The Democrats’ handpicked candidate to run against Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins in 2020 is … uh … wait, it’ll come to me.
Sandra something? Samantha? No, Sara! That’s it. Sara Giddyup? Sara Gridiron? Lemme do a Google search. Here it is: Sara Gideon, speaker of the Maine House of Representatives.
I could be excused for not recalling her name, because Gideon’s secret super power is invisibility.
Well, not literally. But Gideon possesses the ability to make her positions so vague they’re impossible to detect.
Unlike most candidates, Gideon doesn’t have an issues section on her campaign website (when you’re trying to hide your opinions, there’s really no need). Instead, she devotes the space to telling visitors what a nice person she is.
Gideon’s stump speech is more mush. She calls for “bold, immediate action” on climate change. What action? The closest she comes is to suggest that converting to 100 percent renewable energy by some unspecified time in the future would be sorta nice.
Health care? It’s “a human right.” What does that translate to in terms of actual policy? It appears Gideon favors a Joe Biden-like public option to buy into Medicare. When reporters have attempted to pin her down on details, she’s gone all Bruce Poliquin and fled the scene. Gideon has yet to respond to inquiries about whether she supports an individual mandate requiring people to buy insurance.
Gideon shows up at rallies on occasion, so we know she supports (in some unspecified fashion) immigration and women’s reproductive rights. But the bulk of her camouflage campaign is devoted to just one subject:
Susan Collins.
On this topic, Gideon has a firm stand: Maine’s senior senator is a pawn of the Trump administration. “It’s time for a senator who puts Mainers first,” she told the Portland Press Herald.
“Susan Collins’ vote to put Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court may be paying off for her, but it’s putting women’s control over their own health care decisions in extreme jeopardy,” she added in a campaign video.
“[Collins] voted for Donald Trump’s massive tax giveaway in 2017 – a disastrous law that heaps the vast majority of the benefits on the super-wealthy and mega corporations,” she wrote in a fundraising letter.
That’s Gideon’s entire campaign. Keep attacking Collins, while avoiding taking any positions that might alienate moderate or conservative voters. The result is a translucent public persona that even the most involved members of the electorate could easily fail to notice.
To be fair, that might not be quite as counterproductive as it appears. A survey conducted in the spring showed that Collins would clobber Gideon in a head-to-head contest. But when pollsters asked if respondents would definitely support Collins or definitely oppose her, slightly more answered oppose, which could be interpreted as indicating a generic Democrat posed a greater threat to the senator’s re-election than a brand-name contender.
Being against Collins could be a more appealing campaign strategy than being for anything else.
Gideon’s chief opponent in the Democratic primary is having none of that. On her website, Betsy Sweet, unsuccessful 2018 gubernatorial candidate, made this not-so-subtle reference to Gideon’s failure to stand for anything.
“Mainers are ready for progressive leaders who won’t hesitate to say what we believe,” Sweet wrote, “even if it means stepping on some donor’s thousand-dollar shoes.”
Sweet has no hesitancy in taking stands, but sometimes they’re weird stands. I’ll get to that next week.
Don’t be invisible. Email aldiamon@herniahill.net and open yourself to ridicule.
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