The four candidates for Maine’s U.S. Senate election held their first debate last Friday night. There were two major party candidates, incumbent Sen. Susan Collins and challenger Sara Gideon, current Speaker of the Maine House. There were two independents, Lisa Savage and Max Linn. And there were two separate universes. Sen. Collins and Speaker Gideon …
The U.S. senators representing the state of Maine have been a distinguished bunch. Many have had outsized impact given the relative lack of political influence of their home state. Margaret Chase Smith was perhaps the most emblematic with her “Declaration of Conscience,” but through the last decades Maine has been served by senators nationally recognized for their talent and integrity. In …
September is here once again, but it still feels like summer. There are so many wonderful happenings with wildlife and flowering plants on this island and in the sea around us still to enjoy. Shorebird migration is on, and any time you are out and about near the coast you should be watching for the passing birds headed southward. Greater yellowlegs were …
Most years around Labor Day it is only the politics-obsessed who are paying close attention to a November election. This is not most years. This year we are thinking not only about who to vote for but also how we will vote. There will still be the option of showing up at the polls on Nov. 3, filling in …
Mount Desert Island Hospital is holding its annual meeting next week. There are sure to be the usual reports, updates and expressions of pride in a competent staff, but MDIH has something special to celebrate this year. Chief Operating Officer Chrissi Maguire is taking the reins as CEO from retiring president Art Blank and Patricia Hand will be chairman of …
With stacks of unfinished bills still in the system, Maine’s 129th Legislature has decided to make like Congress and do nothing. Democratic leadership made a bid to reconvene in mid-July, but that requires bipartisan cooperation. That’s a quantity in short supply. Both sides want a short session, but to Democrats that means working quickly to get …
State and local governments are in a world of financial hurt. When the pandemic started back in late winter, the priority was preventing the spread of disease and saving lives. It wasn’t long before other elements of the Great Debate crept in. How do we save the economy, on which lives also depend? That was quickly followed by the less reasoned but still popular: “You can’t tell me what …
The last primary election to be decided in Hancock County is now on the books. In a recount requested by her opponent, incumbent Bucksport Republican Kimberley Rosen’s margin shrank by eight votes, but she was confirmed the winner by 52 votes. Her opponent was Larry Lockman of Bradley, an extreme conservative who enjoyed the backing of former Governor Paul LePage. …
If you are not the kind of person who tears out the election results page from The Ellsworth American and settles down with a pen and a calculator, you might want to stop reading right now. However, while we are hanging out at home more than usual, we have the chance to indulge these little obsessions. The two bonds on …
Will they or won’t they? That is the question for the Maine Legislature as discussions continue about whether to convene for one last special session. At the end of May, it was Republicans who requested a meeting between the Legislative Council (the Legislature’s leadership group) and Governor Janet Mills for a “discussion … on issues related to the COVID-19 outbreak.” That didn’t …
