Morning Briefing 9.29.14: The old, the new, the overlooked

A quick rundown of some political odds and ends …

* Here’s a quick recap on the WGAN Morning Show from Sept. 23 about a story that seemed to encapsulate all the negative aspects of the gubernatorial race in a single piece.

* Consumers of the Sunlight Foundation’s Political Party Time now have a local version, thanks to the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting. I’ve also noticed that MCPIR’s compilation of fundraising events are also appearing on Sunlight’s subscription service, so you can get them all delivered to your inbox.

* Been wondering about whether the bear baiting referendum will affect the gubernatorial contest? Me, too. Here’s our sidebar on the issue that ran with Sunday’s poll story on the race for governor. There’s also a quick video with Andy Smith, the director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center.

* Ok, it’s not about Maine politics, but it’s been amazing — amazing — to read news about the gubernatorial race in Ohio where Democrats are attempting to rally around down-ticket candidates. You read that correctly, down-ticket candidates. That means candidates for the state legislature. That’s the opposite of how party enthusiasm is supposed to work, but Ohio Democrats don’t have a choice. Ed FitzGerald’s gubernatorial candidacy has imploded so spectacularly that members of his own party have acknowledged that he’s a drag on their 2014 hopes.

Republican Gov. John Kasich recently announced that he won’t debate FitzGerald, marking the first time in three decades that there hasn’t been a gubernatorial debate in Ohio. Kasich’s reason for bailing?

FitzGerald’s implosion.

* Speaking of debates, we talked about the wacky back-and-forth over debates in Maine Monday on WGAN.

* We’ve devoted a lot of coverage to the record spending in the gubernatorial and legislative races. Anthony Corrado, political science professor of government at Colby College and one of the nation’s leading experts on campaign finance, talked about the trend and some of the consequences in the video below. Corrado does this for news outlets all across the country. We were fortunate to get the interview.

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