By Michael Shepherd - Oct. 6, 2022
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📷 Lobstermen honk horns outside the Blaine House to protest Gov. Janet Mills' support for offshore wind projects on April 28, 2021 in Augusta. (AP photo by Robert F. Bukaty)

Good morning from Augusta. There are 33 days until Election Day.

What we're watching today

The governor's rough reaction from lobstermen underscores political danger around offshore wind. A long Wednesday hearing in Portland allowed politicians and lobstermen to beat up on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the federal agency that probably has the lowest approval rating in Maine right now.

Officially, the meeting was held to get public comments on ways to reduce the hazards for right whales in the Gulf of Maine. The burden of those rules is set to fall hard on the iconic lobster industry after a federal judge's ruling earlier this month to uphold fishing restrictions that prompt worry along the coast.

All of Maine's big-name politicians oppose those rules and have long been fighting them. But this is the political season and Republicans are still trying to make the issue into a big one for Gov. Janet Mills and Rep. Jared Golden of the 2nd District. The NOAA meeting showed the success they are having on one front, but maybe not as much on the other.

Mills was heckled by lobstermen at the beginning of her remarks last night as she noted her role in setting the meeting up. She went on to say that she cares more about reducing the economic risk to Maine families than the risk to the whales, according to video from CBS News 13 reporter Mal Meyer.

"If the law doesn't require that balancing, then the law should be changed," she said to some applause.

By contrast, former Gov. Paul LePage got a big round of applause before he used his speech to hammer offshore wind plans for the Gulf of Maine that have long been supported by Mills and were protested by fishermen last year.

The backlash led the governor to sign a law permanently banning such projects in state waters, but a test project in federal waters is moving forward that is still viewed with suspicion by many lobstermen. That would be 30 miles offshore. LePage, the Republican running against Mills in the November election, has said it should be at least 40 miles away.

Lobstering has also been an issue in Golden's reelection campaign against former Rep. Bruce Poliquin, who has hit the Democrat for a 2020 contribution from the head of the organization that recently "red-listed" the lobster as unsustainable. On Wednesday, Golden and the entire congressional delegation introduced a bill that would strip federal funding from that group. Poliquin, a Republican, called it a gimmick, despite Sen. Susan Collins joining in as well.

Both Golden and LePage have accepted invitations to a Portland rally next week led by the Maine Lobstering Union, according to Island Ad-Vantages. Also there will be Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, a lobsterman who recently appeared in a Poliquin ad against Golden. Offshore wind seems to be the issue sticking to Mills right now while she agrees with others on everything else.

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News and notes

📷 This screenshot comes from a recent ad from the campaign of Gov. Janet Mills.

📒 A new Mills ad responds to criticism she is taking on education.

◉ The governor's new ad is notable for how it is tailored to respond to Republican attacks on videos that appeared on a state website that provided optional lessons to parents and teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic, including one that called several terms examples of "covert racism."

◉ Mills has been talking often about how she is the first governor to raise basic K-12 education funding to a statutory 55 percent threshold, but that does not appear here. The ad is vaguer, saying she has "kept politics out of classrooms" and protected "Maine's long tradition of local control."

◉ It is a sign that the governor sees this subject as a potential vulnerability. Her administration removed a lesson explaining gender identity to kindergarten students in May, but it recently stood by the lesson containing the "covert racism" reference. Maine's education department said it will "continue to empower teachers, parents and elected school boards to make their own decisions about public education."

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What we're reading

❓LePage's debate opposition to a 15-week abortion ban surprised allies and foes on the issue but won him no support from abortion-rights groups.

🔑 Political support looks to be growing for regulating Airbnbs in Maine, with Democrats putting the idea forward and Republicans open to it.

💼 A European court has ordered the founder of a company that wants to farm salmon off Mount Desert Island to forfeit $1.9 million in assets.

⏪ A nurse testified that 3-year-old Maddox Williams appeared malnourished when he was taken to the emergency room where he was pronounced dead in June 2021. His mother is accused of killing him.

🏠 The best month to buy a house in Maine is right around the corner. Here's your soundtrack.

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