Maine
The fight to focus Maine’s election on inflation and abortion
PORTLAND, Maine — After Republicans gathered lower than two miles away to painting Gov. Janet Mills as out of contact on rising prices and inflation on Tuesday, she was headlining an abortion-rights rally in Monument Sq..
“The choice about reproductive well being care belongs to a lady and her physician,” Mills mentioned. “Not some politician and positively not Paul LePage.”
The occasion was one in all various makes an attempt by Mills and the Democratic Occasion to border this 12 months’s election as a referendum on abortion rights lower than 5 months after a conservative majority on the Supreme Courtroom revoked a constitutional proper to an abortion.
It was becoming that the final week of the marketing campaign between the Democratic governor and LePage, her Republican predecessor, started with a conflict for headlines over the 2 points which have most outlined 2022 campaigns each right here and throughout the nation.
Republican hopes have been excessive within the spring, when gasoline costs soared after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and President Joe Biden noticed basement-level approval rankings forward of a midterm election that appeared dangerous for his fellow Democrats. However they gained momentum in the summertime after the U.S. Supreme Courtroom overturned federal abortion rights.
It’s washing out to a November election that appears to be someplace in the midst of these poles. Republicans have made features since late September in nationwide polls, though Mills has appeared sturdy in surveys of Mainers and stays the favourite going into Election Day.
LePage’s marketing campaign has tied Mills to the worldwide and nationwide points driving excessive prices and inflation, notably heating oil. She has struck again by pointing to the $850 aid checks given to most Mainers this 12 months and saying the anti-abortion LePage would threaten abortion rights. He has disputed that on the stump, even saying he would veto a 15-week ban.
This week, Republicans seized on feedback that Mills made on a cease to Bates School in Lewiston on Sunday at which she likens inflation to a “distraction.” A spokesperson for the governor mentioned she additionally famous coverage responses to prices and was arguing that Republicans haven’t proposed actual options.
“It’s not a distraction. It’s a No. 1 subject,” Demi Kouzounas, chair of the Maine Republican Occasion, mentioned at a Tuesday press convention.
Financial points and abortion have landed otherwise with voters. Excessive prices and inflation routinely ballot as the largest points of 2022, however a September survey from a liberal group discovered 40 % of Mainers blamed federal officers most and solely 2.6 % largely blamed state ones. Abortion has been a secondary subject that overwhelmingly motivates Democrats.
These variations have been simple to seek out whereas speaking to voters within the Portland suburb of Windham on Tuesday. Among the many most politically divided communities within the space, voters went for Biden by 4 proportion factors in 2020 after backing Republican Shawn Moody by 6 over Mills in 2018.
Democrats there understood concern about inflation, however they have been skeptical that Mills and even federal officers may do something about it. Invoice Briggs, 68, of Windham, a former instructor, mentioned folks have been clearly struggling, however thought the rhetoric was nearly hitting Democrats.
“The inflation subject, I feel, is a purple herring by Republicans,” he mentioned.
His spouse, Martha, a 63-year-old former educator, famous Supreme Courtroom Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion on the abortion case the place he argued different rights deemed constitutional by the courtroom, together with same-sex marriage, must also be overturned.
“The abortion subject is symbolic of what may come subsequent,” she mentioned. “What different rights may very well be taken away?”
Wendy Downing, 49, who owns a hair salon, mentioned she normally votes Republican. She plans on going for the Republicans this time, with the financial system prime of her thoughts. However her views on abortion have been advanced. She believes girls ought to have the correct to decide on, however she mentioned she disagreed with it getting used as a type of contraception.
Requested if she worries concerning the capacity for Republicans to get swing voters as a result of abortion points, Kouzounas repeated that pocketbook points like inflation have been most individuals’s prime subject and alluded to her get together’s closing marketing campaign technique.
“I feel we ought to be speaking about inflation and heating prices — what’s affecting most individuals within the state of Maine,” she mentioned. “Not different points.”
BDN author Michael Shepherd contributed to this report.