It’s a real Aroostook County Thriller: What occurred to Sue McCrum, the matriarch of the highly effective Penobscot McCrum potato empire, that led her to drop out of the District 2 State Senate race simply 24 hours after she filed papers to run? On March 5, 2020, McCrum filed to enter the race. Earlier than her paperwork had even appeared on the state ethics web site, she’d already terminated her candidacy.

For greater than two years there have been questions and hypothesis surrounding McCrum’s aborted candidacy, and the true story is, as a number of political insiders instructed me, an open secret in The County. That secret has been saved by highly effective political gamers on either side of the aisle, together with present and former Democratic officers, Republican elected officers, and the McCrums themselves.

Through the 2020 election cycle, incumbent Aroostook County Sen. Michael Carpenter, a Democrat, was thought of susceptible, and McCrum was a extremely prized Republican recruit focused to take him on. McCrum’s preliminary resolution to run was celebrated by Republican marketing campaign operatives, and but she finally stepped apart. She was changed by then-representative Trey L. Stewart who went on to defeat Carpenter within the fall marketing campaign. Sources instructed me McCrum personally recruited and inspired Stewart to run for that seat, after she determined to give up.

However why would a extremely touted recruit who had made the choice to run and was thought of a powerful candidate towards a susceptible candidate determine to step apart the very second her marketing campaign started? In spite of everything, the choice to run for State Workplace in Maine isn’t sometimes taken flippantly, and after you have made that call you’ve got already weighed the varied issues, together with the general public scrutiny you’ll obtain, the thankless nature of the work, the limitless drives to Augusta, and a lot extra. A number of political insiders I spoke with couldn’t bear in mind the same occasion of such an in-and-out taking place absent some well-known issue, just like the sudden loss of life of a member of the family.

So what occurred?

Sue McCrum isn’t saying. Reached by cellphone, she declined to remark for this story. As did greater than a half a dozen linked political gamers throughout northern Maine.

However Aroostook Omerta hasn’t stopped some very well-informed hypothesis as to what may need occurred, and which well-known political figures could have been concerned. A couple of supply stated most everybody within the County knew why McCrum dropped out of the race, particularly throughout the tight-knit neighborhood of potato farmers, however nobody wished to speak overtly or on the file.

“Everybody up right here is aware of the story,” was a frequent chorus I heard whereas sleuthing round this nice potato thriller, and a number of other instances I used to be instructed: “Observe the cash…”

FOLLOWING THE MONEY

The McCrum household is an American potato dynasty. For six generations, McCrums have been rising, digging, and processing the fantastic Maine potato. In 2004, the household bought the Penobscot Frozen Meals processing plant in Belfast, making them one of many largest gamers within the American spud recreation. In 2019, the McCrums have been trying to get into the French Fry market in a serious means by opening a large potato processing plant in Washburn, Maine. By Could of that yr, the household enterprise had submitted reams of paperwork for Division of Environmental website permits, wastewater discharge permits, and extra. Regardless of the federal government lockdowns, the McCrums have been in a position to begin processing close to the tip of June 2020, offering jobs throughout northern and jap Maine throughout a time when the state authorities was intent on shutting down the state’s financial system.

However the state additionally offered some assist to the McCrums alongside the best way.

In June of 2019, proper earlier than the McCrums broke floor on the Washburn facility, the 129^th Legislature handed an emergency invoice to create a slender tax credit score for meals processing and manufacturing in Maine. Gov. Janet Mills signed the credit score into legislation on June 19, 2019. The brand new program allowed certified candidates to get large annual tax breaks — 1.8 p.c of a challenge’s complete funding, from $35 million to $100 million, yearly for 19 years. Which means candidates stood to save lots of between $630,000 to $1.8 million on their tax payments yearly for almost 20 years, relying on the scope of the funding.

Aspiring meals processing entrepreneurs may benefit from the tax credit score in the event that they started building on a brand new meals plant no sooner than April 1, 2019, had at the very least 40 full time staff within the first three years, paid these staff above the world common wage, and invested the minimal $35 million within the challenge. Candidates needed to be concerned in processing meals grown in Maine and needed to have been headquartered in Maine for the previous 5 years. After three years, the job creation necessities elevated. Initiatives that began after Dec. 31, 2024 wouldn’t be eligible. All an applicant needed to do to maintain the massive tax breaks coming was frequently persuade the Maine Commissioner of Financial and Neighborhood Growth that they have been conserving their promise to create good paying jobs. The statute outlines how the Commissioner can revoke the hefty tax breaks if he finds a recipient isn’t residing as much as his finish of the cut price.

With these situations, this system was exceedingly slender and the pool of potential candidates fairly shallow. Certainly, an off-the-cuff observer could be forgiven for questioning whether or not lawmakers created this system not as a common tax credit score however completely to learn Penobscot McCrum. In keeping with the fiscal word for the invoice, this system meant the state would forgo $1.11 million in tax collections for fiscal yr 2022-23. Simple arithmetic suggests the state wasn’t planning on multiple facility assembly the necessities for the credit score. And just one applicant obtained particular consideration from lawmakers within the press.

Extra back-of-the-envelope math: $11.9 to $34.2 million.

That’s the potential worth of the tax credit score over 19 years for Penobscot McCrum.

With that type of cheddar on the road, you may see how members of a household enterprise would possibly need to be very, very cautious about how they approached politics. No have to upend the potato cart when Augusta is letting you off the hook for eight figures in taxes. This is able to be very true if the financial institution that was financing your growth plans was solely doing so due to the promise of profitable tax breaks. That’s the draw back of benefitting from authorities largesse: it makes you susceptible to the machinations of political schemers. One cellphone name from an irritated pol may smash a whole challenge. It’s not unusual for companies that profit from authorities grants or tax credit to have these applications dangled in entrance of them by highly effective political actors as an act of not-so-subtle coercion.

Take for instance Tub Iron Works, the subsidiary of Basic Dynamics that builds U.S. Navy ships in midcoast Maine. In Jan. 2020, Home Speaker Sara Gideon (D-Portland) and Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Aroostook) despatched a letter to BIW President Dirk Lesko threatening to withdraw a $45 million tax break the legislature had granted in 2018. Jackson and Gideon claimed BIW wasn’t residing as much as its commitments, and the gangster speak they used within the letter was comically absurd.

“It will be unlucky if the Legislature needed to rethink this particular tax credit score,” the highly effective Democrats wrote.

The risk was clear: We gave you this handout on the situation that you’d assist our associates within the Labor Unions, and we’ll take it away should you don’t begin ponying up the dough. It will take a significantly silly particular person to suppose Basic Dynamics, one of many largest protection contractors on the planet, would knuckle below to a few ego-tripping part-time lawmakers. However maybe Jackson and Gideon have been emboldened to put in writing the letter as a result of earlier makes an attempt at extorting good conduct from tax credit score recipients had labored splendidly. The formulation is easy: We, the Almighty State Lords, will grant you some tax aid, however we’ll take it away if ever you dare cross us.

Since Sue McCrum withdrew from the District 2 race, the McCrums haven’t talked publicly concerning the resolution. However they haven’t been shy about the place they stand on Aroostook politics or the governor’s race. The McCrums hosted a fundraiser this week for Republican former Gov. Paul LePage, and Jay McCrum has donated 1000’s of {dollars} to LePage. Nearer to house, the McCrums seem like backing Troy Jackson’s well-spoken and well-liked competitor, former TV reporter Sue Bernard. Which is attention-grabbing, contemplating Jackson was the unique sponsor of the multimillion greenback tax credit score Penobscot McCrum used to finish the Washburn potato processing facility.

“I talked with Sue McCrum and he or she strongly inspired me to run for State Senate,” Bernard instructed me.

The entire Aroostook thriller will get curiouser and curiouser.

It’s sufficient to make you wonder if Sue McCrum, someday round March 5, 2020, obtained a cellphone name, and on the opposite finish of the road she heard a voice whispering to her, “it will be unlucky if…”

And if, as so many politicos of each events in Aroostook consider, this occurred, one naturally has to surprise: Who made that decision?

I referred to as Troy Jackson in the present day to see if the Senator from Allagash, a longtime buddy of the potato trade, knew the reply.

Sadly, he didn’t pickup. However I texted and he rapidly responded. He requested me to textual content my questions, so I requested one:

“Are you aware why Sue McCrum dropped out of her State Senate race on March 6, 2020?”

He learn the textual content at 3:47pm and nonetheless hasn’t responded.

For those who can shed some gentle on this thriller, ship me an electronic mail.