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What we're reading
🎯 Meet a few of the longshot candidates running in Maine areas dominated by the other party.
😷 Maine is near the top in the nation in new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
📁 The injuries that killed Stockton Springs toddler Maddox Williams could only have been inflicted in a car crash, a steep fall or if an adult stomped on his abdomen, a deputy medical examiner said at the trial of Williams' mother.
🔒 Bangor school officials are changing an emergency plan to prevent the confusion that marked a 2019 lockdown.
🆚 Mobile home sales are rising in Maine despite downward trends in the rest of the real estate market. |
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| 📷 Aaron Frey waves from the balcony overlooking the House chamber at the State House in Augusta after being elected attorney general on Dec. 5, 2018. (BDN photo by Troy R. Bennett) |
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⛔ Republicans put lobster at the front of a future attorney general race.
◉ Roughly 130 Republican legislative candidates signed onto a pledge led by the state party to oust Attorney General Aaron Frey and replace him with someone who would lead a lawsuit on behalf of the state against federal rules hampering the lobster industry.
◉ This has been a cause for former Gov. Paul LePage, the Republican running against Democratic Gov. Janet Mills. It gained momentum last week after Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat from Maine's 2nd District, agreed with Republicans on it at a lobstering rally.
◉ The state has set aside millions for legal costs and Frey's office is participating in two lawsuits as an intervenor. The Democrat has said filing a new suit would be "legally insignificant" since the state is already making arguments against the rules in court.
◉ The next attorney general will be chosen by a vote of the entire Legislature, so Republicans need to have a majority of members to get their way.
💵 The first charged election-year ethics complaint comes from Democrats.
◉ We got our first end-of-cycle ethics complaint on Monday from the Maine Democratic Party, which is asking campaign finance regulators to investigate a conservative group running spurious ads against Mills.
◉ The group in question is called Maine Families First, an offshoot of the American Principles Project, which polled Mainers this summer under an assumed name. Since then, it has become a major player in the governor's race by spending $1.2 million against Mills on texts, TV and digital ads.
◉ A first round of advertising was funded by Republican megadonor Thomas Klingenstein, who has owned property in Maine. But it has not yet disclosed who paid for a later $1 million round. In a letter to the Maine Ethics Commission, Democrats ask for an investigation, saying the group would be violating disclosure laws if the funder is not Klingenstein.
◉ That is true, but Democrats present no evidence that it is not Klingenstein. The commission could handle the complaint at a meeting next week. |
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