All aboard!
I had intended to write my Down East piece for tomorrow on Neil Rolde's new political novel O. Murray Carr, but that will have to wait. The amount of concentrated insanity packed into Paul LePage's Freedom Train event is impossible to ignore.
Mitchell and LePage marching in the Bangor/Brewer July 4th parade:
Some great footage from Dirigo Blue:
Some thoughts on Tuesday's results, written stream-of-consciousness style.
Libby Mitchell's closing argument:
And new ads from Les Otten and Bruce Poliquin (via Augusta Insider) featuring, respectively, Hitler and lens flares:
Some great photos accompany Rebekah Metzler's Sun Journal story on yesterday's Democratic convention:
Libby Mitchell is on the air with two ads highlighting her work in the legislature, efforts to create jobs and endorsement by Bill Clinton.
The campaign plans to stay up until election day with a heavy buy in an attempt to solidify and maintain Mitchell's edge in name recognition.
Steve Rowe, the only Democrat not currently running ads, plans to have spots up by the end of the week.
Libby Mitchell's campaign today released an internal poll showing the Senate President far ahead of her competitors in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. According to the survey of "587 registered and likely June Democratic primary voters" interviewed April 11-14 by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, Mitchell is in the lead with 36% followed by Rowe with 16%, McGowan with 13%, Richardson with 5% and Scarcelli with 4%.
This is the Mitchell campaign's own poll, so take it with a handful of salt.
If accurate, it shows that Mitchell likely has a significant name recognition advantage going into the television advertising wars that are about to begin. Who ends that fight with the advantage and wins the primary is still anyone's guess.
Full polling memo here, including name ID and favorability ratings.
With the legislature's adjournment yesterday, the fight for the Blaine House now takes center stage. (photo via Peter Mills)
The Libby Mitchell campaign has now collected the 3,250 $5 contributions necessary to qualify for clean elections funding, according to a post by campaign manager Marc Malon on Dirigo Blue.
Mitchell becomes the second candidate and the first Democrat to hit this milestone. Both the McGowan and Richardson campaigns say they're on track to qualify before Thursday's deadline.
Richardson has also released a new web video about his work to get the Washburn and Doughty Shipyard back on their feet after a 2008 fire.
It's a powerful story, but is crying out for an innapropriate remix.
Former President Bill Clinton today endorsed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Libby Mitchell. In an email to her supporters, he notes her tenure as chair of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, a position she was appointed to by his administration.
Full release and email after the jump.
Jonathan Martin of Politico takes a look at Libby Mitchell's gubernatorial candidacy and declares her to have "accumulated the right experience to establish her as the frontrunner in the race to capture the keys to Augusta’s Blaine House."
He also seems to think that Governor Baldacci's approval rating and the candidates' relative distance from his administration will be the major factors in the race.
Mitchell will certainly be a contender and Baldacci will likely be a factor, but I wouldn't call her the frontrunner and I doubt the race will turn on the popularity of our lame-duck governor. Overall, this reads like another national journalist who knows just enough about Maine to be dangerous. Still, an interesting read.
Al Diamon gave the site a mention in his column this week, in which he notes the unique clean elections conflict facing gubernatorial candidate and Senate President Libby Mitchell.
Mitchell dispatched her husband to address the state ethics commission. According to an account in the Bangor Daily News, Jim Mitchell warned commissioners that with seven gubernatorial hopefuls seeking "clean" cash, "You may have no money for the general election."
This could place Mitchell (him, not her) in the conflicted position of begging the ethics commission to find extra cash – either by asking the Legislature to send over a few bagfuls or by allowing publicly financed candidates to raise some money privately – at the same time that Mitchell (her, not him) is busy in her role as a senator cutting funding for starving street urchins in order to cover the state’s massive fiscal shortfall.
Newly minted gubernatorial candidate John Richardson's morning rally in Brunswick:
The former Maine House Speaker announced today that he intends to seek the Blaine House and will be resigning from his position as Commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development to do so. Governor Baldacci has announced that Richardson will be replaced by Deputy Commissioner Thaxter Trafton.
Richardson's campaign has the beginnings of a website up at www.johnrichardsonformaine.com. He will run as a clean elections candidate.
And speaking of succession, Augusta Rep. Patsy Crockett has announced her intention to run for the State Senate seat being vacated by Senate President and gubernatorial candidate Libby Mitchell. Mitchell has endorsed her bid.
