Matthew Gagnon claims to have a source close to the Attorney General who says that John Richardson has been denied clean elections funding and that some of his signature gatherers are being investigated for fraud.

Gagnon also has a bit of a chip on his shoulder for "a sneering political reporter from one of Maine’s largest daily newspapers."

Houlton and Maine Attorney General Janet Mills get the Colbert Report treatment:

The governor's office has announced that the special election for District 89 will be held on February 3rd. The district, which includes Farmington and Industry, was left without a representative when Janet Mills was appointed Attorney General.

Candidates must be selected by local party committees by January 5th. One Democrat, Dennis Haszko, and one Republican, Lance Harvell, have declared their intentions to seek the seat.

Al Diamon has two legislative sources that say the A.J. Higgins story played a "significant role" in preventing Rep. Sean Faircloth from becoming Attorney General.

Faircloth didn't sit back and take it when the story came out, however. He and Sen. Joe Perry (also of Bangor) distributed this letter refuting the charges made in the piece and alleging that his Democratic opponents participated in the attacks.

Now that the race is over, PolitickerME reports that Brautigam is open to being appointed U.S. Attorney.

Representative Janet Mills has won the Democratic nomination for Attorney General after beating Sean Faircloth in the second round of voting.

Mills was confident earlier in the day, telling PolitickerME that she would win the nomination.

Of the three candidates, Mills had the greatest amount of legal experience. She's also the only candidate to have been born and raised in Maine. Her appointment tomorrow will necessitate a special election in District 89 (Farmington and Industry).

Back in October the Pierce Atwood law firm organized a forum featuring the Attorney General candidates for an audience of the firm's staff and clients (PPH article).

While there doesn't seem to be full a recording or transcript of the forum online anywhere, AG candidate John Brautigam did bring his personal camcorder to the debate and has posted clips of most of the opening and closing statements to his youtube channel. Here's the opening:

Representative Sean Faircloth, another AG candidate, hasn't been youtubing as much, but (as I mentioned in my recent Down East column) he has been emailing information about his experience and plans for all aspects of the office to his fellow Democratic lawmakers. I've uploaded the material he sent me and you can grab it here in a zip archive.

At Down East this week, I take a look at the race for Attorney General.

For more on the race, see this post, or click below to listen to the recent debate broadcast on Maine Public Radio.

The Attorney General selection process is getting a bit more attention than normal this year. Three strong candidates are running for the Democratic nomination, and the Maine League of Women Voters and the AARP recently held a debate between the contenders.

For more on the candidates' backgrounds and plans, check out these audio interviews:

Maine Center for Economic Policy Forum (mp3)
WERU/League of Women Voters Forum (mp3)

I'll be talking with the candidates myself over the next few days. Are there any questions you'd like asked?

Janet Mills' local paper takes a look at her race for Attorney General and her opponents, Sean Faircloth and John Brautigam.

Maine is the only state in the country to elect our AG through a vote of the legislature, which will occur on December 3rd.

Rep. John Brautigam emails to correct a detail published by the Sun Journal about his AG run:

Thanks for publishing the article on the AG race. I want to point out, however, that I am not running for reelection to my seat in the legislature, contrary to what your article says. Not sure where the misunderstanding came from.

Janet Mills is the only one of the three who is running for re-election (in District 89). It's my understanding that her selection as AG would necessitate a special election being called for her district. None of the three candidates are term-limited.

The Sun Journal names three candidates who will compete for appointment by the legislature to the Attorney General post next session, replacing the term-limited Steve Rowe.

State Reps. John Brautigam of Falmouth, Sean Faircloth of Bangor and Janet Mills of Farmington have all confirmed they are in the running for the position.[...]

Faircloth, who currently holds the third-highest House leadership position, has decided not to run for re-election to the Legislature in favor of concentrating on his AG bid, but Mills and Brautigam are.

UPDATE: John Brautigam is not running for re-election.