The results of the Nov. 3 election, for many, still seem contradictory: Donald Trump was soundly defeated by Joe Biden, but of 23 U.S. Senate seats held by Republicans, just two were won by Democrats. Pending runoff elections in Georgia, the GOP could still control the Senate.

Yet such analyses don’t even scrape the surface, let alone explain what happened. Rather than voting for “divided government,” as said a thousand times, voters chose between two candidates in each race – and those choices are completely understandable.

The Sara Gideon-Susan Collins contest was typical of national results, but also tracked the 2014 Maine governor’s race. In that campaign, Democrat Mike Michaud gave up his 2nd District Congressional seat to oppose incumbent Paul LePage – a Republican of a type never seen before in Maine.

Michaud led almost every poll, yet lost decisively. The presence of Eliot Cutler, another Democrat-turned-independent, hindered Michaud, yet it’s unlikely that even without Cutler, Michaud would have won.

What happened was clear enough: Michaud never made a strong case he’d govern better than LePage, despite the incumbent’s unpopularity and occasional thuggishness. Michaud advanced no clear reason for turning LePage out of office.

Gideon’s campaign was similar. Gideon heavily outspent Collins, to the tune of $142 per vote to Collins’s $57, yet never answered the key question: how she would be a better senator.

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Unpopularity, by itself, rarely leads to defeat in a re-election campaign. There must be a challenger of substance, someone who instills confidence and commands respect.

The best way to produce such candidates is through a competitive primary. And, although Maine Democrats aspire to a democratic process, their record in recent major primary races is inferior to Republicans.

The problem dates back to 2002, when John Baldacci, Michaud’s predecessor as 2nd District congressman, convinced Chellie Pingree to drop out of the gubernatorial primary to make an unavailing run against Collins. Never tested as a Democrat, Baldacci’s administrations reflected this, leading to widespread disillusionment among his own party.

Things got worse in 2014 when, with Michaud’s seat open, two state senators, Troy Jackson and Emily Cain, faced off. Jackson, a logger from Allagash, is rough-and-tumble in the blue-collar style, as authentic a Maine Democrat as you’ll ever see.

Cain was a lightly regarded first termer from a safe seat in Orono, with no obvious qualifications or experience. But she caught the eye of Democratic funders in Washington, and the rout was on.

It got ugly. Not content with simply spending big on Cain, national interests vilified, even demonized, Jackson over largely spurious environmental issues; in fact, Cain ranked only a few points higher on various checklists.

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Yet it worked; Cain buried Jackson in the primary. She went on, after a notably hapless campaign, to lose to Republican Bruce Poliquin in November.

Cain wouldn’t even take a stand on the hottest issue roiling the 2nd District, whether there should be a national park east of Baxter State Park; in the end, President Obama created, by executive order, a national monument.

After losing, she promptly announced she’d run again in 2016, because it would be “a different electorate.” It wasn’t, and she lost again, by a bigger margin.

Today, Jackson is Senate president while Cain raises campaign money for Emily’s List. Not until Democrats recruited a more authentic representative of the district, Jared Golden, did they win back the seat.

Gideon’s campaign was similar. She had done nothing memorable, stood out on no major issue, or even faced voters beyond an 8,000-person House District. The House speaker position, devalued by term limits, no longer rewards political ambition.

Nevertheless, national funders had found their candidate, and pressed forward relentlessly, as Gideon outspent her nearest primary rival 31 to 1. That rival, Betsy Sweet, had a passionate following and had run statewide, but no one has a chance against such a blitzkrieg.

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Maine Democrats now have a choice. They can insist on free and fair primaries, with national interests staying clear, or continue to have candidates anointed by Washington, regardless of their suitability to Maine’s electorate.

Republicans, despite their pursuit of anti-majoritarian objectives through the Electoral College, U.S. Senate and Supreme Court, rarely do what Democrats did with Cain and Gideon. When Jared Golden ran for reelection, national Republicans stayed out and there was a reputable four-candidate primary.

The alternative for Maine Democrats is more of the same, as in many other states, where absurd amounts are spent on candidates with decidedly thin political resumes.

Direct primaries, replacing “smoke-filled room” caucuses, were a Progressive Era reform that reinvigorated democracy. They can do so again – but only if we decide voters deserve a fair choice.

Douglas Rooks, a Maine editor, reporter, opinion writer and author for 36 years, has published books about George Mitchell, and the Maine Democratic Party. He welcomes comment at drooks@tds.net

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