By Michael Shepherd - June 13, 2022
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Good morning from Augusta. Maine's June 14 primaries are tomorrow.

What we're watching today

The late pitches ahead of Maine's low-key primary day boil the biggest races down to their key components. The slate of Tuesday races has been relatively sleepy so far with some exceptions, including a special Maine Senate election, a Democratic primary for in the same chamber pitting party leaders against a progressive activist and a Cumberland County district attorney race that has caught the eye of Democratic megadonor George Soros.

The late messages are a CliffsNotes version of political campaigns in 2022, marked by a Republican focus on rising costs in a midterm year for President Joe Biden while Democrats try to fight the tide by selling legislation enacted under Gov. Janet Mills in Augusta and nodding to the possible end of federal abortion rights at the hands of a conservative Supreme Court majority.

The most consequential outcome could come in Hancock County in a special election between former Sen. Brian Langley, R-Ellsworth, Rep. Nicole Grohoski, D-Ellsworth, and Green longshot Ben Meiklejohn of Seal Harbor. The winner will almost certainly not even cast a vote in the upper chamber this year, but they will be set up better for the November election between the same two major-party candidates.

Democrats look to have a good chance at keeping the seat due in large part to their swamping the district with money and a robust absentee ballot program that could send them into Election Day with a 1,000-vote edge on Republicans. Grohoski and Democrats are using a multi-pronged advertising strategy focusing on her criticism of Maine's biggest utilities as well as highlighting her pro-abortion rights stance. Significant resources are simply going into reminding voters there is an election on Tuesday.

Langley has not had as much money or backing to fight back, but Republicans' messages have almost solely focused on costs and taxes. One ad from the party's Senate campaign arm lists off several of her votes for Democratic bills including one they called a "camp tax" — which a failed measure to allow cities and towns to assess fees on vacant homes to offset property tax costs.

Former U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin of Maine's 2nd District also has to get through a Tuesday primary against Caratunk Selectman Liz Caruso. The former congressman has spent most of his time acting like the presumptive nominee ahead of a likely rematch against Rep. Jared Golden, the Democrat who ousted Poliquin in 2018.

Caruso has raised little money so far, but there have been signs in recent days that the race is getting more interesting. Poliquin's campaign sent a missive to supporters recently defending the former congressman from Caruso's recent attacks. Caruso also issued a statement last week saying Poliquin strategist Brent Littlefield was calling people who had posted praise on Caruso's Facebook page and trying to flip them to Poliquin. (He would not confirm that.)

Poliquin, who has had trouble with the conservative base before, is running a robust set of digital ads that highlight his general campaign theme along with ones that look to be targeted at gun owners, abortion opponents and residents of Aroostook and Washington counties.

Caruso is not going to be able to answer that. She spent a chunk of her weekend at a sparsely attended hard-right gathering in Houlton featuring Christiane Northrup, a well-known former doctor who pushes pseudoscientific medicine and vaccine conspiracy theories. Any big share of votes for Caurso could spell some trouble for Poliquin even if he takes the nomination.

BDN writer Jessica Piper contributed to this item.

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What we're reading

— A bipartisan group of 20 senators including Republican Susan Collins and independent Angus King unveiled the outline of a gun, school safety and mental health package on Sunday. It falls short of the gun-control legislation that Democrats including Biden want to pass, but it is still a major breakthrough in a Congress long deadlocked on the issue. It also comes with the support of 10 Republicans, enough to break the Senate filibuster.

— Maine had the highest rate of COVID-19 cases in nursing homes of any state in May, but the outbreaks proved far less deadly than they were earlier in the year, showing the continued challenges of the evolving omicron strains and the effectiveness of vaccines.

— This Supreme Court ruling upheld the Border Patrol's sweeping power to operate in inland areas of Maine.

— Every waterfront home on the market in Maine's Lakes Region last year sold over the asking price with many lakefront homes going for double the price of similar ones not on the water.

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News and notes

— The group funded by Soros continues to spend in the Cumberland County district attorney race in an effort to install challenger Jackie Sartoris and oust incumbent Jonathan Sahrbeck. It has spent $384,000 plus another $56,000 of in-kind contributions, with virtually all of the money going toward mail and advertising on TV, radio and social media.

— Former Gov. Paul LePage and Poliquin were at a Greene grocery store on Saturday to bag groceries and highlight rising costs in their campaigns against Gov. Janet Mills and Golden. LePage's plan to fight inflation has been mostly built around suspending the state gas tax and dumping the 5-cent tax on single-use bags, both of which would result in perhaps $200 in savings over a year for most Mainers if implemented in March.

— Mills was in Jackman on Saturday for the moose permit lottery. Out of a few hundred attendees outside the town office in the arch-conservative area of Maine, about a dozen booed the Democratic governor from the back of the tent, Pete Warner, the BDN's outdoors editor, tells me.

— The governor will be in Portland on Monday to sign an executive order creating a new Cabinet on Aging, which will suggest policy changes aimed at seniors and retired workers in the nation's oldest state by median age.

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Photo of the day

Inside a prized pipe organ dating back to the 1860s at St. John Catholic Church in Bangor, organ expert Nami Hamada looks into the lower keyboard while collecting information. (BDN photo by Linda Coan O'Kresik)

📷 Lead photo: Former Rep. Bruce Poliquin and Liz Caruso are facing off for the Republican nomination in Maine's 2nd Congressional District. (Photos by the BDN's Linda Coan O'Kresik and the AP's Robert F. Bukaty)

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