Maine Policy Institute
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Transcript
23 segmentsAt this time every week, we get an opportunity to speak with Montana Towers from the Maine Policy Institute to go over what's happening in the world of politics and beyond here in Maine. Montana, how are things? Things are going good now. So Vito Day happened this week. So that's really the true end of the legislative session. And yesterday, of course, we got news that it is also the end of Janet Mills' time as governor, basically, because unless they come back and they do more work, which they technically could, she's kind of done. Kind of done here and not even going to be running for her U.S. Senate seat anymore. So I thought. Now might be an opportune time, as it has all wrapped up Montana Towers, to take a peek back at the prior eight years and maybe consider the legacy of Janet Mills on her way out the door. Since Governor was the big job in her career and it's finishing up, what did you, you know, thinking back in the last eight years, what did you think was the big highlights slash low lights slash things to remember about her time in office? What are the big ones that stand out? Yeah, you know, Governor Mills' decision to drop out of the Senate race really marks the end of one of the most consequential Democrat public careers in modern and main history. And I think for many majors, her legacy will not be a positive one. You know, it'll be a legacy of bigger government, higher spending, higher taxes. Of course, you can't help but think of the COVID-era restrictions. And a state that just in general became harder for working families to afford. And... Although her dropping out wasn't exactly surprising at this point, I think, it was a pretty stunning end to what was supposed to be a major Senate campaign. You know, Governor Mills was viewed by National Democrats as a strong recruit against Susan Collins. She had name recognition, a statewide electoral track record, and the backing of a law of establishment Democrats. But she clearly could not generate the money or grassroots energy needed to compete with Graham Platner, who has become the favorite of the progressive wing of the party. And I think that really shows, you know, the direction of the Democrat Party in Maine and this kind of national movement away from older establishment figures. And in this case, that means that for Mills, you know, her political career will be judged not by some final term in higher federal office, but by the record she leaves behind here in Maine. Yeah. You know, it's interesting. In the U.S. Senate race, it was sort of expected that her legacy as governor and the things that she did while she was in office were going to be the centerpiece of like why she was a good choice. Like it was going to be the thing she campaigned on. Like here, I was your governor and I kept you safe during COVID. And here I was your governor. And I made record investments in education. Here I was your governor. And fill in the blank. That didn't seem to work. didn't seem to be very compelling to the Democrats in the Democratic primary to say nothing of the general populace statewide. Why is that in your estimation, Montana? Do you think that there was a, I don't know, was there a break between what she did and the voters? Or was it a, well, we appreciate that, thanks, but we want something else and you don't have it.
I think it's more of the latter. I think that a lot of people viewed her as, you know, thank you for your service, we're ready to move on. And I think her attitude really got her in the end. You know, it makes me think back to Governor Mill State of the State address where she kept saying, you're welcome, as if she had delivered so much to the people of Maine that they should simply be grateful for. You know, at the time it came across as a victory lap, but now with her Senate campaign collapsing, it looks very different. You know, the reality is that the people of Maine, and even within her own party, seemingly, we're not lining up to thank her. And even many voters seemed ready to move on. You know, she entered the race as a sitting governor, a former attorney general that's nationally known Democrat recruit. And somehow that wasn't enough. On a paper, she should have been formidable. And instead, she struggled to generate any enthusiasm. I was outraged by Graham Platner early in the race. I think that ultimately led the voters to decide that she wasn't it, that they needed young, fresh blood to go against Susan Collins, and ultimately that won the day for Graham Platner. You know, the other thing that strikes me about this whole story is that Janet Mills in the beginning of her sort of statewide political career, you know, that campaign in 2018 where she ultimately became governor. Her pitch to the voters of Maine was that she was the reasonable centrist Democrat from a rural community who was not crazy like the crazy lefties that you see in California or Washington State or New York or Illinois or something like that. She was the reasonable kind of moderate in the middle. Almost if you would, a Democratic Susan Collins maybe. You know what I mean? Something that was reasonably in the middle. And I wonder how much of her struggles in the last, say, you know, year or so, not just with the campaign, but also with public opinion, you know, right track, wrong track numbers with voters in the state and whatnot. I wonder how much of that is due to the disconnect between that persona that she sort of adopted and how she actually governed. Yeah, I think there's certainly a lot to say about that. And I think that that's one thing that makes the timing here really interesting. You know, a lot of us were looking at a lot of the late session decisions that she was making through the lens of the Senate campaign. You know, the 2% tax surcharge on high earners and the $300 checks, you know, the big supplemental budget and even some of the posturing she had around certain affordability and other issues. All that looked like a governor trying to store up her Democratic base. while also handing out voters some sort of changeable benefit through, you know, when she had a top statewide race coming up. But now that she's out, that kind of changes how those decisions look. You know, she signed that $500 million budget. And at the same time as doing all of these big boondoggle programs, it looked like a political move at the time. But now that she's dropping out, it's like, what was the point? If she's not running, then why did she... betray her campaign promises of no taxes even more than she already had. And she wasn't trying to shore up the Democratic base. It just seems like the question becomes who was a lot of this for if she knew likely when she pushed through a lot of these decisions. So she was going to be done and dropping out soon. It really makes the...
the hindsight of the session, and a lot of her choices seem very even weirder than they were at the time. Indeed it does. We're speaking with Montana Towers, who is, of course, the policy analyst at the Maine Policy Institute. We're considering the end of the Janet Mills era in Maine and what ultimately the big legacy from it will be. I'm curious what you think maybe is the one or two things that she'll be remembered for, ultimately, Montana. You know, when I'm thinking of it from my point of view, it's so long ago now that it feels very distant. but I have to say that the COVID, you know, period, that two to three year window where she was kind of governing the state by herself, by executive order, and with a very, very firm hand is the thing that I'll remember the most about her. Although she is giving me a run for my money with like the budget stuff and the spending challenges and the tax stuff, all at the tail end here. I'll remember that too. What are the things that you think? Are you are really going to be standing out as we consider her like 10 years in the future and you look back and you're like, oh, yeah, this is what she did. This is what she represented. The clear one is the affordability crisis. You know, government will be leaving office after a period when Maine families were squeezed for almost every direction, you know, housing, energy, taxes, healthcare, you name it. You know, Maine didn't become an easier place to build a family to build a house. You know, it didn't become easier to do business in. And for all of these reasons... It becomes hard for a governor who often framed her agenda around helping working families. And the bottom line is that under her governance, it became a harder place for working families to afford and to live in. I think you're actually right about the COVID things. Those will absolutely be remembered. And you have her legacy continuing into the future potentially with potential Governor Shaw and running for the Democrat primary now. So even that legacy could potentially continue. And then finally, ironically, you have taxes, which, as I said, considering her campaign promise to not raise taxes, it's a very ironic thing that that was one thing that she could be potentially remembered for because after running on that promise, she violated it many times. And the recent 2% surcharge tax on high earns folded into the budget rather than passingly as a standalone proposal is a perfect example of the mills era approach. When spending grows, the answer is just... find new ways to squeeze money out from Maine families and continue to grow those scope and size of government. All right, Montana Towers policy analysts for the Maine Policy Institute. Nice enough to be talking to us here this morning about the end of the Janet Mills era in Maine. That's where we have to end though because we are out of time. Appreciate it as always, sir. And we will talk again next Friday.