Transcript
24 segmentsAll right. Morning is marching on pretty quick here. 879-9-4-2. If you want to join us, our two of the program on Wednesday morning has just started. And joining us now for Hour 2 is Laura Libby, who joins us every few weeks to talk over what's going on in Maine and beyond. Laurel, how are things this morning? Great. Thanks so much for having me on. It's always a pleasure. So I've been talking a lot of Supreme Court and going pretty national here for the morning. I would love to kind of bring things back down to the state of Maine here. Laurel, we've now had our primary elections. We have now had a ranked choice voting tabulation, which all of us were so very excited about. And now we have nominees. Now we have actual candidates. And the picture ahead in November is very clear. So on the governor's side, Bobby Charles, Rick Bennett, and now Hannah. Pingree, as well as as we knew, Graham Platner and Susan Collins, got Paula Page versus Matt Dunlap. It's all settled. It's all sealed. Give me your reaction to where we're at with these candidates right now. As you look ahead with a settled field, how do you feel about this year in general right now? Well, it is a midterm year, and so I have some mixed feelings here. On the one hand, over the last eight years, Governor Mills has done her best to destroy our state. She came into being governor having promised never to raise taxes. And I got to tell you, we count 32 times she's raised taxes and fees. So Mainers are feeling the pinch in many ways. And yet most folks ascribe their pain to who's in the White House. And so I think that this is going to be a tough year for Republicans because of that. Frankly, Mainers don't ascribe blame to where they should. Is there any way of solving that problem? Because I think any sort of neutral observer would agree with what you're saying here. I mean, you can not like the president all you want to. You can not like his policies. You can whatever. I mean, you don't like Trump. Fine. Cool. But so many of the problems that Maine is faced with right now very obviously preexisted him. I mean, these problems were bad and getting worse. two, three, four, five years ago, not two, three, four months ago, right? So if you're looking to assign blame, it obviously begins with the regime that's been in charge in Augusta. How do you get voters who are so emotionally wrapped up in the president in both directions? How do you get them to maybe see more clearly the direction of the state and what's really caused it to be where it is? Well, that's one of the reasons we found in Lead Main to let folks know and understand how the government that's closest to you affects you the most. But in a campaign year, you know, that solves to candidates to show the contrast and to talk about what has gone on over the last eight years and show the contrast of what a change in that power structure in Augusta would do. It's clear. The Democrats have raised taxes. They've increased our...
energy bills and on every metric where something costs something, the cost has gone up because of who's in Augusta. That falls to the candidates to do the job of getting that message to Maine people. And I have to tell you, Matt, I don't think that Republicans have done a great job of that over the last number of years. And that's why we have Democrats in power still increasing pain on Maine people. And when you look over at the first poll results in this campaign, I know it's just June, or now it's July, but it was June when it came out. And it's very early and things can change. But you have Hannah Pingree, who was at the center. of everything that the Mills administration did for basically eight years. I mean, she was Janet Mills in so many respects. You have her with a rather commanding lead, a double digit lead of about 14 points over Bobby Charles, with Rick Bennett coming in the rear end with 8% of the vote. That seems like pretty powerful evidence of what you're talking about. If someone like her can be performing that well, then... there's obviously either a lack of awareness or a lack of caring about what happened with the Mills administration. And I think it comes down to a lack of awareness because, look, you know, the polling that you're talking about is clear. And she does have a commanding lead. Governor Mills in that same polling is not popular. And that is also very clear. And here you have Hannah Pingree, who was Governor Mills' right-hand cow. Governor Mills literally created a position for her. She made up an office to install Hannah Pingree. and to train her up to be the next Janet Mills. The scariest thing about Hannah Pingree is that she's actually far more extreme than Janet Mills and will do worse to our state than Janet Mills did. And so, again, it's this juxtaposition, folks not understanding who is causing the pain. And so they vote for more pain at the end of the day, which I hope is not the outcome in November, but that's what polling shows right now. It does indeed. Laura Libby joining us, and she's with us every couple weeks to talk over what's happening in Maine and beyond. The big ticket item in Maine, of course, is really the Graham Platner v. Susan Collins race that's nationalized. It's going to have $400 million dumped into it probably, and it has, I think, a lot of implications about who's going to be controlling the U.S. Senate at stake here. And I know you've... yourself gotten sort of involved in that race and you care about it as well. As you look at where we stand there with Graham Platner, he has obviously had a little bit of that shine worn off with some of his recent controversies. Finally, it's starting to do a little bit of damage. And yet he is in that same poll still leading by a couple percentage points, even though it is within the margin of error. What do you make of Susan Collins v. Graham Platner right now? What does she need to do if she's going to ultimately dispatch this guy, if she's going to get rid of Graham Platner and do what she did to surrogate in? What needs to happen?
Well, I think we need to continue to see contrast, as Graham Platner has more and more scandals explode onto the scene, show the contrast of this steadfast job that Senator Susan Collins has done in D.C. She goes to work for Maine people, and she represents everyday Mainers. And I think we're starting to see that become clear in the polling that. There was an interesting point in the recent polling that demonstrated that non-college graduates, indeed the working Mainers that Graham Platner is supposedly one of, are not buying it. They don't buy his act. Senator Susan Collins is winning right now with that demographic handily, I think, by more than 20 points. And so I think that demonstrates that the working class does not believe this facade that Graham Platner has put on to try to convince folks that he does represent them. And I think we'll see that trend to continue to grow over time as we head towards November. Representative Laurel Libby joining us to talk a little bit about what's happening in the state of Maine right now. I talked to Leland Strife a little bit earlier this morning about the referendum campaign that they were hoping to put on the November ballot. I know they're going through a legal case right there, but you had the Supreme Court decision yesterday related to that subject. It was one of the rulings from yesterday. Would it be remiss if I didn't ask you a little bit about that effort since you were, of course, one of the sparks that really, I think, initiated the issue becoming a big... deal in Maine in the first place. Tell me a little bit about where you see that issue right now and that referendum, what you think the court might do, just generally overall perspective on it. Well, certainly the Supreme Court ruling decision yesterday was very exciting. Of course, it doesn't have ramifications immediately here in Maine. But I think it is encouraging because at the end of the day, this referendum, whether it's on the ballot this year or next year, it gives opportunity to Mainers to vote and make their voices heard on the issue. And importantly now, the Supreme Court has said that these laws that protect women and girls' rights... in the 27 states that have passed them, and then also should main pass it at the ballot box, these laws are not unconstitutional, and they can stand. And so I think that's important going into this referendum. One of the liberal arguments against such a law has been, oh, it's unconstitutional, and that is now not an argument that they can use. All right. Well, Laurel is nice enough to join us every couple weeks at this time, and we always appreciate it. Make sure you visit her organization, Lead Main, and learn more. Obviously, a lot of really great work and important work being done over there for the upcoming midterm elections and beyond. Thanks so much, Laurel, for joining us, and we will talk again very soon. Thanks so much. Have a good one. Thanks so much.