King launches re-election bid

BRUNSWICK

At a kickoff campaign event Thursday in Brunswick, incumbent independent Sen. Angus King said his fight against partisan gridlock compelled him to run for re-election.

King, a Brunswick resident, former two-term Maine governor, television host and now senator, said that he was driven to run for re-election by the same concerns that convinced him to run in 2012, when he won the open seat previously held by former Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe.

As an independent, said King, he felt he could make a difference in bridging the divide across the aisle.

“I have to say, I feel like I have made some of that progress,” he said. “I haven’t been able to remake the institution, I didn’t expect to, but I’ve built good relationships on both sides of the aisle.

“We’ve got to start talking to one another,” King added. “We’ve got to start talking about how do we heal the divisions in the country, and one way we do it by the way is listening.”

Despite gridlock on hot-button issues like health care or immigration, he emphasized that legislators were making good progress on other issues, even if they get less attention.

“I do want to give you a little bit of encouragement, because you read about the gridlock and you read about how we can’t come to agreement on tough issues like immigration and budgets,” King said. “But there’s a lot going on at the next level that’s entirely bipartisan that doesn’t get the publicity.”

He touted his work on the Senate Intelligence Committee, where he’s currently looking into concerns of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, as an example of bipartisan work. He also cited bipartisan rewrites of the Veterans Administration law, and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act as proof that behind some of the hot-button issues real work was getting done.

“We are able to do these things, but not enough,” said King. “There’s plenty of work to be done. There’s so much left to be done (and) this is not a time to walk away from the United States government.”

Later that day, Republicans attacked the senator’s independent bona fides, calling him a liberal and attempting to tie him to national Democrats, with whom he caucuses in the Senate.

“Angus King was a Democrat in the 1990s before running for governor and destroying our state’s finances. He is now trying to do the same as a senator in Washington,” said Maine Republican Party Chair Dr. Demi Kouzounas. “Angus King is no independent — not even close. He plays an independent in election year sound bites and TV ads, but still votes like an elite California liberal in the Senate.”

King responded to similar attacks earlier Wednesday.

“I’m not going to kid anybody — the Republicans think of me more on the Democratic side because I caucus with the Democrats, but they also listen to me,” he said. “I’m quite often someone that they come to when they say let’s see if we can put something together on a bipartisan basis.

“I had to choose which side to caucus with, but caucusing doesn’t mean I’ve joined the Democratic Party — I didn’t have to sign an oath or anything,” King added. “Almost every bill that I work on is bipartisan because that’s the only way that things are going to be done.”

King will likely face Republican state Sen. Eric Brakey of Auburn and Democrat Zak Ringelstein of Portland come November. Republican Max Linn of Bar Harbor appears to be continuing his campaign, with a “Trump Strong” theme, despite having been disqualified after a number of signatures on his nominating forms were declared invalid.

King is considered a heavy favorite to win, and the senator touted the number of signatures on his own nomination forms, certified Wednesday.

“The requirement is 4,000 signatures — we filed nine … thousand,” King said. “They stopped counting at 4,364.”

nstrout@timesrecord.com