ELLSWORTH, Maine – Blue and yellow indicators dot the roadside on Route 1 main into the town, a gateway to a few of coastal Maine’s most well-known tourism areas.
Each former Sen. Brian Langley, R-Ellsworth, and Rep. Nicole Grohoski, D-Ellsworth, picked the identical colour scheme for his or her marketing campaign indicators forward of the June 14 particular election in Senate District 7 to fill the seat vacated by former Sen. Louis Luchini, D-Ellsworth.
The winner of the particular election is unlikely to forged a vote between June and November with the Maine Legislature out for the 12 months. However each events are inserting a heavy precedence on the result with the intently divided coastal district seen as a possible bellwether and a must-win for Republicans on the finish of the 12 months if they’re to take again the Maine Senate.
Hancock County is proving to be an honest microcosm of Maine politics in 2022. The favored Acadia Nationwide Park is the middle of the world’s tourism financial system, whereas Stonington is the most important port in a lobster trade threatened by federal laws and local weather change. It makes state and nationwide points from inflation to an acute housing disaster notably essential right here.
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President Joe Biden is beset by low approval in a reelection 12 months for Gov. Janet Mills, making this month’s Langley-Grohoski race a testing floor for Republican messaging. However Democrats are swamping them to this point right here by spending $200,000 to spice up Grohoski, based on filings with the state’s ethics regulator. That’s in comparison with a modest $23,000 from Republicans.
It has paid off early on in a technique: Greater than 1,300 registered Democrats had requested absentee ballots within the district in contrast with 216 Republicans, based on Friday knowledge from the Secretary of State’s workplace. Whereas Democrats at all times vote absentee in higher numbers than Republicans, vast gaps like this sometimes imply hazard for the lagging celebration.
Democrats have wanted to get Grohoski’s title out within the sprawling district that Langley, who additionally owns the Union River Lobster Pot in downtown Ellsworth, represented till 2018. Whereas a Republican adviser stated some voters thought Langley was nonetheless a senator, Grohoski is much less well-known outdoors of her Home district in Ellsworth and Trenton.
“Outdoors of the rapid space, individuals had not heard of Nicole,” stated Jane Ham of Ellsworth, a volunteer for Grohoski’s marketing campaign, who pitches voters she is canvassing on the second-term lawmaker’s accessibility.
Former state Sen. Brian Langley, R-Ellsworth, stops to speak with a voter driving by whereas canvassing in Ellsworth on Saturday, June 4, 2022. Langley is working in a June 14 particular election for his previous seat. Credit score: Jessica Piper / AP
Langley, who used to work as a culinary trainer in a technical college, focuses his pitch to voters on guaranteeing that younger individuals can entry instructional and job alternatives that enable them to remain in Maine.
That resonates with voters like Kerry McKim of Surry, a volunteer for his marketing campaign. A widowed mom of a 7 ½-year-old, McKim needs her daughter to have the choice of staying in Maine. She feels the pinch of inflation at Hannaford together with her daughter.
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“I discover myself not letting her choose issues out like I did earlier than,” McKim stated.
Housing is a selected subject in Hancock County, the place seasonal tourism has lengthy challenged a market stretched additional by the pandemic. Carl Lusby, an actual property agent, whose Ellsworth house Langley visited as a part of a Saturday canvassing operation, has had a front-row seat to the costs difficult first-time house consumers.
“We have to work on that,” he instructed Langley within the yard outdoors Lusby’s house.
The previous state senator concurred, telling a narrative about his 20-year-old grandson, who just lately discovered a job that pays $20 hourly after graduating from neighborhood school however is struggling to seek out housing.
Housing is among the many points the place Grohoski factors to Democratic-led efforts, together with a housing reform invoice sponsored by Home Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, that handed alongside principally partisan traces. She highlights different measures aimed toward property tax reduction and boosting recycling and a legislation banning use of a bee-killing pesticide, which Grohoski stated she sponsored after listening to concerning the subject from constituents.
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She nonetheless sees extra work to be carried out. Whereas Grohoski finally supported a revised model of Gov. Janet Mills’ invoice that will advantageous utilities in the event that they fail to fulfill sure efficiency requirements, she has been amongst strongest proponents within the Legislature of a consumer-owned utility.
With fuel costs setting new information almost day-after-day, Republicans have hammered Grohoski on a 2019 carbon tax invoice that she cosponsored, noting it will have raised fuel costs and branding her “Gasoline Tax Grohoski.” Democrats word that Grohoski voted to kill the invoice in committee regardless of initially backing it.
“It’s fascinating to me that as a result of we have now handed actually no taxes and in reality we’ve been centered on tax reduction, the opposition is now fabricating taxes to suit right into a narrative,” Grohoski stated in an interview.
There are additionally components that make the election much less helpful as a information for the autumn. Turnout could also be low. Each Republicans and Democrats stated a big a part of their work within the race has been in merely informing voters that there’s a particular election on a day sometimes reserved for primaries.
Inexperienced candidate Ben Meikeljohn can also be on the poll for the June election however won’t be in November. The particular election additionally makes use of the previous Maine Senate maps from the previous decade, whereas the November election makes use of redistricted maps. District 7 will get barely friendlier towards Democrats, dropping conservative-leaning cities in jap Hancock County for extra liberal ones on the Blue Hill peninsula.
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Indicators for Rep. Nicole Grohoski, D-Ellsworth, and former Sen Brian Langley, R-Ellsworth, lie on the intersection of Fundamental and Oak streets in Ellsworth on Saturday, June 4, 2022. Credit score: Jessica Piper / AP
Meaning the blue-and-yellow indicators that can come down after the particular election will return up this fall in new locations.
After Langley spoke with the Lusbys on Saturday, they assured him he had their vote. So the previous senator deliberate to trek again to the Republican headquarters in Ellsworth and choose up an indication for them, making their house on a quiet avenue a reminder that every one can vote on June 14.
The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set news policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com
Anna Kellar is the executive director of the League of Women Voters of Maine.
This past November, my 98-year-old grandmother was determined that she wasn’t going to miss out on voting for president. She was worried that her ballot wouldn’t arrive in the mail in time. Fortunately, her daughter — my aunt — was able to pick up a ballot for her, bring it to her to fill out, and then return it to the municipal office.
Thousands of Maine people, including elderly and disabled people like my grandmother, rely on third-party ballot delivery to be able to vote. What they don’t know is that a referendum heading to voters this year wants to take away that ability and install other barriers to our constitutional right to vote.
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The “Voter ID for Maine” citizen’s initiative campaign delivered their signatures to the Secretary of State this week, solidifying the prospect of a November referendum. The League of Women Voters of Maine (LWVME) opposes this ballot initiative. We know it is a form of voter suppression.
The voter ID requirement proposed by this campaign would be one of the most restrictive anywhere in the county. It would require photo ID to vote and to vote absentee, and it would exclude a number of currently accepted IDs.
But that’s not all. The legislation behind the referendum is also an attack on absentee voting. It will repeal ongoing absentee voting, where a voter can sign up to have an absentee ballot mailed to them automatically for each election cycle, and it limits the use and number of absentee ballot dropboxes to the point where some towns may find it impractical to offer them. It makes it impossible for voters to request an absentee ballot over the phone. It prevents an authorized third party from delivering an absentee ballot, a service that many elderly and disabled Mainers rely on.
Absentee voting is safe and secure and a popular way to vote for many Mainers. We should be looking for ways to make it more convenient for Maine voters to cast their ballots, not putting obstacles in their way.
Make no mistake: This campaign is a broad attack on voting rights that, if implemented, would disenfranchise many Maine people. It’s disappointing to see Mainers try to impose these barriers on their fellow Mainers’ right to vote when this state is justly proud of its high voter participation rates. These restrictions can and will harm every type of voter, with senior and rural voters experiencing the worst of the disenfranchisement. It will be costly, too. Taxpayers will be on the hook to pay for a new system that is unnecessary, expensive, and harmful to Maine voters.
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All of the evidence suggests that voter IDs don’t prevent voter fraud. Maine has safeguards in place to prevent fraud, cyber attacks, and other kinds of foul play that would attempt to subvert our elections. This proposal is being imported to Maine from an out-of-state playbook (see the latest Ohio voter suppression law) that just doesn’t fit Maine. The “Voter ID for Maine” campaign will likely mislead Mainers into thinking that requiring an ID isn’t a big deal, but it will have immediate impacts on eligible voters. Unfortunately, that may be the whole point, and that’s what the proponents of this measure will likely refuse to admit.
This is not a well-intentioned nonpartisan effort. And we should call this campaign what it is: a broad attack on voting rights in order to suppress voters.
Maine has strong voting rights. We are a leader in the nation. Our small, rural, working-class state has one of the highest voter turnout rates in the country. That’s something to be proud of. We rank this high because of our secure elections, same-day voter registration, no-excuse absentee ballots, and no photo ID laws required to vote. Let’s keep it this way and oppose this voter suppression initiative.
The chair of the Maine Democratic Party announced Thursday she won’t seek reelection when members select leaders later this month.
Bev Uhlenhake, a former city councilor and mayor in Brewer and former chair of the Penobscot County Democrats, has served as chair of the state party since January 2023. She is also a previous vice chair of the party.
In a written statement, Uhlenhake noted some of the recent successes and challenges facing Democrats, including the reelection of Democratic majorities in both the Maine House and Senate last November, though by narrower margins, and winning three of Maine’s four electoral votes for Vice President Kamala Harris.
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“While we have laid a solid foundation from which Maine Democrats can build toward even greater success in 2026 and beyond, I have decided to step away from Maine Democratic Party leadership for personal and professional reasons, and will not seek reelection,” Uhlenhake said.
Party Vice Chair Julian Rogers, who was also elected to his post in 2023, announced he also won’t seek reelection to leadership, but will resume a previous role he held as vice chair of the party’s committee on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging.
Democratic State Committee members will vote for the party’s next leaders in elections to be held on Sunday, Jan. 26.
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Special to Seacoastonline | news@seacoastonline.com
AUGUSTA, Maine — Secretary of State Shenna Bellows was sworn into office for her third term Wednesday. Governor Janet Mills conducted the formal swearing-in of all the constitutional officers, which includes Bellows, State Treasurer Joseph Perry, Attorney General Aaron Frey and State Auditor Matthew Dunlap. In her remarks following the swearing-in, Bellows shared a message of transparency and accessibility in continuing to serve the people of Maine. “It is incumbent upon us as elected officials to make government work for the people of Maine,” Bellows said. “We must reduce bureaucracy, improve efficiency, modernize our systems, and above all, bring people together in community to make life better for the people of Maine.”
The Department of the Secretary of State includes three bureaus: The Maine State Archives, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the Bureau of Corporations, Elections and Commissions.
Million-dollar homes: York, Kennebunkport lead York County’s top home sales of 2024
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Bellows emphasized her commitment to ensuring free, safe, and secure elections, modernizing government services, and preserving Maine’s history through the State Archives. She highlighted the importance of standing up for the rule of law and democracy, referring to the legacy of Civil War General Joshua Chamberlain and referencing the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. “This is our Chamberlain moment. We must stand up for the rule of law and do the right thing even when it is hard. As your Secretary of State, I pledge to always ensure that we have free, safe and secure elections and that we adhere to the Constitution and the rule of law in every aspect of everything that we do,” said Bellows. Bellows, Maine’s 50th Secretary of State, previously served two terms in the Maine Senate from 2016-2020 and was the executive director of the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine before her election in 2021.
