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| 📷 Rep. David Boyer, R-Poland, is pictured in the House chamber of the Maine State House on Dec. 7, 2022. (BDN photo by Troy R. Bennett) |
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✅ This Republican won a floor fight on a bill with political implications.
◉ Victories on the chamber floors have been few and far between for legislative Republicans, but Rep. David Boyer, R-Poland, was able to win a Tuesday vote on a bill that would force a Maine governor appointing an interim U.S. senator to pick someone with the same political affiliation as the senator being replaced.
◉ A Democratic bid to kill the measure failed when 13 members of the majority party in the House voted with Boyer and all other Republicans. That means it cleared an initial hurdle, although it faces more votes in both chambers.
◉ The bill would tie the hands of Democratic Gov. Janet Mills if she were ever called upon to replace either Republican Sen. Susan Collins or independent Sen. Angus King. She would not be able to choose a Democrat, although nothing in the law would prohibit that person from changing their affiliation after the appointment is made.
◉ These appointments can be king-making opportunities for governors. The last one in Maine came in 1980, when federal judge George Mitchell was picked by then-Gov. Joseph Brennan to fill the seat of Sen. Edmund S. Muskie after Muskie became secretary of state. Mitchell became Senate majority leader and a force in international politics.
🍻 We might be seeing the limits of Maine's alcohol liberalization.
◉ The COVID-19 pandemic led to lasting changes for Maine's liquor laws, with Mills signing a measure this year that made the to-go cocktails that became a feature of restaurants at a time when people were isolating permanent.
◉ Nationally, alcohol-related deaths rose 25 percent between 2019 and 2020, with alcohol sales also rising by nearly 3 percent. Maine has long had one of the nation's highest prevalences of binge drinking, which has led to some pushback on other measures to liberalize liquor laws.
◉ Two of them, from bipartisan groups that want to allow delivery of beer by small Maine breweries and allow direct shipment of spirits, have been opposed by the Mills administration on public health and constitutional grounds. Without the governor's buy-in, it will likely be difficult to pass the changes. |
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What we're reading
🧮 Mills faces budget challenges from her left and right.
🥼 King recommends Nirav Shah to run the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
🔋 Maine is far from its renewable energy battery storage goals.
🫐 A wild blueberry giant is raising millions of native bees.
🏖️ Rising seas are no issue for beachfront home demand, Maine Public reports.
🌼 The flower that killed a dam is endangered no more. Here's your soundtrack. |
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