By Michael Shepherd - Sept. 7, 2022
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📷 Former U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin of Maine's 2nd District speaks at a press conference at the Bangor Waterfront on June 28, 2022. (BDN photo by Linda Coan O'Kresik)

Good morning from Augusta. There are 62 days until Election Day.

What we're watching today

A former congressman replays a campaign against ranked-choice voting in another big race. Four years ago, Maine had its first experience with ranked-choice voting. The first general election race happened to have a rare outcome.

Then-Rep. Bruce Poliquin led in the first round of voting, but Democratic challenger Jared Golden ousted him after two liberal-leaning independents were eliminated and second choices were counted for voters who ranked them first. While first-round winners usually hold their leads in ranked-choice voting contests, the close race between Poliquin and Golden set up this outlier and colored the state's experience with the method.

It led to an unsuccessful court challenge from Poliquin that nevertheless stretched to Christmas Eve. Going into Election Day, ranked-choice voting was supported by a majority of Mainers, but Republicans took a dim view of it and were less likely to rank choices, according to exit polls of the primary and general elections. Poliquin's loss locked in Republican antipathy toward ranked-choice voting here.

Poliquin, now in a rematch with Golden that will also feature ranked-choice voting because independent candidate Tiffany Bond, is on the ballot again after helping swing the 2018 race. The Republican is also sticking to his ranked-choice voting strategy from the last campaign.

He told WVOM on Tuesday that supporters should either just vote for him without ranking any other choices or vote Poliquin all the way across — moves that would have the same effect of locking in a vote for the Republican. (Ranking Poliquin first and Golden second would do the same thing as long as Bond remains in third place.)

"These elections will be safe," Poliquin said, trying to reassure voters. "They will be secure."

This also seems to be figuring into Poliquin's debate strategy. On Tuesday, the two campaigns released dueling schedules that only line them up for two head-to-head debates. Each of them agreed to do three, but Golden refused an invitation from the Bangor Daily News and WGME that Poliquin accepted. In turn, Poliquin left a Maine Public debate off his calendar that Golden agreed to.

The statewide TV and radio network is the only one that invites every candidate on the ballot without conditions, while other hosts generally apply a polling threshold that longshot candidates must meet. While Poliquin is not conditioning appearances on Bond's absence, he is trying to avoid platforming her after she endorsed Golden as a second choice in 2018.

Poliquin's strategy is aimed at tamping down the effect of ranked-choice voting. But unless Bond fades almost completely, he will not be able to avoid it if this race is as close as the one in 2018. Not appealing to second-choice voters would be the risk for him at that point, just as it was four years ago.

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News and notes

📷 Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin talks to people after a session at the National Governors Association meeting in Portland on July 14, 2022. (BDN photo by Troy R. Bennett)

The Virginia governor will fundraise with Maine's former chief executive in Lewiston.

— Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin joins former Maine Gov. Paul LePage for an evening fundraiser in downtown Lewiston. Tickets ran $500 per person for a "VIP" reception and $50 for a general reception afterward.

— Youngkin, elected less than a year ago after a campaign built around conservative education frustrations, has been traveling the country to help elect Republican governors. His trip has been heavily criticized by Democrats in Virginia who noted LePage's past controversies over racial remarks.

— "I don’t know of [any] racially inflammatory statements and, therefore, I’m not sure that that’s accurate," Youngkin told The Washington Post when asked last week about his visit to help LePage in his race against Gov. Janet Mills.

— LePage's campaign has said Youngkin is not doing public events. The fundraiser is closed to press. The Maine Democratic Party is holding a counter-programming call for reporters at 10 a.m. featuring Susan Swecker, the Virginia party chair, and two in-state officials.

A Democratic lawmaker urged a watchdog panel to subpoena sensitive child welfare documents.

— Sen. Bill Diamond, D-Windham, told WGAN on Wednesday that the Legislature's Government Oversight Committee should use its subpoena power to get the Maine Department of Health and Human Services to turn over confidential documents related to four child deaths in the past year.

— Whether to do this has been debated by lawmakers since the state rejected a request last month to allow committee members to view the documents, which can be given to the watchdog panel's staff. Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew said wider distribution of documents related to ongoing criminal cases would "undermine the purposes of those proceedings."

— Diamond, a frequent critic of state child welfare policy who does not sit on the watchdog panel, said lawmakers need the raw information as part of their investigation of the system to make recommendations and hopefully "prevent these failures from happening again."

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What we're reading

— Legislative Republicans do not yet agree on the need for a "parents bill of rights," a vague LePage proposal central to his campaign against Mills.

— "Forever chemical" contamination at a Maine Air National Guard base in Bangor could be spreading into the surrounding area, a federal report found.

— The world's first hybrid cruise ship will stop in Castine on its ride from Halifax to Boston later this month. The town is not believed to have ever received a foreign-flagged cruise ship.

— U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat from Maine's 1st District, tested positive for COVID-19 for the second time since July.

— Maine's strict internet privacy law will survive after internet service providers dropped a lawsuit in federal court against it.

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