By Michael Shepherd - April 25, 2022
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Good morning from Augusta. It is the last day of the 2022 legislative session, except for a potential day to handle vetoes. Here's your soundtrack.

What we're watching today

Deals between the governor and advocates on major issues will head off bigger confrontations in an election year. The end of legislative work in 2021 was marked by a ream of vetoes from Gov. Janet Mills on progressive bills that got through the Democratic-led Legislature. The governor looked determined to avoid that outcome in 2022 when she inked deals last week that keep a host of priority measures on track for passage in the Legislature on tribal rights, utility regulation and an updated Good Samaritan bill.

In many ways, these are ways to put a pin in major battles. This is true of the governor's sports betting deal with tribes, which got through the budget committee on Friday and is set to be included in a final group of bills sent to Mills' desk on Monday. But the price was high. The governor privately threatened to veto it if lawmakers passed a more sweeping sovereignty bill.

Mills acknowledged tension on the measures in a letter to tribal and legislative leaders on Thursday asking them to hold the bigger bill, saying she did not want "a confrontation" over it. She added the tribal bills that advanced this year should "represent the beginning of our work, not the end" in improving the state-tribal relationship. Control of the mobile sports betting market is a big deal for tribes, although they will pursue wider sovereignty rights in the long term.

Democrats were also able to get around a split in the House to pass the governor's utility accountability measure, which emerged as one of her key election-year policy pushes after being allied with Central Maine Power Co. on major issues from their stalled $1 billion hydropower corridor and a push to replace Maine's big utilities with a consumer-owned utility.

Mills' bill was only in danger because more progressive Democrats wanted a measure that was tougher on the utilities, while Republicans wanted a more lenient one that also included some of their long-held energy priorities. Consumer-owned utility backed are now gunning for a 2023 referendum on that issue, which will be a major topic in Augusta for months or years to come.

Vetoes are still expected from the Democratic governor. For example, one could come on a measure from Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, that would create a logging dispute resolution board. But the governor's actions show her in a salvaging mode to keep coalitions together ahead of a tough 2022 reelection challenge with former Gov. Paul LePage.

Polling news and notes

— A Portland firm teases a rough poll for Maine Democrats. Digital Research Inc. put out a news release last week previewing a difficult survey for Democrats mirroring national trends and a Maine electorate nearly as worried about the economy as it was when the COVID-19 pandemic started. We are expecting the poll to be released this week. It was done between March 16 and April 11, so all findings will be at least two weeks old. Nevertheless, it will still be the first real look at where Maine's biggest races begin in 2022.

— Maine's senators have not moved much in regular approval polling. New Morning Consult polling showed little movement since 2021 for Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins. King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, remains in the top 10 senators nationally with 56 percent approval in Maine. Collins has the third-highest disapproval rating at 49 percent, but Mainers are about evenly split on the Republican with 47 percent approving.

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What we're reading

— There have been at least 10 criminal cases dropped by prosecutors after a judge dismissed evidence from state troopers who violated people's rights, according to a Bangor Daily News investigation. Most came from a team that specializes in turning traffic stops into larger investigations.

— Warming temperatures have added a week to Maine's short potato growing season since 1970. It may have aided a bumper crop last year, but it is already leading to challenges for farmers dealing with prolonged dry or wet spells.

— Supply chain issues during a time of high gas prices are leaving Maine far short of ambitious electric vehicle goals that are a centerpiece of Mills' climate agenda. Only 6,000 or so vehicles are on the road now with a goal of 41,000 by 2025 and 219,000 by 2030.

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Follow along today

9 a.m. The House and Senate are back for what should be a relatively short (by the Legislature's standards) final day of 2022 in Augusta.

The Senate has to give final approval to measures newly funded by the budget committee on Friday and take final action on other measures still in the chambers. A notable bill there is a ban on flavored tobacco that some Democrats are still trying to pass but push out of the current budget cycle for lack of funding in this budget.

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📷 Lead photo: Gov. Janet Mills greets the Legislature before delivering her State of the State Address at the State House in Augusta on Feb. 10, 2022. (Portland Press Herald photo by Ben McCanna via AP)

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