Click here to listen to today’s WGAN interview in which we discuss this week’s State House Notebook. Included in the notebook are a bunch of tidbits: The CDC document shredding case (The Sun Journal has a scathing editorial about the controversy), U.S. Senate candidate Erick Bennett’s Facebook rants; Rep. Brian Bolduc, D-Auburn, his truckers comment and […]

  Rep. Brian Bolduc, D-Auburn, is under fire for an error-riddled email rant to the Auburn Police Department in which he complained about trucks using loud compression brakes — or jake brakes — as they drive near his home. In the email, Bolduc demands that police establish a routine patrol near his home on Riverside […]

The Portland-based polling firm Pan Atlantic SMS Group released its omnibus poll Tuesday. The survey reviewed a host of hot topics confronting state lawmakers, but its questions about the 2014 gubernatorial race are, predictably, generating the most discussion. While political operatives are spinning and discrediting the other results — or at least those that don’t align […]

The Maine Citizens for Clean Elections released a report Monday detailing the flood of money spent by outside groups on Maine’s elections. We’ve covered the rise of independent expenditures often and recently, so readers of those stories will be familiar with some of the information in the MCCE report. However, the group’s report also focuses […]

( (This post was clarified to show Thibodeau will finish his term in the Senate – S.M.) State Sen. Michael Thibodeau, R-Winterport, confirmed Tuesday that he may seek the Republican nomination for the 2nd Congressional District.  Thibodeau, currently serving as the minority leader in the Senate, said that his potential bid for the seat currently […]

  The Alexander Group, the Rhode Island firm conducting the hotly disputed $925,000 study of Maine’s public assistance programs has missed its first target deadline.  According to the contract signed by Gary Alexander, the principal of the Alexander Group and former welfare chief in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, the group’s Medicaid expansion feasibility study was […]

Gov. Paul LePage’s reelection campaign — and more recently his administration — are touting a monthly report by the Philadelphia branch of the Federal Reserve showing that Maine is one of 11 states with a “booming” economy.  Said LePage via press statement, “When we took office, Maine’s economy was a mess, workers were losing their […]

If you’ve happened to visit the Taxation Committee room while the special task force is evaluating the state’s $1 billion in annual exemptions and economic development incentives it’s hard not to notice who is taking all the seats: Lobbyists. Interest and industry groups have a lot at stake in the panel’s recommendations, which are expected […]

Click here to listen to this week’s WGAN interview about Monday’s State House Notebook. The notebook hits a few notes blogged here last week, including the alleged, but fiercely denied, horsetrade between Medicaid expansion and a chemical bill and the Ethics Commission investigation of the 2011 Lewiston casino ballot initiative.  Not discussed, but happening Monday […]

The 2011 ballot initiative to establish a Lewiston casino is probably best remembered for two things: 1. A whiny campaign slogan (“It’s our turn!”) 2. Its overwhelming defeat (63 percent of voters voted against it.). But Maine Ethics Commission documents show that there was a lot more going on with the political action committees pushing […]