The Amtrak Downeaster will make its inaugural run from Portland to Brunswick on Thursday. Two VIPS will ride the passenger train: U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe and former Gov. Angus King, the frontrunner to replace her.  Will Snowe and King ride together?  A spokeswoman for the King campaign said she doesn’t think so. However, it seems inevitable […]

U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, is going to bat for several legislative candidates. Last week the Portland Press Herald reported that Snowe appeared in a television ad for state Senate candidate Chris Tyll, the Republican hoping to upset Yarmouth independent Dick Woodbury in District 11.  Now Snowe is doing robo calls for Republican Rep. Amy […]

There have been several national reports about Sensata Technologies in Freeport, Ill., where workers have been staging protests over the Bain Capital-owned company’s plans to close the facility and move its 170 manufacturing jobs to China. Democratic activists have politicized the closing in an attempt to link it to Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney. Soon-to-be-unemployed […]

Restore Our Future, the super PAC supporting Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, has begun airing ads in Maine in an effort to swipe one of the state’s four electoral votes.  The relatively modest ad buy is reportedly worth $300,000. According to disclosure documents at WCSH Channel 6 in Portland, Restore’s purchase is $107,562. The buy […]

The Republican State Leadership Committee, the D.C-based group backed by big tobacco, insurance companies and other corporate groups, has dumped another $365,000 into Maine political action committees spending big on legislative races.  The RSLC has now given $795,000 to Maine PACs this election cycle, dearly double the $400,000 it spent in 2010. The group’s Democratic […]

OneMaine, the organization promoting centrist political candidates, has entered the highly competitive state Senate race in District 11. Independent expenditures from the Maine Ethics Commission show that the OneMaine political action committee will spend over $13,000 on mailers supporting independent incumbent Sen. Dick Woodbury, of Yarmouth. Woodbury is facing a tough re-election fight against Republican […]

(This post has been corrected to note that the email was from the bookstore’s co-owners. – S.M.) There is quite a battle taking place among supporters of candidates running for House District 66 in Brunswick.  Recently, Gary Lawless and Beth Leonard, co-owners of the Gulf of Maine Books on Maine Street, found themselves immersed in […]

Anyone who has been closely following the U.S. Senate race is probably familiar with Crash Barry. Independent candidate Angus King certainly is.  Barry, a former reporter with alternative publications in Maine and now an indie author living in Western Maine, has been writing scathing critiques of King’s record as governor, his involvement in the wind business, his […]

Could Maine’s 2nd Congressional District decide the presidential race? Supporters of Republican Mitt Romney are beginning to think so.  Restore Our Future, the super PAC supporting Romney, emailed supporters Monday to say that Maine’s 2nd Congressional District is a priority target for television ads. The reason is because Maine is one of just two states […]

Environmentalist/businesswoman Roxanne Quimby will host a campaign event for Cynthia Dill, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, on Wednesday.  Quimby and Dill have allies for quite some time. Last year Dill announced the formation of a foundation that would allow Quimby to take 70,000 acres of forestland that she owns and create a North Woods […]