Gov. Paul LePage and communications staff frequently complain that Maine reporters don’t give the governor positive coverage. The Portland Press Herald, Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel are a frequent target of such complaints, but our competitors have received limited access to the governor, too, presumably for the same reason. Just today, after Press Herald reporter Randy […]

Former Maine Senate President Kevin Raye will make his third bid for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District seat.  Raye, a Republican, told a reporter at the State House Thursday that he plans to make his candidacy official immediately after Labor Day. The former staffer for retired U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe will enter a race that is […]

  Click here to listen to this week’s chat on the Morning Show about Gov. Paul LePage’s reported comments during a Republican fundraiser, using anonymous sources, the media’s relationship with the governor and the political benefits of approving a transportation bond. Lots of topics. Lots of rambling.  

In 2010, Republican operative Matthew Gagnon wrote an insightful column showing the 26 Maine towns that are proven election bellwethers. Basically, Gagnon used voter registration and election results to show us which municipalities were relatively split between Republican and Democratic voters — or heavily unenrolled voters — thus providing early indication of which towns could […]

Get ready for the catnip. Public Policy Polling, the North Carolina-based polling firm, has conducted a survey in Maine that will likely generate some buzz over the next couple of days. As is custom with PPP, the firm took to Twitter foreshadow some of the results.  About 60% of Mainers think Paul LePage is causing […]

 Below are the prepared remarks made by U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, who announced Thursday that he was running for governor.  Michaud campaign launch

Start watching for an uptick in 2nd Congressional activity now that U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, D-Maine, is officially declaring his candidacy for governor.   The list of potential candidates eyeing Michaud’s current congressional seat was long prior to Thursday. Two Republicans and three Democrats have already declared their candidacy. On Thursday, just before Michaud took […]

Gov. Paul LePage has a score to settle with the Legislature’s budget-writing committee.  Democrats on the panel, and later Senate President Justin Alfond, D-Portland, and House Speaker Mark Eves, D-North Berwick, expressed frustration Tuesday when three of the governor’s department heads spurned a request to appear for a work session to discuss a $100 million […]

Politico published a long look at the 2014 governors races, focusing on Republican governor’s in states that are considered left leaning. The story comes up with an early assessment of the races in Maine and Pennsylvania, saying that “only two Republicans running for reelection really look like dead-men-walking at this point: Pennsylvania’s Tom Corbett and Maine’s […]

Gov. Paul LePage used his weekly radio address Saturday to defend a series of vetoes on bills that may have upset some of his supporters in the libertarian wing of the Republican party, including a proposal to allow the sale of raw milk and another regulating law enforcement’s use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones. But […]