in my latest Down East column.

Here's one more awesome example that I forgot to include (via Forecaster reporter Randy Billings):

Conspiracy theorizing? check. Spelling and grammatical errors? check. Vauge threats? check. This is going to be a tough one to beat but I'm sure the Tea Partiers will make a good effort to top it in their protests today.

Yesterday, hundreds of students rallied in front of Fogler Library to show their opposition to cuts to a wide range of academic programs at the University of Maine System's flagship campus. They also took the protest to Alumni Hall where they sang the Stein Song outside the office of University President Robert Kennedy.

The cuts are now being criticized even by some of the members of the group that proposed them.

Francois Amar, a chemistry professor who served on the working group, said although a lot of time was spent on the report, the group has not had much time to critically engage the result.

"We need to look large and broader to solve the problems we’re facing," he said. "The process was very much top down."

The BDN article on the protest has a poll asking readers if the protests will "influence UM administrators as they consider academic cuts." Currently, "No" is at 82%.

I discussed why this may be the case yesterday in my column at Down East.

After a lackluster fundraising performance so far, and despite promising not to, Green Independent gubernatorial candidate Lynne Williams has announced she will switch to private financing for her campaign.

See my Down East column for the details and possible repercussions. Full campaign email after the jump.

Over at Down East, you can read my interview with newly-unenrolled Representative Jim Campbell.

My analysis of fundraising in the gubernatorial race so far.

I was wrong in a recent Down East post when I said Maine placed the sixth largest financial burden on our college students of any state in the nation.

In this week's column, I write about how we're actually worse and some ideas about how to address the problem, which may be key to solving Maine's demographic crisis and to our economic growth.

As if to prove my point, the Kenebec Journal and Morning Sentinel have an apropos article this morning on the difficulties facing student borrowers in Maine.

At Down East today, I write about Eliot Cutler's run for governor as an independent.

Cutler also has an op-ed in the Press Herald today blasting the Democratic Party and the Maine Education Association for opposing charter schools.