There has been a spate of legislators and the governor thwarting the will of voters who passed initiatives and successful referendums. The latest is Medicaid expansion, voted in by a margin of 18 percentage points, which is substantial. The governor has said he’ll refuse to implement it unless the Legislature fully funds the state share of 10 percent.

A previous one was ranked-choice voting, which many legislators and the governor hated. The Legislature refused to even consider amending the Maine Constitution to call for electing the governor by a plurality vote instead of a majority vote, despite it being a relatively easy fix. Instead, they’ve put it off until 2021, effectively killing it.

And, sad to say, even some Democrats were in on this, prominently including my own state senator, Bill Diamond. From now on, I’m calling him a DINO (Democrat In Name Only). I have talked to him on the phone, and told him that if he voted this way, he’d never get my vote again. And he won’t; we’re done.

So, that means we must make such “servants of the people” become politically extinct. For me, this is a one-issue deal. For everyone who doesn’t work with a successful initiative to tweak it and make it better if necessary, but rather just shoots it down, vote those people out of office without exception.

The same goes for candidates for office who will not vow to institute successful initiatives. Such people include those who will effectively extend LePage’s “reign of terror” to a third term, such as Mary Mayhew, an announced candidate for governor.

Erik Bartlett

Casco


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