📺 Maine politicians who are friendliest to the president praise his speech.
◉ President Joe Biden gave his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, mixing calls for bipartisanship and fiery exchanges with Republicans. Here's a CNN annotation and a breakdown of Biden's claims from FactCheck.org.
◉ The only statements in response to the speech came in Tuesday from Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, and Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat from the 1st District. They vote with Biden effectively all the time in Congress, according to FiveThirtyEight data.
◉ "Tonight’s State of the Union address was a powerful reminder of what America can accomplish when we fight together for common values rather than against one another," King said. "Despite historic challenges, Congress and Maine people have united in pursuit of a brighter future."
◉ "President Biden spoke clearly about the immense economic progress we’ve made on his watch," Pingree said.
◉ Pingree's guest was Nirav Shah, the outgoing director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, who filmed an interview with her. Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat from the 2nd District, brought Penobscot Nation Chief Kirk Francis, after aligning with tribes on their sovereignty push.
🔌 Foes of Maine's biggest utility sue the state over referendum signatures.
◉ On Monday, Bill Dunn, who works with Our Power, the group pushing a consumer-owned utility that would buy out the infrastructure of Maine's major electric utilities, sued Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, saying she was wrong to clear a rival referendum for the ballot.
◉ It escalated the battle between Central Maine Power Co. and its critics, who are locked in a war over their dueling 2023 referendum proposals. CMP's parent company is pushing a referendum that would subject the billions in borrowing needed to fund a utility buyout to another public vote.
◉ Bellows cleared the CMP proposal for the ballot last month, finding that it barely qualified by getting just over 1,100 more signatures from registered Maine voters than it needed. In his lawsuit filed in an Augusta court, Dunn says Bellows should have invalidated 3,200 more signatures. Read the suit.
◉ "The Secretary made this determination in violation of constitutional and statutory provisions, in excess of her statutory authority, upon an unlawful procedure, unsupported by substantial evidence on the whole record, and in a manner that was arbitrary, capricious and characterized by an abuse of discretion," Dunn's lawsuit reads.
◉ "It's remarkable what lengths the Pine Tree Power campaign will go to in order to keep Mainers from having the right to approve the $13 billion they want to borrow," said Willy Ritch, the Democratic operative running the referendum campaign for No Blank Checks, a group funded by CMP's parent.
Correction: Jillian Haggerty of Houlton is currently an intern in Collins' office. An item in Tuesday's Daily Brief was incorrect. |
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